The Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government may have promised to scrap the controversial joint property tax (ENFIA), but it is now backtracking on its plans. Not only is it going to keep the crushing land tax in tact, but it will be extended to include real estate property owned by Greek citizens outside Greece. Alternate Finance Minister Tryfon Alexiadis told the Prodexpo property development conference in Athens that ENFIA will soon branch out to include properties that Greeks own abroad in an effort to raise the money required by Greece’s bailout deal with its international creditors (EC, ECB, IMF, ESM).

There are assurances that the government will take into account the taxes already being paid by home owners in the countries where the property is located. There are currently 3,200 plots of real estate owned by Greeks in London being eyed by the Greek government, and SYRIZA officials believe it would be a “mistake” for Greeks to pay ENFIA tax for land in Greece while owners of property abroad get let off.

Closer to home, the ENFIA rates will not be lowered as promised, but calculated according to the erroneous values that applied in 2007.

Reasoning for SYRIZA’s U-turn on ENFIA is the fact that the the third memorandum (bailout) for Greece requires state coffers to be lined with at least the same amounts that had been squeezed from ENFIA in the previous year. This means that the government will not reduce land values so that they realistically reflect the actual market prices until at least the end of 2016.

Alexiadis argues that similar ENFIA-styled tax legislation is currently in place in Italy.