As an EU member, Greece permits foreign nationals to buy in the country, and to live there permanently - a visa and residence permit is required after three months - but cash rich foreigners will not be able to buy indiscriminately. 'The Greek government has put in place a number of measures to dissuade property speculation from international buyers,'

'New property sales bear a VAT rate of 19 per cent and capital gains tax has been structured to make sure short-term investors have to pay a healthy sum to sell on a property quickly - the tax is inversely proportional to the amount of time the property has been owned (20 per cent for less than five years reducing to zero if owned for more than 25 years).'

Greece is something of a paradox for British holidaymakers and second homebuyers. Each year, tens of thousands of us visit the mainland and many of its 2,500 islands for a vacation, but relatively few of us have bought a place there despite it being permitted for foreigners to own property for more than a decade. However, times are changing.

If the idea of island life appeals to you, consider when you will use the property - or plan to let it: scheduled flights and ferry services to some locations shut down completely outside the peak season. However, rental income can be good in season. 'The holiday rental market in Greece and its islands is strong,' says Bishop, 'attracting families and couples as well as island-hoppers throughout the long summer.'

In all likelihood Britons will be buying for both investment and future retirement on an island where 80 per cent of foreign house purchasers are British. Inevitably, our coming has pushed up house prices, which are 50 per cent higher than they were a decade ago and rising (7.9 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2006 according to the Knight Frank Global House Price Index), but Crete, and Greece in general, shows few signs of the rampant house price inflation that has afflicted much of the rest of Southern and Eastern Europe.