MyCoast app: A data analysis of leasing agreements for beaches in Greece

A statistical analysis of 9,170 beach and shoreline concessions, as presented in the application, through which citizens can check whether the concession terms are met on the beaches they visit and submit a report.

2 April 2023: A news story reveals that a business has built a fence on Panormos beach in Mykonos, preventing free access to the seashore. In response to this case, the Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court issued a circular, asking prosecutors to be particularly strict in cases of “appropriation” of beaches by businesses or residences.

July 1, 2023: The image of a waiter, chest-deep in water, serving customers lying in the sea on unauthorized structures, is causing a stir across the country.

July 20, 2023: A group of friends goes swimming at Ammolofoi beach in Nea Peramos. Employees of a business that has swamped the beach with umbrellas asked them to leave if they were not sitting on the sun loungers.

July 23, 2023: Three hundred citizens protest on the Santa Maria beach in Paros. They spread out their towels in front of sun loungers set up by a beach bar. The media dubbed the initiative, organized by the Citizens’ Movement for Free Beaches of Paros, the “Beach Towel Revolt”.

TThe summer of 2023 was pivotal in exposing a chronic system of illegalities on Greek beaches. Under the weight of the reactions to the beach encroachments, on March 4, 2024 was passed the Law no. 5092/2024, entitled “Conditions for the use of public property in coastal areas.” The main changes concern the demarcation of the seashore, the transparency of concession tenders through a centralized electronic procedure, the use of technology for legality checks and stricter penalties.

Part of the effort to bring order to the seafront was the development of an application that citizens can download on their cell phones to view a map of the area granted, the purpose of the use (e.g., for umbrellas and sun loungers) and the concession agreement from Diavgeia, a platform that publishes all public documents. Through the same application, users can submit a report to the competent authorities, if they find that the terms of the concession contract for that part of the seashore have been violated.

The iMEdD data analysis team has collected publicly available data of MyCoast app for 9,170 coastal concessions throughout Greece. The information we collected includes, among others, the coordinates, the purpose of use and the extent of each concession. At the same time, we analyzed 3,957 contracts in order to derive the financial consideration for each lease.

Today, we publish this public data, free for use by the journalistic and academic community. Our ambition is that their further analysis will contribute evidence to the public debate, not only on the economic use of public property, but especially on the need to establish a framework for the protection of the seashore, a fragile ecosystem under pressure from both human activities and the climate crisis.

Six out of ten concessions are for the installation of umbrellas and sun loungers

MyCoast app lists 9,170 concessions for the placement of tables and chairs, umbrellas and sun loungers, food trucks, water recreation facilities, etc.

As for the uses of the concessions we examined, it is estimated that 60.36% is for Umbrellas and sun loungers, 8.09% is for Tables and chairs, 5.95% is for Water Sports and 3.75% is for Food trucks, while the rest of the uses are mixed.

Four out of ten leases not posted to the application

Despite the fact that MyCoast app features a special field where the leases are supposed to be posted, 43.0% of the records have not been posted. In particular, not enough contracts have been posted for statistical analysis on key islands that were at the forefront of the 2023 wave of protests for free access to beaches.

When we asked the Ministry of Economy and Finance, they replied: “The Land Services have posted almost all the concession agreements for simple use of the seashore and beaches. Since the coastal concessions are managed by both the Hellenic Public Properties Co. (HPPC) and the Port Funds, great efforts are made to ensure their immediate posting in the application.”

In reality, no concession contract has been posted for the Municipality of Paros. For the Municipality of Mykonos, contracts have been posted for only 5% of the concessions, while for Thira only 2%. In the municipal unit of South Rhodes, 13 concessions have been listed but only 1 contract has been posted, while in Patmos, no contracts have been posted out of 34 concessions. This means that our analysis does not include municipalities for which we have a sample of less than 20% of leases. The analysis of the financial consideration of the concessions does not include most of the islands of the Cyclades, the Dodecanese and other major tourist destinations.

Of the 9,170 concessions, we analyzed 3,957 contracts posted on MyCoast app, corresponding to 4,733 leases (a contract may describe more than one concession), in order to gather more information, such as the consideration for each concession. Of the 3,957 contracts, we were able to determine the annual rent to be paid by each lessee in 4,075 cases, or 86.0% of the leases for which contracts were posted.

According to the sample we examined (3,844 listings), the highest average lease price is estimated in the prefecture of Chalkidiki at 56 euros per square meter, regardless of the use of the concession. This is followed by the prefectures of Ioannina, Piraeus and Corfu with 43, 37 and 36 euros per square meter respectively. However, it is worth noting that in Mykonos (which we excluded from the analysis because the available sample was less than 20%, so the analysis would probably not be representative of reality), the majority of the contracts we read indicated a cost of 120 euros per square meter.

As for the cost per square meter, per use, we estimate that the average lease price for Food trucks is estimated at €346.16/sq.m. per year, for Water Sports €123.85/sq.m., for Tables and chairs €30.29/sq.m. and for Umbrellas and sun loungers €21.71/sq.m. per year.

The calculation of the price of the first beach-seashore bid

One of the important changes that the new law on leasing parts of the seashore promises to bring is an increase in the price of leases. The consideration for the initial bid in the electronic auction, based on the Ministerial Decision no. 60314 EX 2024 (Government Gazette B’2516/26-4-2024) is calculated based on the following mathematical formula: “objective value of adjacent property X Seashore Weighting Factor X Activity Weighting Factor X years of concession X 3%.” For the concessions granted to businesses adjacent to the seashore, the initial offer price is increased by 20%.

The objective value of the adjacent property is calculated as follows:

Zoning price of the plot with the adjacent building per square meter X the area of the concession land in square meters.

The seashore weighting factor is defined as follows:

• For shorelines and beaches located on the islands of Mykonos and Paros: 0.60.
• For shorelines and beaches located on the islands of Crete, Rhodes, and Corfu: 0.35.
• For all other shorelines and beaches: 0.25.

The activity weighting factors are defined as follows:

• Umbrellas and sun loungers setting: 1
• Operation of mobile food trucks, tables and seats setting: 2
• Exploitation for marine recreation: 3
• Nautical clubs (exclusively for the pursuit of their activities): 0,1.

Until December 31, 2025, a smoothing factor will be applied to this formula, which will compare the result of the above mathematical formula with the maximum consideration obtained for the concession of the same part of the seashore and beach after January 1, 2017. If the result of the first bid (from the formula) is less than the maximum consideration, it will be equalized and, in any case, the starting price will not be less than the maximum consideration plus 15% for concessions by tender and 25% for concessions to adjacent businesses. 

The sunbed – umbrella set is estimated to cost a businessman in Mykonos 2.500€

To confirm whether leases will actually increase under the new law, we analyzed the 2024 beach auction data as shown at https://eauctions.gsis.gr/. There we have traced 1,916 concessions, of which 143 are canceled and the rest are marked as “closed”. A closed auction is an auction in which participants submit bids that are not visible to other bidders.

From this database we only considered the cost per square meter, per year of the first bid. This means that we do not know what the hammer price will be, but we have been able to find concessions in the Cyclades and the Dodecanese to include in our analysis.

The analysis shows that the average first bid prices are higher in the Cyclades where the average price per square meter for umbrella seats is €50. In particular, in Mykonos it is estimated at €106/sq.m. (maximum price in the data €120/sq.m.), while in Paros at €44/sq.m. In the Dodecanese it is €34/sq.m., while in Rhodes it is €39/sq.m. (maximum price in the data is €158/sq.m.) and €229/sq.m. for a food truck.

For a businessman in Mykonos, a set of umbrellas and two sunbeds occupying 5 sqm will cost a minimum of €530 per set for one year (starting price), with a maximum price of €600. In Paros, the cost is €220, and in Rhodes, it is €195 per set.

We have asked the Ministry of Economy and Finance to provide us with a complete dataset that includes both the initial bid price and the highest bidder’s price. The response was negative, stating that “a complete set of data cannot be provided. It will be published by us at the appropriate time,” without, however, clarifying what the appropriate time will be.

However, on July 30, 2024, the Ministry of Economy and Finance selectively released data on concession tenders conducted under the new system, including the initial bid and the hammer price. Among them, we found a tender for a beach lease in the area of Lia in Mykonos, which we managed to identify in our database. This is a lease of 300 square meters for the purpose of placing umbrellas and sun loungers. The first bid price, based on the above formula, was calculated at €36,000 per year, or €120/sq.m., which is in the same range of the five leases –signed under the previous regime– whose contracts we examined. In the end, however, the bidder’s price was €146,160 per year, or €487.2/sq. m. This means that each set of sunbeds will cost a business €2,436. In Spetses, in the area of Vrellos, the first bid price for 300 sq.m. was estimated at €40/sq.m., while it was awarded at €130/sq.m.

In a sample of 3,950 leases we examined from MyCoast data, of which we estimate that 1,473 were granted after the new law was enacted and 2,477 were granted before, the median percentage increase in the price per square meter of leases granted under the new regime is estimated to be 18%. Specifically, the largest increase is found in mixed leases for the installation of umbrellas and sun loungers, and water sports areas (47.7% –from €22/sq.m. to €32/sq.m.), umbrellas and sun loungers, and food trucks (47.2% –from €16.7/sq.m. to €24.6/sq.m.), food trucks (32% from €327.3/sq.m. to €432.5/sq.m.). We estimate that in the popular islands of the Cyclades, the Saronic Gulf and the Dodecanese, the increases will be many times higher in all categories of use.

Focus on the economy but not the environment

And while the government’s legislative initiative appears to be a serious attempt to address decades of illegality on Greek beaches, environmental organizations say it falls short on one crucial factor: “…it does not introduce a reform for the effective protection and management of the shoreline, this important ecosystem that is under pressure from the climate crisis, and it lacks provisions related to adaptation to climate change (e.g. there is no mention of other natural or man-made hazards that threaten the coastal and riparian zones, flood risks, etc.),” note in a statement eight environmental organizations, including WWF, Greenpeace and others.

The criticism focuses, among other things, on the repeal of the provision of Law no. 2971/2001 that defines the State’s responsibility for the protection and management of public spaces and their ecosystems. Also, in defining the beach, the minimum building distance of 30 meters from the shoreline is abolished, while the maximum limit of 50 meters is maintained. It also ignores the Protocol on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) of the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea Against Pollution, which establishes “a zone where construction is not allowed” which “may not be less than 100 meters.” Finally, the law creates a category it calls “untouchable beaches”.

In April 2024, a joint ministerial decision by the Minister of Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis, and the Minister of Environment and Energy Theodore Skylakakis, finalized the list of 198 “Untouchable Beaches” within the Natura 2000 network, while 40 more were proposed in June of the same year. On these beaches, the granting of concessions for simple use of the seashore and the beach is prohibited, as well as any other action that may jeopardize their morphology and their integrity in terms of their ecological functions.

By mapping each concession from our database in conjunction with the published map of Natura sites (their demarcation has not yet been completed), as published on geodata.gov.gr, we identified 1,918 concessions on beaches that fall within the Natura 2000 network. On these beaches, the placement of umbrellas and sun loungers is prohibited to exceed 30% of their area, compared to 50% on other, non-designated, beaches. Environmental organizations warn that the protection of these zones is inadequate and that the new law does not really protect the beaches, but restricts the activities allowed on them.

May 6, 2024. Two months after the adoption of the new law, at the protected beach of Plaka in Naxos, which is in a Natura 2000 area, a tractor with a special attachment was sweeping the sandy beach, despite the fact that motorized cleaning is prohibited by law in a Natura area. A news story of the time even notes: “But what is even more worrying for the residents is that this type of work is carried out on other beaches on the island as well, without anyone knowing for whom or on whose behalf the savage tractors are working.”

August 1, 2024. The Kathimerini newspaper reports that “an amendment to a draft law by the Ministry of Economy and Financeallows municipalities to legalize illegal constructions (e.g. piers, landfills) in order to lease them to cafeterias and taverns right by the sea.”

Translation: Evita Lykou

Also read:

Explainer: what changes for the seashore with the new law

Last summer’s legacy

Law 5092/2024

Digital Paros Lab