State Minister Akis Skertsos stresses in a post on social media that the government is not only implementing subsidy policies to address the housing issue, but for the past three years has been implementing a coherent strategy for more affordable housing, with a plethora of measures aimed at increasing the supply of property.

“Only in this way will we be able to deal more effectively with the pressure of high demand for long and short-term rentals in a market that has properties, but many of which remain closed and under-utilised due to age or poor maintenance. That is why a large part of the measures we are implementing and the resources we have available are going in exactly this direction,” he stressed.

The Minister of State outlined 10 policies for more affordable housing and increasing the number of homes available for purchase and rental, and specifically stated:

“1) the restriction of short-term rentals in saturated urban and tourist areas and stricter tax treatment of business short-term rentals.

2) Exempting owners who convert a short-term lease to a long-term lease from rental income tax for 3 years.

3)A tax exemption of up to 16,000 for landlords who perform energy renovation work on their homes.

4) The “renovate-rent” program for the renovation of old closed properties.

5) The 400 million euro interest-free bank loans through the recovery fund for the energy upgrading of old properties.

6) The de facto exemption of certain regions from the “golden visa” policy

7)encouraging investors to turn to old abandoned properties, industrial, business or residential with the aim of residential redevelopment.

8) The introduction of social consideration for co-development with private parties, aiming to use the large and idle real estate assets of the State for affordable housing.

9) The suspension of VAT on new housing construction

The My House 1 and 2 program subsidizes the purchase of old apartments for 30,000 beneficiaries and households.

10) the programme “Save – Renovate for young people”, with a budget of 300 million euro (200 million from the Recovery Fund and 100 million from national resources)”.

These are just a few of our policies aimed at increasing the supply of real estate and addressing the housing price, he pointed out, adding that these are also policies that require some time to bring results.

“That is why we are also implementing immediate relief measures such as the increase of the student housing allowance up to 2,500 euros and the new intervention for the return of one rent per year to almost 1 million beneficiaries,” he said.

At the same time, he noted that the government does not stop here and that in the immediate future, with the supervision of the competent ministry and the support of the government presidency and the General Secretariat for Coordination, “we will further intensify our efforts to address this major social issue.”

He said that on a special digital platform, citizens will have the opportunity to learn about all the affordable housing policies in place and which one fits their profile.

“We are setting up an inter-ministerial committee with all relevant ministries to better coordinate our policies.

We are setting up a housing policy observatory so that on a regular monthly basis we can monitor both the price trend in the market and the absorption of our programmes.

Finally, immediately after Easter, we are modifying the institution of social consideration with new incentives, to make it even more attractive for the utilization of vacant public real estate, “stressed Mr. Skertos and concluded:

“Affordable housing is a right, and for us it is in the top 5 priorities of the government along with economic growth, good and quality public health and education, and safe public transport.”