The Telegraph’s London Magazine has published a detailed feature on the Greek islands drawing serious buyers away from the obvious destinations — with quotes from Greece Sotheby’s International Realty, John D Wood and Savills confirming what the market has been showing for some time. Here is what it says, and what a buyer who wants to act on it needs to understand.
The Telegraph’s London Magazine — which reaches precisely the readership that buys in these markets — has run a feature framing Greece’s lesser-known islands as the destinations now stealing the spotlight. It is not a casual travel piece. It draws on research from Greece Sotheby’s International Realty, commentary from John D Wood and Savills, and price data from agents active in the market. It names Corfu, Paxos, Kefalonia, Paros and Santorini by name.
The article’s thesis — that British buyers are looking for reassurance as much as romance — matches what the market has been showing for several years. Greece Sotheby’s characterises UK buyers as seeking a stable legal framework, secure property rights, predictable taxation and a transparent acquisition process. Their Voices of Affluence report finds that when those conditions are met, British buyers can move from decision to commitment within days.
That is consistent with our own experience. The buyers who move quickly are not impulsive. They have done the research, they understand the market and they have the right adviser in place. The ones who move slowly — sometimes fatally so — are usually waiting for reassurance that could have been provided months earlier if the right conversation had happened at the right time.
John D Wood’s head of international identifies the north-east coast around Kassiopi, Kalami and Agios Stefanos as Corfu’s “blue chip” market for British buyers — continuing to command a premium, and consistent with what Pelagos observes directly. The article notes a significant post-Covid shift: privacy and space are now trumping the kudos of an established address. Larger villas with land, sea views and capacity for multigenerational living are drawing the most serious interest.
What the article also notes, and which matters practically: interest is spreading. The north coast around Agios Ioannis and Arillas, and the south-west around Paramonas and Halikounas, are seeing growing attention from buyers who want an authentic Corfu experience rather than proximity to a famous bay. The finest properties in those areas are not on any portal. They are introduced quietly, between people who know each other, or through advisers who already have the relationships.
Greece Sotheby’s places the Ionian islands — Corfu, Paxos and Kefalonia specifically — as a “stronghold” for British buyers with €2m–€5m budgets, positioning them firmly in the upper tier of the luxury market. That budget range covers exactly the properties that rarely, if ever, appear publicly.
Savills Greece describes Paros as having moved rapidly from an understated Cycladic destination to one of the most dynamic second-home markets in Greece, with strong demand from international buyers and steadily rising prices. Prime Paros property starts at €7,000/m², and the article notes that family-oriented second homes rather than pure investment are the most requested product — which aligns directly with the buyer profiles Pelagos works with in the Aegean.
The article also reports that Paros has a film connection that matters for market visibility: Amazon Prime’s Malice and Netflix’s One Day were both partly filmed there. This kind of cultural exposure reliably precedes a further uptick in enquiries, particularly from buyers who would not previously have considered the Cyclades beyond Mykonos and Santorini.
Aristi Liakopoulou, Pelagos’s Aegean adviser based between Athens and Paros, sees this pattern directly. The buyers now arriving in Paros are serious and well-researched. The inventory that suits them — the Naoussa villas, the sea-view estates, the older stone properties with mature gardens — is not publicly listed. The gap between what is visible and what is available is wide, and it is exactly where independent advisory adds value.
The article notes that branded residences are new to Greece’s luxury scene but gaining traction, with Costa Navarino in the Peloponnese and One&Only Kéa Island in the Cyclades cited as examples. Greece Sotheby’s describes the appeal as the combination of lifestyle ownership with the services and security of established hospitality brands.
This is worth noting for a specific reason: branded residences are, by definition, a product. They are marketed, managed and sold through a developer’s own infrastructure, with pricing and terms set accordingly. Independent advisory adds a different kind of value for buyers considering this category — not competing with the developer’s sales process, but helping the buyer understand where the branded product sits relative to the wider market, what the alternatives are, and whether the premium being asked is justified by what can be obtained without a brand attached.
When the right property aligns with the right assurances, British buyers are among the quickest international buyers to commit, often moving forward within days.
Savvas Savvaidis, CEO, Greece Sotheby’s International Realty — via The Telegraph
This article will reach a substantial number of people who are already considering a move to Greece and for whom this is confirmation rather than discovery. For that reader, the question is not whether to buy — it is where to start, and with whom.
The three things that distinguish buyers who find what they are looking for from those who spend years looking:
The Discovery Programme is the right starting point: a structured, personally delivered briefing on the market, the legal and tax framework, the realistic landscape of available inventory, and introductions to the advisers — lawyers, tax specialists, currency partners — whose involvement makes the difference between a transaction that completes and one that doesn’t.
Source: “Looking beyond Mykonos: The Greek islands stealing the spotlight,” The Telegraph, London Magazine, August 2026. Market data attributed to Greece Sotheby’s International Realty, John D Wood & Co and Savills Greece as quoted in the original article. Pelagos commentary is editorial and independent.
If you have read the Telegraph piece and want to understand what is genuinely available in Corfu, Paxos or the Cyclades, the conversation starts here.
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