New Government Strategy for Real Estate: Boosting Housing Supply, Transparency in Rentals, and Public Property Utilization

In an effort to support housing policy and increase supply, the government has initiated a new framework for the real estate market. Interventions in real estate, announced by Kostis Hatzidakis and Kyriakos Pierakkakis, include tax incentives for utilizing public property, targeting both property owners and potential buyers or renters. The deputy prime minister presented five intervention packages and a series of proposals to strengthen the real estate market, encompassing completed measures and those planned. Hatzidakis emphasized that the government has already reduced property taxes with various exemptions. Programs like ‘Save,’ ‘Renovate-Rent,’ and ‘Upgrade My Home’ are active, alongside the establishment of Social Counterpart benefits focusing on public property utilization. Further interventions aim to sell non-social housing units to accelerate investment recovery, allow renovations of existing buildings, create a central authority for managing social housing with an electronic registry, improve regulatory frameworks, and coordinate relevant ministries. Additional plans include extending tax relief for renovating properties, avoiding objective value increases, mandatory rental payments through banks for transparency, and addressing unreported rentals. Tax bracket changes for income from properties are also under consideration, potentially introducing intermediate rates for long-term rentals while maintaining current brackets for short-term rentals.