By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

The Ministry of Finance remains unmoved in the face of pressure from the real estate market for changes to the three-year tax exemption measure for those who open their closed apartments and put them on the market for long-term lease, as announced by the Prime Minister and specified by the leadership of the ministry.

In the announcement of Panhellenic Federation of Property Owners he speaks of unnecessary cuts that will deprive the dynamics of an arrangement which he characterizes as historical. At the Ministry of Finance, however, they do not believe that the measure will drastically change the image of the market, but they see it as one of a series of interventions. It is typical that in the three-year period 2020-2022 the closed properties were approximately 600,000. Of these, 7,000 were leased in 2023, i.e. 1.2%. According to the Ministry of Finance, the goal is to increase as much as possible this 1.2%

The P.OM.I.D.A proposes to consider closed the properties that were not rented from 1/1/2023 to 8/9/2024, which is also the date the measure comes into effect. The federation believes that 20 months is a sufficient period and can easily be established. Three years is a period that can exclude many houses from the market, especially the newest ones.

WHAT WILL APPLY: Houses that have been closed during the last three years will be considered vacant. The owners have until 12/31/2025, roughly 15 months to put them on the market and be exempt from income tax.

Even for the properties available for short-term lease, the three-year period, estimates P.OM.I.D.A. , she is very strict. They suggest that it applies to what they had Real Estate Registry Number on 31/12/2023 or even on the eve of the Prime Minister’s announcements at the TIF, September 6. This is because those who would immediately like to leave the short-term lease are excluded. With this term, they emphasize that already renovated houses that do not need additional interventions are being lost from the market (while an already closed apartment will need a “facelift” before it goes on the market).

WHAT WILL APPLY: The three-year rule will also apply to apartments available for short-term rental in the last 3 years.

The owners propose a general application of the measure in terms of ownership. In other words, legal entities should not be excluded. At least they support not to exclude non-profit legal entities, such as all kinds of charitable, church and other institutions, endowments, hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, asylums, universities, associations, municipalities which are owners of thousands of unused properties.

WHAT WILL APPLY: The measure concerns exclusively the properties of natural persons. “We are not here to subsidize funds and servicers” Kostis Hatzidakis has made it clear in all tones

The validity of the new measure means that – at least for the time being – the constant request of property owners to reduce the rates on the tax scale of income from rentals that reach up to 45% is also rejected.