A quiet shift is happening in Greek tourism. It doesn’t make noise like over-tourism protests or delays at island ports—but it’s visible if you know where to look. Another month, another rise in short-term rentals. More homes listed, more beds counted, fewer places left to live. According to the latest bulletin from INSETE, the total number of short-stay properties—most of them booked through familiar platforms—reached 242,000 in June. A new record. The bed count? Over a million. Again. These numbers don’t just reflect popularity. They reflect a shift in how people utilize space—and who gets to claim it as home. The conversation, for now, is still focused on growth. What’s missing is what’s already gone.
It’s starting to feel like clockwork. Every few weeks, a new bulletin drops from INSETE, showing another spike in short-term rentals—and another round of official silence. In June 2025, Greece surpassed a new threshold: 242,000 active listings, representing a 17% increase from the previous year.
This followed a steady climb through spring:
- April: 228,000
- May: 236,000
- June: 242,000
These aren’t new buildings. They’re the same homes, just repurposed and rebranded, some of them more than once. Former student flats. Old family houses. Places where you used to know who lived upstairs. Now it’s check-in codes, self-service apps, and laminated welcome sheets.
Officials call this a rebound—some say it’s growth. But what’s growing exactly? Not the number of residents who can afford to stay. Not the housing options for locals. What we’re watching is tourism reshaping the rental map, one lockbox at a time.
Guests and the View from the Margin
If the listings are rising, the beds are multiplying at a faster rate. In June, Greece hit 1.061 million available beds, the highest recorded since 2019. What’s striking is the pace: the one-million mark was crossed in April, months ahead of last year’s summer peak.
Monthly bed availability:
- April: ~1,000,000
- May: 1.038 million
- June: 1.061 million
To the outside world, these are just numbers. To people living here, they translate to something else entirely: fewer leases, higher rents, and entire neighborhoods now operating on tourist time.
Occupancy remains stable at 40%, unchanged from last June. And visitors don’t stay long—just under four days, on average. Enough time to leave behind coffee grounds and five-star reviews, not roots.
Guests Come and Go—Locals, Not So Much
The official data doesn’t say how many people gave up searching for a home this summer. It doesn’t include the name of the teacher commuting from a different prefecture. It doesn’t mention the café worker who now shares a one-bedroom apartment with two colleagues because their apartment in Chania has become a “romantic Cycladic escape” on a rental site.
The term “Airbnb” does not appear in the report. It’s always “short-term lease.” Clean phrasing. Zero baggage. As if this were just evolution, not displacement.
According to the data:
- 92% of guests came from abroad
- 8% were Greek
If you live here, that number says everything. Your own country is starting to look like a place you can’t afford to visit—or stay in.
The Quiet Exit
On the islands, the stories don’t make it into press releases. They travel through word of mouth—about a retired couple renting out their home to tourists and moving into a shed behind their garden. About villages whole in July, silent by November.
You won’t find those in the graphs. But you feel them. The grocery store that closes early. The neighbors who no longer nod hello—because they’ve been replaced by rolling luggage.
The numbers climb. So does the tension. However, for now, regulation remains a rumor, and balance is something we can only hope for next season.
