The pool measures 145 square meters, about the floor area of a generous family apartment in Zurich. Beyond it there is a sunken fire pit, and then a path through the dune grass to the Ionian Sea, some 200 meters away. The villa has six bedrooms, a separate guest room and more than 500 square meters of living space.

We are standing in Sea Dunes, an exclusive residential neighborhood of the Costa Navarino destination. Most of the houses here are lived in by their owners, not let out. That alone sets the place apart from much of what is being sold to wealthy foreigners along Europe’s southern coastlines. There, the question is often whether a property is bought as a home or as an entry ticket.

Indoor and outdoor living merge: a privately owned villa at Navarino Dunes, available to rent through the resort. (Image: Costa Navarino)

Rush to the Mediterranean

Southern Europe has become one of the preferred destinations of the internationally mobile rich. Last year, Henley & Partners projected that Italy would attract a net 3,600 millionaires, Portugal 1,400 and Greece 1,200, while the United Kingdom would lose 16,500, more than any other country.

This year the consultancy has dropped such headline counts. Instead, Henley now scores jurisdictions on their structural appeal to mobile wealth. On a scale of 100, Portugal reaches 72.5, Italy 72.3 and Greece 70.5. That puts them ahead of the UK at 68.3 and close to Switzerland at 70.8. Greece, the report says, "is one of the clearest beneficiaries of recent changes to Europe’s investment migration landscape."

Tax codes and thresholds

One driver is the tax code. Britain abolished its non-dom regime in April 2025. Since 2017, Italy has offered wealthy newcomers a flat annual levy on their foreign income. The levy started at 100,000 euros, was doubled in 2024 and rose to 300,000 euros for new arrivals with the 2026 budget. Milan has benefited more than anywhere else.

Greece copied the model: newcomers pay 100,000 euros a year on all foreign income, for up to 15 years, provided they invest at least 500,000 euros in the country. Brokers on the Athens Riviera say British buyers now account for most of their non-dom deals.

Increased figures in Greece

Golden visas have become more expensive, or they have disappeared. Portugal, which pioneered the model, scrapped its real estate route in 2023 amid a housing crisis. Spain closed its program altogether.

In 2024 Greece raised its threshold from 250,000 to 400,000 euros, and to 800,000 euros in Attica, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini and the larger islands. Golden visa holders may no longer let their properties on a short-term basis. At Costa Navarino, these thresholds are of limited relevance. Even the smallest villas sold here cost a multiple of them.

Golf-front living: at Costa Navarino, the fairways begin where the garden ends. (Image: Costa Navarino)

Sold before it is built

finews has visited Costa Navarino before and reported on its hotels, its golf courses and the vision of its founder, the late shipowner Captain Vassilis Constantakopoulos. Direct and indirect investment in Costa Navarino has exceeded 1.2 billion euros. The destination spans more than 1,000 hectares across four distinct sites, and total spending is expected to approach 2.5 billion euros. Real estate is the second pillar of the business model.

Residential development began in 2017 with Sea Dunes and Olive Grove. Both were sold off-plan. Buyers acquire a plot and commission a fully customized villa from one of the architectural firms the developer works with. Construction starts only once a buyer has signed. It takes two to three years, depending on how fast the building permit arrives. In Olive Grove, some owners have merged two or even three plots into a single property. One of these villas has its own playground.

Strict rules

The rules are strict. Villas in the front rows of Sea Dunes may have only one story, so every row keeps an open view of the sea. Only the last row may build higher. Across Costa Navarino, building coverage is capped at 10 percent of the land. The luxury lies as much in the space between the houses as in the houses themselves.

The turnkey neighborhoods, Rolling Greens and Valley Greens, came later. Their villas are smaller and allow only limited changes: buyers can upgrade materials but cannot move walls. The latest three-bedroom villa in Valley Greens, with about 170 square meters of living space, sold for 2 million euros.

That is considerably more than the first three-bedroom villas cost when they came to market in 2020. One neighborhood sold out within a year during the pandemic. Many of its buyers had never seen the site and bought virtually. Most were former hotel guests.

Old money, long horizons

About half of the owners are Greek. They tend to prefer the smaller turnkey villas, spend a month or two a year in them and rent them out the rest of the time. In Sea Dunes it is the other way round. The foreign owners, primarily from Central and Western Europe, mostly keep their villas for their own use. According to the developer, no single nationality dominates, but the Swiss are well represented.

One leaves with the impression that Costa Navarino is betting less on the golden visa crowd than on old European money. Its buyers are families who know the place from holidays at its resorts. They take residence permits for granted or do not need them, and they think in generations rather than in holding periods.

Up to 6,000 euros in high season

The developer advises buyers to consult their own lawyers and accountants. The rules on building height, the low density and the guest quarters for the extended family all point the same way. The target buyer is not someone looking for a way into the EU. It is the family that wants to be in the same place every summer for the next 30 years, and enjoy the golf courses and tennis courts.

The villa we are visiting was completed in 2025. It was the first in Sea Dunes to join the resort-managed rental pool. At launch, rates started at 3,600 euros a night and went up to 5,000 or 6,000 euros in high season. Tenants get the whole house, including a basement with staff quarters and at least one golf buggy for getting around the resort. Other owners have turned their basements into cinemas, wine cellars or private spas. The kitchen appliances are by Miele. The reason is not prestige: the brand has a dealer in nearby Kalamata that guarantees service within 24 hours. Even in the Peloponnese, luxury partly comes down to logistics.

One of the last two villas for sale: a six-bedroom house in Sea Dunes, to be built off-plan. Visualization. (Image: Costa Navarino Residences / ISV)

Close to sold out

Today, Navarino Dunes is close to sold out. According to the developer, only two properties remain: one villa in Sea Dunes and one in Olive Grove, both with five or more bedrooms. The sales website lists the six-bedroom Sea Dunes villa, to be built off-plan, from 6.8 million euros including tax. The turnkey villa in Olive Grove, with 630 square meters of interior space, is listed from 6.4 million euros plus 3.09 percent transfer tax. All remaining projects are due to be completed and handed over by the third quarter of 2027. The next phase is planned for Navarino Bay, another of the destination’s sites, near Pylos. Details will be announced "shortly".

Scarcity is, of course, also a sales argument. Here it appears to be real. Buyers who missed the primary market still have options. According to the developer, the secondary market is well developed, although prices there carry a significant premium.

Adriatic alternatives

Where supply runs short, alternatives appear. On the Adriatic, Montenegro is trying to position itself as the next destination. It is not an EU member, but it uses the euro and is a candidate for accession. Its most ambitious project is Luštica Bay, a 690-hectare peninsula at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor.

Adriatic setting: the marina at Luštica Bay in Montenegro. (Image: Luštica Bay)

The company behind it. Orascom Development Holding, based in Altdorf and chaired by Samih Sawiris, the Egyptian investor known in Switzerland for the revival of Andermatt.

Orascom has developed Luštica Bay since 2008 in a joint venture with the Montenegrin government. More than 775 million euros of a planned 1.5 billion euros has been invested so far. Over 700 homes have been delivered, and the country’s first Chedi hotel is open. A Gary Player golf course is due for the 2029 season. Buyers come from more than 50 countries.

Porto Montenegro vs. Costa Navarino

Luštica is not alone. A few kilometers away in Tivat, the late Canadian gold magnate Peter Munk turned a former Yugoslav naval shipyard into Porto Montenegro. The superyacht marina was sold to the Investment Corporation of Dubai in 2016. Across the bay in Herceg Novi, Azmont Investments built Portonovi for some 650 million euros.

Its centerpiece is Europe’s first One&Only resort, which finews columnist Carsten K. Rath reviewed last December (article in German). According to Rath, the money there comes largely from the Gulf, Britain and Russia. That is a different clientele from the one in Messinia.

At Costa Navarino the owners seem to turn up in person. And judging by the generous guest quarters, they rarely come alone.