Ancient Agora Square, 2021

During the 1990s, the mass movement of populations from former socialist countries to Greece was becoming increasingly felt around Ancient Agora Square. Even as early as the beginning of the 1990s, mini markets were cropping up in the area selling products associated with the countries from which the migrants originated and groups of mostly Russian-speaking men were meeting at the square and on nearby streets. Rents around the area remained low, resulting in the settlement of a significant number of newly-arrived migrants on the west side of Ancient Agora Square, in the area around the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace and up to Agion Apostolon Square. Migrants from the former USSR also settled on the west side of the city centre, particularly in the area of Nikopoli. In general, a clear shift in the demographic composition of the areas on the western outskirts of the city centre started taking shape after 1990. By that point, residences built during the first stage of urbanisation, the era of Thessaloniki’s construction boom, had commonly been considered old both by owners and prospective tenants. When the original tenants started moving away from these areas towards either the centre or the suburbs, rent prices in the area decreased.

However, housing trends in the area changed after 2010, when society started experiencing the effects of the economic crisis in Greece after the signing of the IMF Memorandum. Due to the sharp rise in unemployment, in conjunction with drastic wage cuts for a large portion of the local society, tenants of Greek origins started returning to the area around Dioikitirio and the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace.

The food stores catering to migrants and the small restaurants offering Pontian or Russian cuisine remain in the area, even though tenants of former USSR and Balkan origins have had to move a few blocks further to the west of Ancient Agora Square.

Since 2010, the area surrounding Ancient Agora Square has been a popular meeting point attracting younger people. This development is partly due to the emergence and fast expansion of short-term rentals through platforms such as Airbnb. Consequently, rents have been rising dramatically throughout Thessaloniki’s historic centre, even in the area around Ancient Agora Square which had been constantly underpriced during the previous two decades. Initially, the only spaces not in demand were the small, ground-level stores, which are mostly located in narrow alleys with limited commercial traffic on the northern part of the Venizelos area, or on Ptolemaion Street, where retail and wholesale clothes stores have been closing down in great numbers for the best part of the past two decades.

However, shortly after the refugee crisis of 2015 and especially from 2018 onwards, these stores found new tenants, as a significant number of young men from Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maghreb settled in the area of Vardaris, around the Train Station, rebuilding their lives on the western outskirts of the city centre. The small stores, which had been abandoned due to reduced foot traffic in the area, are becoming electronics shops, barber shops catering mainly to customers of Asian origins, and small cafés or restaurants offering Arabic and Asian cuisine.