by Nikitas » Sun Oct 19, 2008 10:46 am
Pantheman wrote:
"The days where everyone built their own is slowly going and my prediction will be we will be buying houses from developers like they do in the UK.
Even in villages, the young married couples are having trouble and they will soon be looking to buy built houses.
Being in the EU means we are expecting many foreign people, buyers, workers and so on so we still need the properties to be built. "
Pan, the same expectations were around when Greece became a full member of the EU. Well, nearly thrity years later and the influx of foreign buyers has not happened, for reasons that go beyond development. For instance, a German retiree who wants to receive his benefits through the Greek system has a mountain of buraucracy to deal with. Other Eu countries have solved this problem.
Let me give an instance. I was staying in a farmhouse outside Dijon in France. A Dutch resident accidentally swallowed part of a toothpick. An ambulance with a doctor in it, arrived within ten minutes. He was hospitalised overnight and brought back to the farm. The same doctor called on him twice to check how he was doing. All this on the French national health, no charge and always with a smile and umtost good manners. This is the kind of service that retirees and others from EU countries would be looking for.
Your other point about building concerns the type of engineering involved in housing. We are still caught up in the "I design, oversee, finish my house" trap. The atlernatives are prefab houses which are slowly but steadily getting a market share. My house in Athens is prefab, the three story structure in concrete goind up in less than a week. The neighbors who used conventional ways and started before us are still building. Houses are long term but still consumable structures and they can be built faster and cost less.
Standing on the highway and looking at the sea side of Yermasoyia I was struck by the sheer volume of concrete used in building the place and the heavy engineering that goes into the average Cyprus built house. A single room of a concrete house weighs more than a five bedroom American home. No wonder housing costs so much in Cyprus!
