The New Democracy party of Prime Minister Costa Karamanlis won 41.9 per cent of the vote after Karamanlis called elections six months before the end of his term in office.

George Papandreou's socialist Pasok party won only 38.1 per cent of the vote despite the opportunity he had to capitalise on criticism of the governments' response to this summer's forest fires which killed 65 people.

On the matter, Karamanlis said that he felt "doubly responsible to be more effective and avoid mistakes."

The PM has pledged to use his new four year term to improve Greece's economy and fight poverty by creating a stable economic and legislative framework.

"This change in attitude has been a catalyst for the development of the Greek property market and it appears that the Greek government now seem to understand that they can boost the economy through the active promotion of the property market internationally," said Irini Tzortzoglou, Head of Retail Banking at Piraeus Bank.

She continues: "Recent changes in legislation have helped attract a greater number of Greek and foreign property buyers and have encouraged the development of up-market resorts as well as a number of large scale residential projects."

Greece's economy has been growing by around 4 per cent per annum since 2002. In a report on the Greece published in May the Organization or Economic Cooperation and Development said: "High growth has been driven by a range of factors, some of which are transitory. It is particularly encouraging that growth has been sustained over the last two years, despite substantial fiscal consolidation, mainly being driven by investment and exports."

This economic growth and increased investment spells good news for the Greek property market.

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Article first published 24 September 2007