CLOSE your eyes and think of Greece. Undoubtedly you imagine idyllic islands bathed in sunshine. The Olympics. And maybe olives. Or yoghurt. Traditionally, Greece has been summer holiday country, not second-home territory. It lags far behind France, Spain and Florida.

“We’re trying to change that,” says Isabella Gilmartin. She’s trying very hard indeed. With Mark Potiriadis, her developer-architect husband, she is adding the finishing touches to Kilada Hills, an exciting residential development near Athens. Perfectly poised on a gently sloping hillside, the scheme looks out from the Greek mainland across the Aegean sea. The area is well known to wealthy Athenians, who have been coming here for years. Roads upgraded for the Olympics mean the journey now takes just two hours in a fast car. Unsurprisingly, for a nation made of islands, a ferry is the most common way to get around. This is why Kilada Hills has a helipad.

It may be on the mainland, but in terms of design and price Kilada Hills is an island. The development has 11 properties, including the one owned by Gilmartin and Potiriadis. The cheapest is £1.8 million. Not so long ago you could buy your own Greek island for that. The most expensive is £5.5 million, already sold to an English family who will live there half the year.

Ms Gilmartin, marketing director of Ergotex, the company behind the development, says: “Buyers have not had a problem with the prices. At this level they are more interested in security, privacy and good design and build.” The absence of a local airport is seen as a plus because it keeps hoi polloi at bay. Ms Gilmartin adds: “The development will be gated , but we will not have a fancy road because that would attract sightseers.”

Kilada Hills occupies a stunning spot. Gilmartin and Potiriadis stumbled upon it when looking for a secluded site to build a home after more than 20 years in London. Unusually for Greece, the land was available as one parcel rather than several small lots owned by different parties. However, it was too expensive, so they turned it into a business venture.

Inland, an unexpectedly green landscape unfolds. “The mainland is not as dry as the islands,” says Gilmartin. Cypress trees punctuate open fields like great green exclamation marks. Wild pink cyclamen sprout beneath ancient olive trees heavy with fruit. Whichever way you look, the view is postcard-perfect. For now.

The landscape behind Kilada Hills is set to change dramatically, from countryside to golf course. “It will be a Greek-style golf course,” says Gilmartin. “We’re keeping as many of the trees as we can.” A further 250 properties (small houses and apartments cost about £300,000) will cluster around the 18-hole course. It seems you can’t have millionaires without golf.

Kilada Hills offers “contemporary rural” living — two words that don’t sit well together. But somehow it works. Each villa is basically a block or series of blocks spliced together. Every window is as big as it can be so none of the views are lost. Access to the many terraces has been maximised. Yet none of the properties overlooks another. And each has its own infinity pool. There are no central facilities, so maintenance costs are manageable.

One of the key selling points of Kilada Hills is that you can have it any way you want it. The rooms and walls can be configured then decorated to suit. Neff, Gaggenau, Starck, Alessi and B&B Italia are all available. Expensively tasteful. You want a library, a home cinema or staff quarters, you’ve got it. The same goes outside.

“Obviously if someone wants a purple house with pink spots we would have to talk about it,” says Ms Gilmartin. Her house is likely to be a tasteful pale blue. Kilada Hills is expensive, exclusive and sleek. And, architecturally, a little bit Greek. Otherwise, it’s so luxuriously anonymous it could be almost anywhere.

What is important to prospective buyers is that it is out of the way. And out of the reach of most people. Especially the Shirley Valentines.

For details, contact Pure International Ltd, 020-7331 4500, www.pureintl.com

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