Tonia Katerini, a 69-year-old architect, leaned into her computer, scrolling through the property contracts that she said are remaking her neighbourhood.
asserted
she → lean → neighbourhood
Across Exarchia, the Athens district long known for its radical left-wing politics, flats are being bought up and turned into short-term rentals, pushing out the people who live there.
For months, Katerini and a group of neighbours have been digitally mapping foreign purchases using public records, marking them with red dots.
asserted
Katerini → know → dots
She zoomed out from her street on the map; it was a sea of red.
asserted
it → zoom → red
The balcony doors of her flat, where she has lived since 1986, were open and noise from the cafes below drifted in past the plants and stacks of architectural plans.
Her group says much of the money behind the rentals is Israeli; by their count, more than half of the area’s new company-run hotels and rentals .
asserted
much → live → hotels
In a neighbourhood where Palestinian flags hang from balconies and solidarity slogans cover the walls, that has caused friction.
asserted
that → hang → friction
On her own cobbled street, where the noise of arriving tourists rolling their suitcases wakes her in the morning, Israeli investors have bought two buildings, she said.
asserted
she → arrive → buildings
The flat below hers belongs to one such company.
asserted
flat → belong → company
“They are nice guys we have downstairs,” she said.
asserted
she → have → ?
“It’s an Israeli company.”
asserted
It → ’ → ?
A few streets away, a residential building is streaked with black paint.
asserted
building → streak → paint
“Airbnbs leave us homeless,” reads one slogan across its facade.
asserted
slogan → leave → facade
“Zionists not welcome,” reads another.
asserted
another → read → ?
Such buildings are easy to spot.
asserted
buildings → spot → ?
Instead of residents’ names, the buzzer panels show only numbers and a keypad by the door releases keys for Airbnb guests.
asserted
keypad → show → guests
Across the neighbourhood, activists have splattered keypads and facades with red paint.
asserted
activists → splatter → paint
They say short-term rentals are driving an aggressive gentrification that is pricing out locals and erasing the area’s identity.
asserted
that → say → identity
Foreign money has poured into Greek property in recent years: non-residents invested a record 2.75 billion euros ($3.2bn) in Greek real estate in 2024, according to the Bank of Greece, before easing last year.
uncertain
residents → pour → Greece
No official figures break down foreign buyers in Athens by nationality.
asserted
figures → break → nationality
But an annual survey of completed sales by the agency network RE/MAX Hellas found that Israelis were the largest group of foreign buyers in Attica, the region around the capital, ahead of buyers from Turkiye and Lebanon, reported the Greek weekly To Vima.
asserted
weekly → complete → Vima
Exarchia’s political activism runs deep.
asserted
activism → run → ?
In 1973, students at the nearby Athens Polytechnic rose up against the US-backed military government, which fell the following year.
asserted
which → rise → government
In 2008, police shot dead Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15-year-old Greek student, in Exarchia, provoking protests that spread across the country.
asserted
that → shoot → country
It came, Katerini said, like “fire on dry land”.
asserted
Katerini → come → land
As Greece’s debt crisis deepened, that anger on the streets helped propel the left-wing Syriza party to power in 2015.
asserted
anger → deepen → 2015
‘Tenants displaced, apartment blocks emptied’
asserted
blocks → displace → ?
Chrysoulla Papageorgiou, a schoolteacher who has lived in Exarchia for 24 years, is a familiar face on its streets.
asserted
who → live → streets
Earnest and straight-talking, the 46-year-old remembers it as “a neighbourhood of solidarity”.
asserted
old → talk → solidarity
The change came slowly, then quickened.
asserted
change → come → ?
At first, small owners rented out a spare room.
asserted
owners → rent → room
After the COVID-19 pandemic, companies began buying entire blocks.
asserted
companies → begin → blocks
“Overnight, tenants were displaced and apartment blocks emptied,” she said.
asserted
she → displace → ?
Bars opened, spilling tables and chairs across pavements on streets that had once been quiet.
asserted
that → open → streets
Rents rose and migrants and low-income families, many living in basements and on the lower floors, were the first to go.
asserted
migrants → rise → floors
Schools lost pupils and old bookshops, traditional cafes and grocers closed.
asserted
cafes → lose → pupils
For years, Exarchia residents sheltered refugees in occupied buildings.
asserted
residents → shelter → buildings
Sitting on prime real estate, they were among the first buildings police emptied and then sold, Papageorgiou said.
asserted
Papageorgiou → sit → buildings
“Half were squats,” she said.
asserted
she → say → ?
“Now we have only one.”
asserted
we → have → one
That last building is draped in painted sheets declaring solidarity with the families inside.
asserted
building → drape → families
Neighbours help make sure the children get to school.
asserted
children → help → school
…and 38 more, not listed.
The Aporia
