Greece's housing problem: What's happening to abandoned properties - more than 200,000 homes are missing.

The government will focus on accounting for foreclosed properties to find the best solutions. The housing problem in the country has been put on the agenda, but the solution is not obvious and cannot be found soon. The lack of more than 210,000 properties to meet the needs of all is a first step, but at the moment there is not enough information.

The big question is, who owns the foreclosed properties and why aren't they coming back on the market?

A simple plan presented by the Prime Minister in Tiktok showed that the demand for buying or renting real estate exceeds the supply. This is due to the fact that no new houses have been built for 12 years, existing houses are aging and not being renovated, and lost due to debts, etc. On the other hand, there may be a need on the demand side, but rising real estate prices are rising faster than rising incomes - and thus rents - putting the dream of homeownership further away. At this point, the government is not taking concrete action. In the near future, efforts will focus on accounting for foreclosed properties to find the best solutions. For example, it is estimated that more than 20,000 foreclosed homes ended up with banks. They are mostly owned by owners who have not been able to repay their loans. There is a need to find a way to utilize these properties by looking into why they remain off the market. The ownership of the properties is unclear, whether the properties that need repairs have suffered, whether there are irregularities in urban planning, etc.

The banking sector has an important role to play in solving the housing problem, not just through lending. How many of the closed properties remain in this condition due to lack of funds for repairs?

The Ministry of Finance is waiting for a reaction to a new regulation that provides for a tax credit of 16,000 euros for 5 years for real estate renovations. This provision existed but was practically not used, firstly because the costs of materials were not taken into account, and secondly, the benefit was smaller. The measures will be tested in practice, similar to the response to the "renovate - rent" program, which provides compensation of 4,000 euros for renovation works costing 10,000 euros. However, does property taxation play a crucial role? A proposal by POMIDA (Union of Property Owners) for an income tax exemption is on the table, but the Ministry of Finance is not convinced of the need to implement a measure which, although it increases rental income and encourages renovations, creates a two-speed market. However, the question of whether the measure will be adopted or not must be answered immediately, as real estate remains artificially out of the market.

The lack of real estate offers in Greece is also due to the complete absence of the institution of social housing. This will be tried to be solved by activating the institution of social sharing, a measure that will be beneficial as it will allow the use of unrealized public assets. Regarding the short-term rental regime and the golden visa, the government wants to assess the impact of the introduction of additional measures. Both measures have already brought significant benefits to the Greek economy. Short-term leases already generate tax revenues as they are more strictly controlled through digital platforms, while the golden visa adds hundreds of millions of euros in foreign direct investment every year.