Two billion euros to solve the housing problem - Zacharakis

The main lines of the government's plan to tackle the acute housing problem were presented by the Minister of Social Solidarity and Family, Sofia Zaharaki. Speaking at the 24th Prodexpo conference, Ms. Zaharaki noted that €2.2 billion will be allocated for housing policy. "The major projects are social support and energy efficient renovation programs," stressed the Minister of Social Solidarity and Family during the discussion moderated by Ella Kakoullou, Executive Director of Real Estate at the Bank of Greece and the National Bank of Greece Group. As Ms. Zaharaki explained, through the social support program, public real estate will be used on which public housing will be built. Similarly, through the energy efficient renovation program, incentives will be offered to owners of closed apartments to open them up and put them up for sale. Ms. Zaharaki noted that the My Home program has generated a great response among young couples who have rushed to take advantage of it, applying to banks and getting loans in a very short period of time. "Already since the summer, 848 loans have been disbursed, 1,523 applications are under contract and another 9,532 are included in the program," Ms. Zaharaki said. She also announced that the budget for the housing and employment program for the homeless and vulnerable groups has increased by 5 million euros, and the Coverage program for 1,000 apartments is underway, involving 44 municipalities.

Elias Nikolaidis, Senior Editor of DiaNEOsis, describing the situation in our country, noted that 35% of the average family income goes to housing needs, and for vulnerable families this exceeds 40%, and in large cities every third family spends more than 40% of its income.

According to Mr. Nicolaidis, each country must find its own model to solve the housing problem, also taking into account climate change, which puts limits on building stock. "We are the country with the highest amount of real estate per capita in the OECD. We need to use existing real estate, empty houses," emphasized the senior editor of DiaNEOsis. To do this we need, he said, much more data on all regions, on land use, on prices, and also the minimal amount of registered property of municipalities creates obstacles to the implementation of many policies.

Phil Jenkins, Partner at Centrus, began his speech by talking about the cost of living crisis in Europe, which has hit low incomes hardest, increasing the need for social housing while the supply in the real estate market is declining. In the UK, he said, €100 billion has been allocated to social housing through the Public Private Sector Alliance (PPSA), while the Netherlands and France represent successful examples of using private investment to tackle the problem.

Mr. Jenkins noted that the role of the public sector is to create a framework in which private investment will be invested with low returns but stability. Determine who can invest in social housing and who will maintain those properties. In addition to the HMIS, housing can also be addressed through the state and municipalities by providing social housing. As for the possibilities of our country, Centrus' partner stated that it has the opportunity to start from scratch and create a model based on the best practices in Europe. For this purpose, the government needs to address the issue of spatial planning and urban development, as well as to establish rules for the formation of a mixture of capital and subsidies.