Alarmed by sharply rising rents and home prices driven by shortages of housing, partly caused by rich foreigners buying multiple properties and turning them into short-term rentals, the Greek government is looking at trying to put abandoned or unused units back on the market.
Finance Ministry data shows more than 650,000 properties in Greece are unoccupied, including some 150,000 in Attica, including Athens, as well as Thessaloniki, the second-largest city.
Most of the vacant properties are second or holidays homes that haven’t been used in years or are abandoned and Kathimerini said planned measures would let tens of thousands of closed properties with outstanding planning concerns held by non-performing loan management businesses to come onto the market
The government last year raised the minimum investment to get a Golden Visa that comes with a 5-year residency permit and valuable European Union passport to at least 500,000 euros ($537,490) in property investment in popular areas.
It remains 250,000 euros ($268,745) for less popular areas but the government said it’s considering doubling that as well with the investors speculating in property in spots that could become more attractive.
There’s a problem with properties bought at auctions that could be cleared for sale only with bureaucratic difficulty, as well as those taken over by banks and property management businesses.