Background guide. This guide describes the situation as it stood in February 2025. Rates and rules may have changed since, so check our newest guides for current figures.
Update, 27 September 2026: This guide describes the ECB's fifth consecutive rate cut, which brought the deposit rate to 2.75% in January 2025. Cuts continued for several more months: a sixth cut in March 2025 took the rate to 2.50%, a seventh in April 2025 to 2.25%, and an eighth in June 2025 to 2.00%, where the easing cycle ended. The ECB then held the deposit rate at 2.00% through the rest of 2025 and into early 2026.
That direction reversed in 2026. On 11 June 2026 the ECB raised its deposit rate by 25 basis points to 2.25%, its first hike since September 2023, as the conflict in the Middle East pushed up inflation expectations. A second 25-basis-point hike followed on 10 September 2026, taking the deposit rate to 2.50%, the main refinancing rate to 2.65% and the marginal lending rate to 2.90%, effective 16 September 2026. The 12-month Euribor, which many variable-rate mortgages track, averaged about 3.25% in September 2026 (ECB data), against about 2.4% in February 2025, the month this guide describes. Read what follows as a snapshot of one point in a rate cycle that has since reversed, not as the current picture.
Five cuts and counting
January 2025's move was the fifth consecutive ECB rate cut since the easing cycle began in June 2024, bringing the deposit rate down to 2.75% from the 4% peak reached in September 2023. The consistency of the moves, cut after cut without a reversal, has given lenders more confidence to reprice products than a single isolated cut would.
What 2.75% means for Greek mortgage pricing
Non-resident lending terms have continued to ease alongside this run of cuts, though loan-to-value limits and affordability standards for US buyers remain in place regardless of the rate level. A lower reference rate improves the numbers, not the underlying eligibility criteria.
The currency story starts to shift
Just as this cut landed, the dollar began weakening against the euro in a move that would continue through much of 2025. A run of ECB cuts does not automatically translate into a cheaper euro purchase in dollar terms if the currency moves the other way at the same time, the two effects can offset each other for a US buyer's actual budget.
Comparing this cycle to 2023
Buyers who were priced out or hesitant during the 2023 peak now face a meaningfully different rate environment, even if currency movements complicate the full picture. It's worth re-running a mortgage scan rather than assuming 2023-era figures still apply.
What to watch through the rest of 2025
Both further ECB moves and the EUR/USD rate are worth tracking together, since either can materially change the practical cost of a Greek purchase for a US buyer. Treat any single data point, including this one, as part of an evolving picture rather than a fixed conclusion.
What to do next
- Get a mortgage scan reflecting the 2.75% environment.
- Check the current EUR/USD rate, not the rate from a year ago.
- Revisit a purchase you paused during the 2023 peak.
- Track both ECB decisions and currency movements going forward.
- Confirm underwriting standards haven't loosened alongside the rate.
Questions US buyers ask
Continue your Greek property research
Who made this guide. Bas Terpstra makes, reviews and approves every guide, using AI tools and public sources as a starting point. Rules and figures change, so treat this as general information and confirm the details for your own situation.
This guide is general information, not personal financial, legal, tax or currency advice. Mortgage availability is subject to credit, income, valuation and lender criteria.