14 Bricks & Mortar 14
Bricks & Mortar
Friday September 23 2022 | the times Friday September 23 2022 the times
Wish you lived here?
Paros, Greece Mykonos is glitzy and Santorini is crowded. Head to this off-radar island for €250,000, says Liz Rowlinson
A
s tourists mill between €6,000-€11,000 on Mykonos and the labyrinthine alleys €4,500-€9,000 on Santorini. Yet the of whitewashed shops gap is closing, suggests Engel & Volkers’ and cafés with their Christos Korellas. “In three years prices Cycladic blue shutters have increased by 20-22 per cent, and we and tumbling predict it to catch up with Mykonos. bougainvillea, the The expansion of the airport is a factor.” abrupt onset of A hub for ferries to other islands, British autumn seems a very long way Paros is most accessible by ferry (three away from the Greek island of Paros. hours) or a 25-minute flight from Athens, Summer in the southern Aegean is but its airport will take international far from over, and Greek tourism is flights from 2025. Paros is popular with heading for a bumper year. Helped by Greek, French, Swiss and Israeli buyers, the country’s strict management of says Engel & Volkers, which has four the pandemic (and adequately staffed clients trying to sell properties on airports), income from international Mykonos to spend €1 million-€1.5 million arrivals is predicted to exceed 2019’s on bigger homes on Paros. record-breaking levels, with British and “Mykonos has been moving away German tourists having spent more from the Mamma Mia! ideal of authentic there in the first six months of Greek summers that can still be 2022 than in 2019. found in Paros,” says Savvas While many visitors Savvaidis, chief executive GREECE Naousa are flocking to the of Greece Sotheby’s hedonistic Mykonos International Realty, or the shores of the referring to the pin-up Santorini, Hollywood film. Ampelas Isterni Parikia their neighbour “It’s attracting Aegean Sea Paros has been old money — Lefkes quietly attracting especially Parisians, those who prefer to who don’t like to PAROS escape the crowds — be too showy.” Golden ANTIPAROS Beach and the high prices. Yet buyers with “It’s somehow calmer a budget of up to Makria Myti and kinder,” says Teresa €500,000 can still find Iatrou, a British-Greek a villa on a small complex Two miles homeowner who has been in Paros, says Danae Tsakiris, spending every summer there for 15 director of Savills Greece. “It’s possible years. “I think it’s also more diverse, to find a better choice of new-build villas offering quiet or busy beaches, simple [than on Mykonos], as there’s still plenty little tavernas, sophisticated new of available space.” restaurants and mountain villages like Across Paros, the third-largest island the old capital of Lefkes,” says the former in the Cyclades, there are 2,700 active Londoner in her fifties, who runs a licences for new villas to be built, yachting business with her husband. according to Engel & Volkers. The cape “There’s definitely been a spillover from of Makria Myti on the west coast is Mykonos, which is getting far too sought for its sunset views over the strait expensive, especially for the Greeks.” between Paros and Antiparos and its Property prices in Paros are lower easy ten-minute drive to the airport. than those of its glitzier neighbours, with There is a spacious six-bedroom villa for agent Engel & Volkers putting the price sale there for €4.5 million. range of good-quality properties at Other owners like being close either €3,500-€8,000 per sq m, compared with to Golden Beach, a sandy stretch of the
east coast, or to Naousa in the north, a chic harbour village akin to Mykonos Town with twisting alleyways, blue domed churches and seafront restaurants. You can find a large onebedroom flat for €250,000 that is ready to move into, or a two-bedroom waterfront home for €1.25 million. Paros enjoys a much longer season than some of the other islands, but the food and wine writer Niki Mitarea returns to Athens at the end of October each year after running a boutique hotel in Naousa over the summer with her husband, Nikos. She has been visiting the island since the 1970s and says it has been evolving to cater for high-end visitors. “The new generation of restaurants include Galazia Hytra, a collaboration with Michelin-starred Hytra, in Athens; Mr E Restaurant in the five-star Parilio hotel; and Deck, in the old port of Naousa,” says Mitarea, 56.
Top: Parikia, the capital of Paros. Above left: Villa Hermes, a fivebedroom property in Naousa, is on sale for €3.45 million with Engel & Volkers. Above right: a waterfront villa with six bedrooms in Makria Myti is on the market for €4.5 million through Engel & Volkers
“But there are still plenty of simple, affordable places.” A touch of Mykonos can be enjoyed at the beach too. “Boho-chic beach clubs can now be found at Ampelas beach [Aspro Paros] and Monastiri Beach House,” says Iatrou. “We used to pay €8 a day to hire a sunbed in August — now you can pay €80-€100.” Iatrou is selling the five-bedroom villa she had built in nearby Ysterni for €3.45 million because she is keen for another project on Paros, although some buyers aiming to self-build are looking at Antiparos, a smaller island ten minutes away by ferry, where the actor Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita, own a home. “There it’s mostly about buying a quiet, private plot and building a villa, with prices from about €1.2 million. Developers are only just starting to build there,” Korellas says. How quiet and private it stays remains to be seen.
Location lowdown Cirencester, Gloucestershire Where? In red trouser-black labrador country, it’s the “capital of the Cotswolds”, 15 miles south of Cheltenham, 36 miles west of Oxford and 90 miles west of London. Why? It’s extremely pretty — a honey-coloured-stone town with a handsome, wide market square and narrow medieval streets with lots of half-hidden passageways and courtyards. Plus, being smaller than Cheltenham, it is compact enough to walk around. In fact, everywhere you go you can be pretty sure that under your feet are the mosaics of
villas from its days as Corinium, the second largest town in Roman Britain. Is it well connected? Not bad road-wise; less good for trains. The M4 is 20 minutes’ drive south, heading east to London (about two hours) and west to Bristol (about an hour). It takes about half an hour to drive to Cheltenham for the top-notch shops and schools. There’s no train station — the nearest is Kemble, seven miles away, from where it takes an hour and 15 minutes on average to reach London Paddington.
and fed by spring water (open May to September).
What about green space? Apart from having the Cotswolds on your doorstep, you can walk from the town into Cirencester Park, part of the 3,000-acre Bathurst Estate. And there’s the lido, tucked away along a riverside path
What’s on the high street? A really good mix of highquality independent shops on the streets around Market Place. Black Jack Street has the Jesse Smith traditional butchers, Octavia’s Bookshop, Knead Bakery and Patisserie, the award-winning Drizzle Chocolate and several stylish boutiques. Laurence LlewelynBowen has a sumptuous interiors showroom on Castle Street, where you’ll also find the Aga shop. Plus there’s the Corn Hall Deli and Wine
Cellars in the old Corn Hall on Market Place, where outdoor markets are held twice a week.
University, where degrees include farm management and wildlife conservation.
How about schools? Plenty of choice. Powell’s Church of England Primary is rated outstanding by Ofsted, while Cirencester Primary and Siddington Church of England Primary are rated good. Of the two state secondaries, Deer Park and Kingshill schools are also rated good by Ofsted; neither have a sixth form, so students generally graduate to Cirencester College, also rated good. There’s also the highly rated Royal Agricultural
How much? Two-bedroom terraced cottages in the town start at about £300,000, while three-bedroom homes are £375,000 to £650,000. The finest of the pale stone houses in town will set you back £700,000 to £900,000 for four or five bedrooms. Newer homes on the outskirts can be found for about £350,000 for a three-bedroom semi and from £450,000 for a four-bedroom home. Cherry Maslen