Few tourists stop here.

Completed recently, a new stretch of coastal highway now passes invisibly through two sections of tunnel. The older highway has been torn up, and flood prevention works are being built to manage the two rivers that meet the sea here. Once they are complete, the 50-acre seaside park will be created, allowing unfettered pedestrian access to a revitalized waterfront.

Image Chrysanthos Panas, the entrepreneur who runs the Island complex, was one of the first to promote the “Athens Riviera” concept abroad. Credit... Myrto Papadopoulos for The New York Times

Even before the Faliro Bay project broke ground, demand for homes on Athens’s southern coast — a roughly 15-mile stretch between Piraeus and the southeastern suburbs of Vouliagmeni and Varkiza — was on the rise. Savills Greece, a real estate agency, said in a statement that prices for homes in the coastal areas nearest the center (such as Alimos and Faliro) are between €280 and €370 per square foot, up 30 percent since 2014.

This price increase has been driven to a large extent by foreign buyers seeking first and second homes that combine sea views with the benefits of living in the capital. Many also aim to make use of Greece’s Golden Visa program, through which a five-year renewable visa can be secured by spending €250,000 or more on a property. But institutional buyers are also circling, searching for investment opportunities.

George Eliades, a managing partner of Algean Property, a real estate company that caters largely to international buyers, said the market had matured since prices hit bottom around 2012.

“Big names are now swimming in our waters,” he said. “It’s no longer the first flipper, the quick trader. They are more serious. And the flippers are now selling their properties, and they are being bought by long-term buyers.”

For many, this attention has been a long time coming, with the so-called Athens Riviera taking its place alongside the city’s famous monuments as among its key assets.

The name Athens Riviera itself reflects a shift in mentality. Traditionally among city’s residents, the shoreline has simply been referred to as the “coastal area,” one associated with hodgepodge development driven by narrow local interests.