Property of The Day

These villas on the south west coast in Kanouli, which have unexpectedly come back on the market, are an absolute dream - apart from being an absolute bargain! They are literally a few steps down to the beach, in the best possible sense. The garden simply extends itself down to the small sandy bay just below the house.

There are two semi detached villas, one complete and one requiring completion. Both have three bedrooms, two bathrooms, open plan living room and kitchen, plus a large covered balcony and lawned garden area.

Since they are on the beach the owner decided not to build a swimming pool, but one could easily be installed. The houses also have individual entrances, and paved parking in the driveway.

The area of Kanouli has hitherto been relatively unknown, except to locals, but it is on the area of south west coast currently becoming increasingly popular for high quality villas - indeed some of the more prestigious villa tour operators are now actively looking for properties on this side of the island. This obviously means that the villas are not only a dream home, but also a lucrative letting investment. What more could anyone ask?
Diana

Too Many Adventures Recently

Obviously I have been living in the safe environment of Corfu for too long and I fell victim to a bag snatcher on a recent visit to Athens. Actually it was only my wallet out of my bag, but it means that I am now running around trying to gather paperwork and pay vast sums of money to get a new identity card and driving licence.

I'm also wearing a giant structure around my neck supposedly to improve back pain, but its main purpose seems to be to attract huge attention in the street. It is almost like being young again (so many staring people!) I am thinking of setting up a company to market neck collars as an advertising tool. It would have to be something unassociated with possible injury to neck, therefore ruling out Bridgestone (car accident?), Nike (fell over), Nivea (violent reaction to face cream?). Something like - I know! - "InterAmerican, for life's difficult moments".

To cap it all I have a brick replica orthopoedic pillow. Supposed to ease back and neck pain. It doesn't, or if it does so far I have only noticed that it makes every other part of my body suffer, through lack of sleep if nothing else.
Susan

Small World

This week we made one of our 'escape' trips back to England to see our kids. Last year we bought a flat in London, in an area which none of us know and where we really didn't know anyone. On our first venture out to check out a local restaurant we had a very nice meal in the Turkish restaurant closest to our house. As we were finishing our meal the waiter asked where where we were from and as soon as my husband said 'Greece' they dragged the chef from the kitchen - a Greek gentleman called Apostolis. Apostolis has since become not only the caretaker of my son's food supply, keeping him in fresh food instead of MacDonald's on a daily basis, but when one of our new beds broke he turned out to be a carpenter as well.

This time we arrived at Luton, having booked a minicab to take us into London. The driver rang when we landed and I could have sworn he said 'Yassas'... of course he was Greek and chatted for an hour on the way home about how much he wanted to return to live in Greece and how lucky we are not to live in London. We parted on excellent terms with the promise from him that should we recommend him to any of our friends visiting London he would look after them 'like family'.

The next day we were on our first trip to Tesco and a small group of people were selling the Socialist Worker in the street and asking for people to sign a petition against the government. A closet revolutionary, my husband of course agreed, and the lady asked where he was from... of course she was Greek, so I went into Primark while they had a long conversation about the current state of the world. We now have a standing invitation to go and say hello whenever we are in Hackney.

Today we ventured up to Camden Market in search of a few antique bits and pieces for the house. Nothing to buy - all designed to tempt the unsuspecting tourist apart from one wonderful shop of furniture, pictures etc. and I was wildly enthusiastic until I looked a bit closer and realised that they bought their stock from some of the same suppliers as we do at Corfu Homestore - only they must have slightly higher profit margins than we do (or Camden is considerably more affluent) as a mirror we sold for 159 euros was priced at £295.00 and the more I looked the more I realised that most of their stock was from our suppliers - with the main difference that their profit margin is about 5 times as much as ours!

Absolutely nothing to buy so we decided to cheer ourselves up with our favourite walk along the south bank of the Thames, past the Tate Modern, National Theatre and, since as usual in London on Sundays a lot of the tube systems are not operating, we called a cab service, the largest in London with a fleet of 2,500 cars.

After a few minutes of discussion with my daughter about her schedule for the coming months, so that we could actually plan to occasionally be in the same place at the same time, the driver said 'Excuse me miss, what work do you do?' and when she explained that she was a 'booker' for bands and DJs, he said 'I don't suppose you know my nephew...he has a club in Manchester!'. Of course she did, so we had a lengthy discussion about nephew, stepdaughter (also involved in the club) ex-partner who Hannah happened to have lunch with in Sweden last week, etc etc.

Small world - absolutely!
Diana

Bargain Property Of The Day

Sometimes a bargain price hides a sad story, and this property is a case in point. Belonging to a family who just didn't manage to live the Corfu dream, these two modern single storey houses are now the subject of a repossession order.

The photo shows what the two bedroomed house used to look like and all the basic features are still in place although most of the fixtures and fittings have been removed.

Located just a couple of kilometres from Roda, the houses are in a large, level, fenced garden. One has two bedrooms and a separate kitchen and living area, and the other has a combined living/kitchen and three bedrooms.

A perfect combination for someone searching for a place to live and a rental property to provide an income, we understand from our lawyers that the properties can be sold separately with some small alterations in the division of the land.

A real bargain at 375,000 euros.
Susan

Doggy Tales

On Friday a couple of small dogs ran out in front of the car as I was driving into work with the result that I hit one of them. I HATE injured animals (even on TV) and had to force myself to stop the car and go and look. He was writhing in the middle of the road - busy straight stretch near Emeral - and the other one was running in circles around him.

Luckily someone else going in the other direction stopped as well (though most didn't) and with two cars on the side of the road stopping the speed of the other vehicles we (well me, really) managed to undertake rescue operation in the middle of the traffic. I ended up with scooped-up dog in car and took him to the vet in Corfu town.

Miraculously, maybe because he is only a puppy, he escaped serious injury, and his inability to walk appeared only to be as a result of shock. Despite the fact that he took off my number plate, he only had a bloody nose and gums. Still cost 25 euros for antibiotic, but could have been much worse.

Result, however, is that we now have a second dog - a smaller, look-alike version of our existing one.
Susan

Property In Corfu - Bucking The Trend?

We had our first sale this summer to someone who, despairing of ever being able to buy a decent apartment in London, decided to get on the holiday home property ladder instead. She is now the proud owner of a gorgeous little newly built house in the south of Corfu, just minutes walk from the sandy beach at St. George. She has already furnished it and spent her first holiday in her very own place in the sun in Corfu, having spent under 60,000 pounds in total.

There are also several enquiries from more established couples who are giving up on the idea of buying in Britain, and others who have realized that with the cash or loan they have earmarked for an extension in the UK they can afford a whole house in Corfu.

Far from being depressed, therefore, the market in Corfu seems to be filling a gap. We will probably shortly be seeing the arrival of clients who don't want to leave any spare cash in the bank, and would prefer a rental investment in Corfu that they can also use themselves and have fun at the same time as keeping their money safe.
Susan

The Hazards Of House Renovation

Helga has been very busy lately working on the old house she has bought for herself. Being a perfectionist, she wasn't happy with the finish of the wooden floors upstairs, so decided to sand the whole lot down by hand to get a really smooth finish. This has taken her ages to do.

Imagine her delight today when she reached the last part of the floor in the main bedroom, just behind the door. She shut the door, applied plenty of elbow grease, breathed a sigh of relief at her accomplishment and went to leave the room, only to find that she'd shut the door on herself with no handle to open it. She was locked in the bedroom, with her mobile phone on the other side.

With only very elderly neighbours nearby, her cries for help were eventually heard, and the rescue attempt began. Several screwdrivers were thrown up to her, but they were all too small to turn the lock, and eventually someone unscrewed their own doorhandle, attached it to a rope and she was able to pull it up and set herself free.

I think she will be finding herself the butt of lots of "blonde" jokes from now on.
Sarah

House Prices In Corfu - Another Cultural Difference

We keep being asked why properties that have been for sale for several years are still the same price. Why don't the vendors reduce the price in order to sell their house?

In fact, regular visitors to our websites may have noticed that quite often prices go up rather than down, which makes a change from the general trend worldwide at the moment!

In Greece property is treated very differently from in England. The normal UK pattern of buying a small house and gradually "trading up" is not common in Greece. The paternal or maternal home is normally kept in the family and used by one, or more of the children of the family, who may then acquire a further house on marriage as a wedding gift, resulting in several houses belonging to the same family. This means that houses on the market are often second or third houses and there is no great rush to complete the sale. Owners don't need to sell quickly in order to buy the next house on the rung up the ladder. It also used to be considered rather shameful to sell property - perhaps the neighbours will think you are in financial difficulty, or business colleagues suspect your solvency. This has changed a little bit recently, in part because of the new tax laws that penalize multi-property ownership, but the general rule is that owners are not desperate to sell and will wait, if necessary for years, to attract the price they want.

In the meantime, building materials have almost doubled in cost in the past 12 months, so an existing house of two or three years is comparatively cheaper than an off-plan or new build. Its vendor may well look at new prices and think "My house would now cost xxx euros more to build, therefore I'm going to add a bit to the asking price".

It is logical - in a Greek way, and may help to explain why prices here - so far at any rate - are not dropping.

There are always exceptions. For the next couple of days I'm going to make the "Property of the Day" a house that has recently been reduced in price. Keep a look out for some great bargains!
Susan