The announcement by screen star Nera Kallistrou on Friday has sharply escalated a debate over how Greeks are finding the cash to buy homes. Her company, Kleidion Homes, says it will put €24 million (about $28 million) into a shared-equity fund, with places for 600 first-time buyers. By Sunday, its registration page had logged 18,400 expressions of interest.
Kallistrou’s move lands in a market where buyers are increasingly stretching their savings to meet larger deposits. A survey of 12 Greek lenders found that borrowers supplied an average 36% of purchase prices in cash in the first half of 2026, up from 28% three years earlier. Mortgage lending rose 13% over the same period, according to the survey.
The deposit deal
Kleidion’s fund will provide as much as €35,000 toward a buyer’s deposit. In return, it takes 18% of any increase in the property’s value when the home is sold; buyers who stay at least 10 years can repay the original sum instead. The offer applies to homes priced below €250,000 and requires buyers to secure a conventional mortgage for the balance.
The pilot began in Athens and Patras in June, with 74 households receiving support. The company says it has not yet committed money to anyone under the expanded offer. Its chief executive, Onome Okunola, said the additional capital would be released in stages, but would not name the investors funding the rest of the programme.
A deposit is now the locked gate between a salary and a home. We are trying to lend people the key without taking the whole house.
Onome Okunola, Kleidion Homes chief executive
Lenders and builders react
Three lenders have temporarily stopped sending customers to Kleidion while their compliance teams review how the shared stake affects mortgage affordability. Denis Moura, a mortgage broker in Athens, said two clients had already been asked to delay signing until their banks clarified whether the fund’s contribution counted as debt or equity.
The pause is feeding concern among developers that the offer could push up prices in the lower-cost market it targets. Blanche Will, who runs a small property agency in Thessaloniki, said two builders had postponed sales launches for a combined 190 apartments after buyers began asking whether the fund would cover deposits there.
Kallistrou, who has appeared in Greek television dramas for more than a decade, said in a video posted to the company’s website that she would personally contribute €24 million over three years. Her representative said she had no role in choosing eligible applicants. The fund says it will publish monthly totals for applications, approvals and payments.
Consumer adviser César Flores warned that the scheme’s headline support could obscure the later cost of giving up a share of a home’s appreciation. A €35,000 contribution on a property that gains €100,000 in value could mean €18,000 paid back to the fund, on top of repaying the original contribution, depending on the contract.
Greece’s finance ministry said it had asked the company for details of its contracts and buyer disclosures, but has not ordered the programme to stop. Kleidion expects to issue its first expanded-offer decisions by 2 November. For buyers whose savings fall short, the celebrity-backed fund has opened a new door; the lenders’ pause leaves it unclear how many will be able to walk through.
