What American developers misunderstand about international property buyers
International buyers search for rules and returns long before they look at homes. Kirill Samarits on cross-border demand, with NAR data, Greek Golden Visa rules and six months of BUY GREECE search data.
American developers tend to market to international buyers as if they were local buyers who happen to live abroad: same listings, same brochure, a translated website. But international buyers spend most of their journey on questions a local buyer never asks, such as whether they are allowed to buy, how taxes and residency work, and what the property will earn. They need months of education before they need a floor plan. The developers who answer those questions first win the buyers.
I learned this from the other direction. I'm Kirill Samarits, and in 2024 I founded BUY GREECE, a venture that connects American buyers with Greek property. Watching Americans shop for homes abroad taught me more about international buyers than any client project. This article combines that first-hand search data with national figures on foreign buyers in the US.
Who buys US homes from abroad
Figure 1. Top origin countries of foreign buyers of US existing homes. Source: NAR International Transactions report 2026.
According to the National Association of Realtors, foreign buyers purchased $45.3B of US existing homes between April 2025 and March 2026, down 19.1% on the year before, across 67,100 homes. Canada was back as the largest source at 16%, followed by Mexico, China, India and the UK. 48% paid all cash, and their median price of $465,000 was above the $413,600 median for all US existing homes. Florida, California and Texas together took just over half of these purchases.
Measure | Foreign buyers of US homes, Apr 2025 to Mar 2026 |
|---|---|
Total purchases | $45.3B, down 19.1% year on year |
Homes bought | 67,100, down 14% |
All-cash purchases | 48% |
Median price | $465,000, vs $413,600 for all US existing homes |
Top states | Florida 20%, California 19%, Texas 12% |
Table 1. Source: NAR 2026 International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate.
Cash-heavy, higher-priced, concentrated in a few states: these buyers are valuable. But half of them pay cash, which means they aren't guided by a lender's process. They build their own due diligence, and they do it online.
What international buyers actually search for
BUY GREECE gives me an unusual view of cross-border demand, because most of its audience is American. Over the six months from March 27 to September 26, 2026, its pages appeared in 564,158 Google searches and received 2,774 clicks.
Figure 2. BUY GREECE organic search by country, 27 March to 26 September 2026. Source: BUY GREECE Google Search Console.
Americans generated 58.1% of all impressions, more than every other country combined. But their click-through rate was 0.35%, against 1.7% for searchers in Greece. Americans are looking a lot and clicking a little. That's what the research phase of a long-distance purchase looks like: wide, cautious and slow.
Figure 3. BUY GREECE search impressions by topic, top 1,000 queries. Source: BUY GREECE Google Search Console. A query can match more than one topic.
The topics are the real lesson. Queries about investment returns, rental yields and short-term rental rules drew almost 50,000 impressions. Golden Visa and residency drew about 12,000. Queries about villas drew fewer than 2,500. The largest single queries were about registration rules for monthly Airbnb stays, the legal line between short- and long-term rentals, and Athens rental yields. International buyers want to know whether the numbers and the rules work before they care what the kitchen looks like.
The rules shape the market
In Greece, the Golden Visa sets the price floor for a large part of foreign demand. Since September 1, 2024, the minimum investment for residency through property has been:
Location | Minimum property investment |
|---|---|
Attica (including Athens), Thessaloniki area, Mykonos, Santorini, and islands with more than 3,100 inhabitants | €800,000 |
All other areas | €400,000 |
Conversion of industrial or non-residential property to residential | €250,000 |
Table 2. Greece Golden Visa thresholds under Law 5100/2024, for transactions from September 1, 2024. Built properties must have at least 120 m² of main living area. Source: Watson Farley & Williams.
Figure 4. Foreign direct investment in Greek real estate. Source: Bank of Greece data, as reported by Greek City Times.
Foreign direct investment in Greek real estate reached a record €2.75B in 2024, then fell 24% year on year in the first nine months of 2025, the first period fully under the higher thresholds. Other factors play a part, but rules move demand. The same is true in the US, where tax treatment, financing access for non-residents and state-level rules shape what foreign buyers can do. A developer's marketing has to explain those rules plainly, or buyers will find someone who does.
Five things I'd tell an American developer
Answer eligibility first. The first question is "can I buy this, and how?" Put the answer in the first paragraph of the page, not in a PDF.
Publish the numbers. Rental rules, expected costs, taxes and realistic yields. International buyers compare markets, not just buildings.
Plan for a long runway. Cross-border buyers research for months. Measure the audience you're building, not just this month's leads.
Show who stands behind the project. Buyers who can't visit easily rely on the developer's record, named people and independent proof.
Make it easy to find in their language and in AI answers. Many of the longest BUY GREECE queries read like questions typed into an AI assistant. Pages that answer them directly get seen.
Frequently asked questions
Where do most foreign buyers of US homes come from?
Canada (16%), Mexico (14%), China (11%), India (9%) and the UK (4%), according to NAR's 2026 International Transactions report covering April 2025 to March 2026. Foreign buyers bought $45.3B of US existing homes in that period.
Do international buyers pay cash?
Often. 48% of foreign buyers of US homes made all-cash purchases, and their median price was $465,000, above the overall median of $413,600, according to NAR.
What do international property buyers search for?
Rules and returns before homes. On BUY GREECE, queries about investment returns, rental yields and short-term rental rules drew almost 50,000 search impressions in six months, against fewer than 2,500 for villas.
What is the Greece Golden Visa minimum investment?
Since September 1, 2024, €800,000 in Attica, the Thessaloniki area, Mykonos, Santorini and larger islands, €400,000 elsewhere, and €250,000 for qualifying conversions of non-residential property, under Law 5100/2024.
Sources
National Association of Realtors, Foreign buyers purchased $45.3 billion worth of U.S. homes from April 2025 to March 2026, and median price comparison.
Watson Farley & Williams, Understanding the new Golden Visa law no. 5100/2024.
Greek City Times, Greece real estate FDI decline in 2025, citing Bank of Greece data.
BUY GREECE Google Search Console, 27 March to 26 September 2026 (first-party data; BUY GREECE is Kirill Samarits' own venture).
Kirill Samarits is a real estate marketing executive and entrepreneur based in Chicago and Athens, Founder & CEO of TERAMOK and founder of BUY GREECE and FOS AI. More about Kirill · BUY GREECE