Creative Commons

This study has been conducted in the shadow of the Greece financial crisis. The extremely adverse market circumstances leads to the “dispersal” of the Greek real-estate industry; an industry which contributes to 5% of national GDP. In the shadow of the turbulent economic environment and the collapsed Greek real-estate market, expansion in foreign emerging markets stands as a need/priority; foreign markets that present a sound economic environment and significant real-estate business opportunities. The examples of Greek real-estate development companies who are expanding abroad are very limited, with the majority of them focusing mainly on Greece and a few Balkan countries. Through the combination of the study of the focal firm‟s business activities (which consist of the actual operating in Turkey and the opening of two sales-offices in Munich and in Moscow respectively) with the theoretical framework, this study tries to show off the potential benefits of an expansion attempt into foreign prosperous markets. The findings show that real-estate developers would benefit from the establishment of strong distribution channels and powerful business networks both based on the principles of trust, commitment and co-operation and the formulation of an integrated marketing strategy which places customers‟ needs as a priority. The Greek state could contribute to this attempt by creating a stable economic climate, simplifying the real-estate legislation and encouraging Greek universities to create real-estate Master‟s programmes. Finally, this internationalization attempt would be too limited without the continuous product improvement. Therefore, this study shows the significant advantages for real-estate developers of the implementation of environmentally friendly building methods and –for first time in Greece- the establishment of an integrated after-sales services policy.