Skip Busy Mykonos. Greece’s Holiday House Hunters in the Know Turn to This Alternative.

Three peninsulas make up Halkidiki, an 1,130-square-mile area in Greece’s northern Macedonia region. Like a trident, Athos, Sithonia and Kassandra stretch into the Aegean sea.

Of the three, Kassandra “is the most developed part of Halkidiki,” according to Theodor Nikolaou, an agent with Engel & Völkers Greece in Thérmi. “Activity started in the 1970s and ’80s, and just continued, especially in coastal villages.”

While lower-profile and less touristed than Greek islands like Santorini or Mykonos, Kassandra still boasts sought-after restaurants, nightclubs and shops, said Ioanna Paloka, an agent with Savills Greece in Thessaloniki. “People prefer to buy here because of the amenities, the beautiful beaches, and the mixture of commercial and residential development,” she said. Beaches including Polychrono Beach, Hanioti Beach and Pefkochori Beach boast clear waters, soft sand and postcard-perfect coastal scenery.

Boundaries

Kassandra is the westernmost of Halkidiki’s peninsulas, and the most populated. At about 128 square miles, Kassandra descends from Cassandreia, its northernmost city, to the Aegean Sea. Kassandra is also the nearest peninsula to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, and its international airport. “It’s the most accessible part of Halkidiki,” Paloka said.

Seaside locations are most coveted for luxury property, according to Nikolaou. They include the village of Sani, on the west side of Kassandra; Pefkochori, on the peninsula’s east side; and the area around Glarokavos Harbour, just south of Pefkochori. “The combination of sun, the blue of the sea, and the green of pine draws people from around the world,” he said.

Kassandra’s most exclusive locations are Sani, the east-peninsula village of Paliouri, Possidi in the southwest, and Pefkohori, Pakola said.

Thessaloniki is about 60 miles northwest of central Kassandra. Thessaloniki Airport Makedonia, the regional international airport, is a few miles further west. Athens is about 350 miles south.

Price Range

Beachfront properties in Kassandra command premium prices, Paloka said. “Most people at the high end prefer to buy beachfront.” Prices range from €3,000 (US$3,243) to €6,000 per square meter, she said. “For €6,000 per square meter, you’re buying about 20,000 square meters of land with a 1,000-square-meter house, a swimming pool, very modern, in a new development by the sea and surrounded by forests.”

For €5 million in Sani, Savills has listed a 350-square-meter home with six bedrooms and three bathrooms on about 17,000 square meters of land with sea views. In a new development in the village of Siviri, Savills is offering 350-square-meter beach-adjacent homes with seven bedroom suites, private pools, and garages for €2.05 million. Siviri, on Kassandra’s west side, is popular with tourists for its clusters of bars and cafes.

This Sani home is asking €2.7 million.
Listglobally

Prices across Kassandra “depend on the distance from the sea,” said Nikolaou of Engel & Volkers Greece. “The closer you are, and the more private the property, the higher the price.” While prices average €2,500 to €4,000 per square meter across Kassandra, they can soar to €8,000 to €10,000 “for the best beachfront luxury property,” he said.

In Pallini, on Kassandra’s east coast, Engel & Volkers is offering an oceanfront hilltop estate on more than 4,000 square meters of land, with nine bedroom suites and amenities including a wine cellar and full bar. Built in 1991, the property is listed for €4,500,000.

The most expensive Kassandra listing in October was a 10-bedroom, 1000-square-meter Sani villa with sea views and a pool for €17,000,000, offered by the Hellenic Property agency.

Housing Stock

In the coastal parts of Kassandra undergoing rapid development, architecture is almost uniformly modern. “There are three types of homes here. Apartments and villas, which aren’t as hot. Multi-home complexes with sea views, which are better. And private luxury beachfront properties, which are at the top.”

Older and even “ancient” properties are common in Kassandra’s mountainous inland regions, according to Nikolaou. “These traditional stone houses in some of the old villages can qualify as luxury homes once they’re renovated, but many require extensive work,” he said. The village of Agia Paraskevi, in south-central Kassandra, has also become a popular tourist destination for its thermal spas and ancient churches.

Seaside locations are most coveted.
Getty Images/imageBROKER RF

The higher end of the market consists almost exclusively of detached, modern homes, said Paloka. “Condominiums make up the lower end of the market here,” she said. “And there are almost no historical buildings in the most sought-after coastal areas.”

Luxury Amenities

Greek and international buyers are discovering Kassandra as an alternative to tourist hubs like Mykonos and Santorini. “The fact that Kassandra is not the islands is an amenity in itself,” Paloka said. “It’s very private, relaxed and peaceful, without that madness. Most of the infrastructure here only appeared over the last 10 years.” For golf and tennis, most locals frequent the seaside Sani Resort, which operates private athletic clubs along with its five high-end hotels. Most complexes also have private pools, according to Nikolaou of Engel & Volkers.

MORE : Republican Fundraiser and Rockstar Energy Drink Founder Russell Weiner Lists $47 Million Park City, Utah, House

As Kassandra’s profile has risen, its restaurant scene has flourished, with high-end eateries including Metoxi, in a temple-like stone building with sunset views; “creative Greek” spot Giria Elia in Pefkohori’s Hotel Anna Maria; and Kriopigi’s Fiki Fiki, the first Asian-Peruvian fusion restaurant in Halkidiki. Several private medical clinics operate on the peninsula, including the 24-hour Kassandria’s Health Center and Primary Medical Care of Pefkochori.

What Makes It Unique

“Kassandra is a picturesque environment, surrounded by forest, with clean, beautiful, crystal-clear seas,” said Paloka. “The proximity to Thessaloniki also makes it unique. You’re just an hour from the city centre, but you can enjoy all Kassandra has to offer.”

Kassandra’s annual Sani Festival brings A-list musical talent to the peninsula every year; the 2024 edition saw stars including Placido Domingo, Madeleine Peyroux, Tom Jones, and Emeli Sande on the roster.

Who Lives There

Nearly 40% of buyers in Kassandra are “from central Europe, especially German-speaking countries,” Nikolaou said. “They see the Mediterranean, and this part of Greece, as the Florida of Europe. They want a home in the region to use in retirement.” Another 25% of buyers come from the Balkans, including Bulgaria and Romania, “and other countries without direct access to the Mediterranean Sea. This is the first possible access for them,” he said. An additional 15% of buyers hail from Israel and the Middle East. “Thessaloniki once had a significant Jewish population, and Israelis love it. They want to invest here,” Nikolaou said. Just a handful of buyers come from North America, he added.

Kassandra’s largest, most extravagant villas belong to Greeks, according to Paloka of Savills. But those owners are starting to take their profits. “Those properties had been second homes, and the Greek owners are now selling to mostly European buyers,” she said.

Greece’s golden visa program, which grants a five-year residency permit in exchange for a minimum real-estate purchase, has attracted “a huge number of foreigners, but to less expensive properties,” Paloka said. In October, however, the Greek government raised the minimum investment for a golden visa to €800,000 from €250,000 in sought-after destinations including Halkidiki, the region where Kassandra is located.

Notable Residents

Swiss-based Greek billionaire Aristotеlis Mistakidis “has bought a lot of property in Halkidiki, including a villa in Glarokavos,” Nikolaou said. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie vacationed in Kassandra when they were an item, and John Travolta and Robert De Niro “spend summers in Kassandra with their families,” Nikolaou said.

Outlook

“Consistency” is the hallmark of the market in Kassandra, said Paloka of Savills.

“Prices may have gone up on lower-end properties, but prime estates have stayed the same or maybe dropped just a bit. What’s key is that it’s more affordable than the islands, and a better value for your money.” Kassandra’s rental market is also “extremely strong, year-round,” meaning owners can generate revenue from their properties, she said. “Even at Christmas, people love coming here. The islands are great, but you can’t get flights there all year―you have to take a ferry off-season.”

Nikolaou, however, said that “the demand for second homes means prices will continue to increase.” He also noted that property prices per square meter “are much more of a value for the money, especially for beachfront properties.”

Investors “are now looking to Kassandra and Halkidiki to develop new tourist areas,” Nikolaou said. “They don’t want to go to the islands. If you count the kilometres of seashore here, it’s like you have 100 islands. And it’s sunny the whole year.”

A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.

The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.

“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”

The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.

It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.

In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.

“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.

The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.

“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.

He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.

The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.

“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.

His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.

“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.

When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.

They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.

The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.

For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.

“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”

As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.

“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”

Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.

Skip Busy Mykonos. Greece’s Holiday House Hunters in the Know Turn to This Alternative.

This peninsular region has beaches, mountains and luxury homes at much lower prices than in the popular Cyclades islands

Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.