More Greek homeowners are buying insurance as the country grapples with increasingly severe wildfires, floods and other natural disasters, but the vast majority of residential properties remain uninsured, highlighting a significant protection gap in one of Europe's most climate - exposed countries.
The share of insured homes in Greece rose to 20.5% in 2025, up from 18.9% a year earlier, according to new data released by the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies. The number of residential insurance policies reached 1.36 million at the end of last year, an increase of 8.7% from 2024 and nearly 17% higher than in 2023.
The growth reflects a gradual shift in homeowner attitudes following a series of costly natural disasters that have underscored the financial risks of climate change. Successive years of devastating wildfires and floods have pushed property protection higher on the public agenda, while tax incentives introduced by the government have provided an additional boost to demand.
Even so, nearly four out of five homes across Greece remain uninsured, leaving a large portion of the country's housing stock vulnerable to losses from earthquakes, extreme weather and other hazards.
The strongest growth is occurring in policies that combine protection against earthquakes and weather-related damage. Such contracts increased by 27.8% in 2025 to 846,620 properties and now account for more than 70% of all building insurance policies, up from 62% a year earlier.
At the same time, demand for more limited coverage appears to be fading. Policies covering only earthquake risks have been declining steadily, while contracts focused exclusively on weather-related events also recorded a slight decrease. The trend suggests that homeowners are increasingly opting for broader insurance packages as awareness of multiple climate and seismic risks grows.
Building coverage remains the core of the market. Of the 1.36 million residential insurance contracts in force, roughly 1.18 million include protection for the structure itself, either on a standalone basis or alongside contents insurance. By contrast, policies covering only household contents continued to decline. Banks remain a major driver of insurance penetration. More than half of insured homes are linked to outstanding mortgages, reflecting lenders' requirements for borrowers to maintain coverage on pledged properties. Nearly 692,000 insured homes were associated with mortgage-backed loans in 2025, representing 58.4% of all policies covering residential buildings.
The figures suggest that while voluntary demand for insurance is growing, a significant portion of market expansion continues to be tied to bank financing rather than entirely homeowner-led decisions.
The market is also highly concentrated geographically. The Athens metropolitan region accounted for nearly 46% of all residential insurance policies nationwide and recorded the highest insurance penetration rate at 28.8%, well above the national average. Coverage rates remain significantly lower in several peripheral regions, including the North Aegean islands, Western Macedonia and Epirus.
