Athens vs Thessaloniki: which is better for Airbnb investment? (2026)

Bottom line

Athens edges ahead of Thessaloniki on stronger RevPAR (£11 vs £7).

Head-to-head metrics

	Athens	Thessaloniki
Median occupancy	30%	30%
Median daily rate	£62	£48
Median RevPAR	£11	£7
Active listings	11,383	3,727
YoY occupancy	+11.9 pts	+14.7 pts
YoY daily rate	+1.4%	+3.7%
Regulation risk	medium	—
Annual night cap	None	None
License required	No	No

Full analysis: Athens vs Thessaloniki

On the money side of this comparison — what a listing actually earns against the nights it has available — Athens finishes clearly ahead of Thessaloniki. Revenue per available night — rate and occupancy combined, the figure that actually reaches an owner — is 52.8% higher in Athens: £11 against £7. Athens commands 30.4% more per night, £62 against £48. Those gaps are wide enough to survive a normal year's variance.

Athens takes both halves of the yield equation, which is less common than it sounds. It charges more per night — £62 against £48 — and still fills more of the year, 30% against 30%. A market that leads on price and utilisation at once is normally one where demand has outrun supply, rather than one where hosts are discounting to keep the calendar busy. RevPAR reflects the double advantage at £11 against £7.

That verdict needs a caveat, because Thessaloniki is not simply the weaker market of the two. The twelve-month direction favours Thessaloniki too: occupancy there moved +14.7 points while Athens moved +11.9 points. Thessaloniki's calendar is the flatter of the two — 25.8 points between its best and worst month against 31.7 in Athens — which makes debt service easier to underwrite. If your model leans on that dimension, the ordering above can reasonably flip.

We hold a verified regulation record for only one side of this pairing. Athens applies no annual night cap and requires registration but no licence, on a medium risk rating. Thessaloniki should be read as unverified rather than unregulated: check the local authority's own register before you underwrite anything there.

The two calendars also behave differently. Athens peaks in October at 54.6% and bottoms in February at 22.9%; Thessaloniki runs from 52% in September down to 26.2% in February. Thessaloniki is the steadier of the two at 25.8 points peak-to-trough against 31.7 — easier to underwrite against a mortgage — while Athens concentrates its return into a shorter window and rewards operators who price the peak aggressively instead of holding a flat rate all year.

Who each suits, then. Athens suits buyers who want a conventional, lightly regulated entry and who can hold rate through the shoulder season rather than discounting to fill the calendar. Thessaloniki answers to the same regulatory profile, so the split between them is operational rather than legal: it is the market for an owner whose economics survive high turnover — more bookings, more cleans, more guest contact per pound of revenue. It is also the momentum side of this pair. Every figure above comes from the same Inside Airbnb snapshot pipeline on both sides, dated 2025-09, filtered to listings with at least one booking in the last twelve months. Occupancy medians are drawn from 6,964 active Athens listings and 2,535 in Thessaloniki.

Frequently asked questions

Is Athens or Thessaloniki better for Airbnb investment?

Athens, on the data we track. It leads on stronger RevPAR (£11 vs £7), a higher nightly rate (£62 vs £48), and higher median annual revenue (£4,131 vs £2,706). Thessaloniki is not the weak side of this pair, though — it wins on the better occupancy trend (+14.7 points vs +11.9 points year over year).

Which has higher occupancy, Athens or Thessaloniki?

Effectively neither — they are level. Athens sits at 30% and Thessaloniki at 30%, a 0-point difference that is inside the noise of a median drawn from a listings snapshot. Over the last twelve months Athens gained 11.9 points and Thessaloniki gained 14.7 points, so the gap is closing.

Which has higher nightly rates, Athens or Thessaloniki?

Athens, at £62 a night against £48 in Thessaloniki — roughly 30.4% more. Revenue per available night agrees rather than contradicts: £11 in Athens against £7, so the rate premium survives contact with the occupancy figures.

Is Athens or Thessaloniki riskier for Airbnb regulation?

We hold a verified regulation record for Athens only, so we will not rank the two. Athens applies no annual night cap and requires registration but no licence, and it is rated medium risk. Treat Thessaloniki as unverified rather than unregulated, and check the local authority directly before committing.

Which has stronger year-over-year growth, Athens or Thessaloniki?

Thessaloniki, on occupancy: +14.7 points over the last twelve months against +11.9 points in Athens. Nightly rates rose 1.4% in Athens and rose 3.7% in Thessaloniki over the same window. One year of movement is a direction, not a trend — weigh it against the regulation picture before treating it as momentum.

Which is the bigger Airbnb market, Athens or Thessaloniki?

Athens, with 11,383 active listings against 3,727 in Thessaloniki. Size cuts both ways: a deep market gives you comparables, contractors and an exit, while a thinner one means fewer near-identical rivals competing for the same search results.

Go deeper on each city

Market guide

Airbnb in Athens →

Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation

Market guide

Airbnb in Thessaloniki →

Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation

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