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I have lived in Acharavi for 25 years and witnessed it change and develop. I have clients who continue to come because although the village has grown, it has not lost its character. The local people continue to display the tremendous “filoxenia” (hospitality), for which Greece is renowned.

Knowing that Acharavi has a dedicated following of people who return regularly I thought a ‘news and review’ page would appeal to those who have maybe had to miss a year, or just to keep abreast of the times.

Acharavi News 2003

Continuing our news bulletin to keep Acharavi Regulars abreast of changes and local news.

It has been a hard year (2003) for all of us, as the downward trend in tourism after 9/11 has continued, exacerbated by the recent Iraqi war and then capped by the fear of Sars. It seems many stayed at home either feeling the economic pinch or simply not wanting to take risks.

The second year of the Euro has been interesting, as we have all settled into using the new currency. It would be silly to pretend that there has not been price rises this year but believe that everyone stills find eating and drinking out good value. A strong Euro and weak Pound Sterling unfortunately made a 10% difference before taking into account inflation. Though the “duty free” allowance (which is in fact duty paid!) which plays a part in everyones holiday budget, has increased to 3200 cigarettes, so as those goods are still cheap here it helps to balance the holidays expense sheet!

The subject of houses for sale is a hot topic; there is a tremendous amount of interest that is making prices move skywards. This all started even before the programme  “Place in Sun” filmed here last summer, was aired! There is also going to be a “No Going back”, applications being accepted now (July 2003)!

We continue to be bombarded with questions from people who are looking to move out here and live their dream. We would still caution you though, as many have discovered this year, life here is not what you see on holiday! Unless you are of independent means, earning enough money here to live for 12 months is hard when most jobs are going to depend on a weak tourist market, where work is available for often a little as 4 months and starting a new business in such a climate is very risky as even such as car showrooms or carpenters are dependent on cash earned through tourism, sorry if we sound obstructive and pessimistic but we have witnessed many sad failures lately! Please do lots of research first! The property market (and prices) continues to boom.

Bear in mind that if you decide to buy here and want your house to help pay its way; perhaps we can help to rent it for you when you are not here? We should, however, before you all ask how much money it will make you, point out that house rental will not make you rich. It will pay for maintenance and keep the house running, (unless you move into the luxury market with pool).

10 hot tips for buying property in Corfu; Courtesy of Hilary Whitton Paipetis, Editor of the Corfiot magazine.   

We thought that as we have been asked so often this year this may be useful!
Never pay a holding deposit to the owner. Lodge your deposit as a cheque with a solicitor, who will keep it uncashed until he has checked that all the titles are clear of debts and there is no conflict of ownership. If there are no problems then he will pass it on to the owner for a trouble-free sale.

Always ask for a ‘pink slip’ when exchanging money at the bank. This lets the taxman know the money for your property purchase has come from overseas, otherwise you could be faced with a 45% tax bill.

Consider seriously going for an older property. Houses over 51 years old are subject to a 70% reduction in purchase tax, giving massive savings to the buyer.

To obtain the above, make sure that you ask for the age classification, which is issued by the local council, which classifies the property as being built before 1950. A simple rule of thumb is that if the house is constructed of stone and has thick walls, it is over 51 years old.

Buying away from the sea means that the objective tax value of the land the house stands on will be up to a quarter of the equivalent value of a house on the coast, thus further reducing your purchase tax bill and professional fees. For example, the tax value of land in town planning in Sidari is 135,000 euro, while three kilometres up the hill in nearby Rachtades it is just 30,000 euro.

Know your tax value, so as not to pay extra unnecessarily. Each area is subject to a different tax value and is calculated in two ways - the land (including the actual building site), which is different in every area, and the building itself. This latter is calculated by a square-metre formula, which begins at 455 euro per metre. You subtract 70% if the building is over 51 years old and add/subtract 5% if it does/doesn’t have central heating.

Another reason to buy an old house for restoration (not complete rebuilding) is that a restoration permit is cheap and fast; on an 80 sq.m. house you can save around 8,000 euro and four weeks of waiting.

When undertaking restoration, there are no limits to the extent and style of internal restoration and you don’t require any permits.

When buying land to build, as long as you adhere to planning rules and regulations, planning permission is certain to be granted. There are no councils involved in the process; the government town planning office and an engineer will examine your application, and approval cannot be refused if your plans for the new dwelling fall within the rules about height, distances from boundaries and so on. Remember there is a minimum land-size requirement to obtain a building permit, which varies according to location. An engineer will ensure that the land you intend to buy is buildable.

The buyer as well as the seller is legally obliged to pay an agent’s fee of 2%.

Make sure you obtain a tax file number for the purchase and make sure you do thus as soon as you are considering buying your property. This takes 30 minutes in person and about a month in writing. All you need is a copy of your passport and the appropriate application form, filled in.

At the same time, it will be necessary to open a Greek bank account. For this you need your passport and your tax file number. You can also apply for a loan - the interest rates are very favourable at present. You will need to show two years of tax returns from your home country.

You have the option of signing a power of attorney to your solicitor to handle all the paperwork involved in the sale, sign the contract on your behalf and pay the money for the purchase, so that you do not need to come to Corfu in person.

Thank you Hilary.

Acharavi saw a surge of new buildings this year; a new shopping area at the Pump, where the new Odysseus Taverna seems to be doing well, a new aparthotel, Thinalos, near the Skondros Restaurant rushed to open by August and has a nice new pool open to the public. Luckily, we can still honestly say that the village continues to grow in an attractive way, which has not caused overcrowding.

September 2002 saw us in the throes of local elections, the only mayor that Acharavi has known, since becoming a “municipality”12 years ago, moved on to higher places, he has become the Nomarch of Corfu. Let us hope that the new one will carry on his good work…he is at least supporting the new dog pound which is at last starting to function.

Changes a foot, Brads Pitt closed at the end of last summer as Brad moved back to England with his wife, Thea. Escaping the rat race in reverse?! Good luck Brad! At least the rain will not seem so foreign to you after all the rain we had last autumn!

Yes we, along with most of Europe, suffered some terrible storms and floods in summer 2002 ; it will certainly go down in the record books. It was most unusual, (at least we did not have to water gardens, and the flowers beautifully coloured the landscape in the extraordinary second spring). Summer 2003 at the time of writing, August, has been long and hot to compensate.

Brads Pit has been re-opened by Scottish Arthur who has renamed it Arty’s Place. Steve and Anne’s Zanzibar, has been reopened by John and Tina as the Rock Bar, with rock music as their theme. Alan and Anita have moved to Anita’s Place, a restaurant on the back road where El Grecko used to be, a primarily English menu (including English breakfast) with some Greek specialities. Spiros and his family who ran the pool bar at Panos apartments has opened an eaterie on the beach called Woody’s. The Palace electronic games bar has changed its theme to a soft play are for the up to 8’s, with ball pool and bouncy castle, now called Paiknidopoulis: Toytown.

On the other hand, Kev and Rob, old Castaway clients have taken the plunge and moved here, opening Planet Olivewood, the bar next to the Pumphouse. Kev was in the computer technology business in the UK and has great plans for the new www.planetolivewood.com, the bar is a lively place for all ages, with the odd quiz, bingo and bar game, and live entertainment too. He also has a computer station in the bar fore those wanting to surf, or just check their e-mails. Good luck to you two too!

Friends of Nikos from the Acharavi restaurant discovered he has moved. He converted his old family olive press in the foothills behind Acharavi, and opened there a new restaurant called Monolithi. He has done a fine job in traditional style using stone and keeping the single stone press in place. The stone terrace has views over to Albania by day and at weekends he had live Greek music.

On the subject of music it is wonderful to enjoy traditional music played on guitar and bouzouki by Angelos and Alexi, without electric amplifiers, at Georges taverna in Almiros and Alkinoos taverna in Old Perithia

Well, inevitably christenings follow all those recent weddings! Congratulations Anna and Georgos of Captain Aris Bar,  and  Natalie and Andreas of Sonic Bar,and they are proud parents of a beautiful baby boy and girl respectively. Congratulations to Ben and Claudia of Invisible Kitchen on the birth of Max.

Sue, gained a new canine, often seen at the office. (We do apologise to everyone who has to step around her on the way to their safe deposit boxes! She has not learnt the rules yet!)  Riley is a black lab, who was in need of a home. Again apologies to anyone who has kindly thrown her toy for her to fetch! Once is definitely not enough, and she never gets bored of bringing it back to you. A word of warning then; the beach near the Skondros is her patch, and no eye contact is the trick to avoid hours of play! Many thanks to those who have succumbed though, she does need the exercise!

Acharavi’s Hydropolis waterpark added a couple more slides and provided hours of fun for many families who found they could buy specially discounted entrance tickets at Castaway Travel.

I know I have many regular visitors to Acharavi who will ask me who has taken over Beachside Bungalows, the answer is Travel with Friends, www.twfcorfu.com

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Acharavi News 2002 archive