Having lived in Cyprus for a few years in her twenties, Claire Martin always dreamt of having a home in Crete. Yet whenever she asked to view some properties whilst on holiday there, she was given short thrift.
“I’d ring estate agents and ask to see a house and when they found out my budget was only €150,000 they lost interest, or they just assumed I was not serious,” says Claire, 53, who runs a dental lab in Wickford, Essex.
“Then a friend bought me tickets to A Place in the Sun exhibition in London for my birthday in June 2023 and I did a screentest. A week later I was flying out to Chania with my daughter Judy.” Phil, her husband, is more of a homebody than a beach lover.
The ‘yellow house’ she ended up buying was one she’d spotted online beforehand, and she was delighted when it was shown to her by Leah Charles-King as ‘property two’. It was a charming traditional stone house covered with bougainvillea with a distinctive layout of the two bedrooms on mezzanine levels, reached by two mirror-image staircases.
“I think I fell in love with the property before I walked through the door, but then when I did see it I got goose pimples,” says Claire. After some brief negotiation, the property that was on sale at £155k was agreed at £140k.
Yet it was a while before she got to enjoy it as the conveyancing took nearly a year. “Things do move more slowly in Greece, but I realised after I should not have used a lawyer based in Athens, plus there were some issues to iron out on the Dutch owners’ renovations.”
As is not unusual in Greece, the building work had not fully registered properly. “That cost me about €25k to sort out,” she adds. But since she did get to take possession, Claire has been busy cleaning and painting, and the bougainvillea needs regular attention. “Every time I go out I do something.”
But although she still has time for the planned “sunbathing, cocktails and shopping” she’s also joined the local WI after being invited by the owner of the English shop in Litsarda. She’s not far from Drapanos and Plaka where another homehunter from A Place in the Sun works in a local charity shop.
She loves staying in the new house and is going out for six weeks this summer - as the holder of an EU passport through her Irish heritage, she doesn’t have to worry about counting her days.
“I have a taverna and pizzeria just 10 minutes away. I can just pop to the café and chat. I hear sheep bells ring as they go past the house and sometimes the baker comes round in his little van and bibs his horn and we can pop out and buy a loaf.”
Claire also quite likes it in the winter, despite having to fly out via Athens as direct flights stop between October and March. “Aegean Airlines is amazing – it’s not really an issue as I only live a bus ride from Stanstead Airport too.” Judy and her brother are visiting this summer.
“It really is my dream come true,” adds Claire. “I was really ill a few years ago and that was the catalyst to make me decide I was really going to do this. I love the Greeks’ attitude to life.”
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