WIRE MAGAZINE MYKONOS - CINEL’S CORNER

It has been a few decades that Mykonos heads the tourism in Greece. Mykonos has become the symbol of the “sweet life” of the Greek islands thanks to its spectacular landscapes, its peaceful population and its strong international profile. The latest data released by the Greek Ministry of Tourism state that 30% of the national income comes from the Southern Aegean islands, with Mykonos at the top of all of them – considering its small dimensions, in 2017 it attracted 2.5 million people from all over the world; a record which does not seem to decrease.

This great result is ensuring international buyers who, at the very beginning, were afraid about Mykonos’ conditions – it was believed that the island would have reached its sustainability limits and that some political measures would have been adopted against the touristic flow and the real estate market. These actions were supposed to be applied in favour of the Mykonian population. International buyers changed their mind thanks to the election of the youngest mayor of the island, Kostantinos Koukas. He has affirmed that the Mykonians are opened at hosting tourists from all over the world. This is a typical feature of the island’s native people which has always been a positive aspect for the general enrichment of the island. Mayor Koukas approached the sustainability problem with initiatives to preserve the environment and the historical sites. In addition, the young mayor wanted to improve and enlarge the touristic services so that Mykonos will reduce its seasonality and become a top destination throughout the year.

Today’s openness of Mykonos’ population is related to past events. In 200 B.C. democracy was already set in the island, also the freedom of faith was recognised. Moreover, over the centuries many populations with different origins lived and mixed among each other. The first commercial businesses related to tourism date back to 1920’s, instead.

Anyway, only after the Second World War Mykonos started being renowned as the best place for the Greek tourism. At the very beginning, what made Mykonos famous were the music stars and the LGBT community which found in the island the warmth and the peacefulness they were looking for. In the following 20 years, an increasing number of famous people started spending their summer holidays in Mykonos and after some great improvements dedicated to the tourism, the island became the mainstream holiday destination.

All of the above has enabled Mykonos’ market to be independent from the general trend of the Greek one. In fact, as we said before, with the 2008 financial crisis, prices started to decrease but today’s point is next to the speculative peak registered during the pre-crisis period. Currently, both the demand and high-income returns - if the property is rented out - give Mykonos’ real estate market a positive outlook for the next five years. The economic cycle of the real estate market is the same as diversified international markets; it means that international buyers improve the market rapidly investing in low-cost properties which give them profitable yields.

In conclusion, if the next political decisions regard incentives for the sustainable tourism and the openness towards international buyers – 65% of today’s demand - the prices of the properties in Mykonos will see a large increase. This positive trend will affect both luxury properties and ”low-cost” ones even if today it is hard to find properties at a price lower than 3,500€/sq.mt.