Sitting in second place among the best places in the world for expats to buy property and move abroad in 2022 is the city of Athens, according to research by the British company Property Guides.

The research looked at factors such as the cost of living, the possibilities for remote working and the work/life balance culture.

In first place on the list is Malaga on Spain’s Costa del Sol, with the authors of the study explaining that if one wants to improve one’s quality of life, then one should look to this Spanish city, which offers a warm Mediterranean climate and easy social integration.

As for the surprisingly high position of Athens, the experts at Property Guides said: “The pandemic changed the opinion of many people about Greece. The government under… Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is generally seen to have performed well, while nowhere feels safer during a pandemic than an island in the sparkling Mediterranean.”

A recent poll conducted by the packaging company RAJA named Athens the best place to move in 2022. To decide the winner, the company took into account factors such as employment rate, safety, cost of living and healthcare. Greece’s capital is particularly attractive for British expats; rents are dramatically lower in Athens than in Britain and supermarket shopping is 16% cheaper. What’s more, the Mediterranean diet, with its proven health benefits, is an added incentive.

In fact, research from Property Guides shows that there has been greater uptake of the Greece Golden Visa Program (a residency investment plan that allows property purchasers from outside the EU to claim right of residence within member states) than of the Portuguese program.

This article was first published in Greek at moneyreview.gr.