Of Chrysostom Chufi

If the available items available are accurate (700,000 closed houses in Greece are closed according to ELSTAT out of a total of 3.95 million total houses according to Eurostat), then 18% of homes in our country are closed. If we focus on Attica where according to the E-Real Estates network 526,000 have been declared as gaps, this means that 1 in 4 houses are closed. Shocking image that obliges the Minister of Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis to speak of the need for a shock of offer. According to experts, the percentage of vacancies should not exceed 5-7% of the total.

And because the issue cannot be resolved directly or only by the construction of new buildings – especially when this building activity is reduced – they are looking for ways to immediately fall on the market as much as possible from empty houses. A few initiatives have already been taken that are not enough and lastly two words are heard by many words: Inactivity tax or otherwise Closed property tax.

An end that will make it not advantageous to maintain a property as a disincentive to the owner to keep his property out of the market.

An idea that is not a product of virginity but the Greek government wants to follow the example of several countries worldwide that have applied the measure and some of them with very good results.

FRANCE

Since 1999, when the measure was applied for the first time, empty houses have fallen in France by 13% according to the OECD.

Anyone who maintains his property for more than 1 year in an area with more than 50,000 residents and significant inequality in supply and demand is then charged with a 17% tax on rental value for the first year. The tax is doubled at 34% for the second year. If the owner has more than one property closed, he pays the tax for each of them.

AUSTRIA

In Austria, the famous Leerstandsabgabe is applied to 4 states, that is, the vacancy tax, which is monthly, is calculated according to the surface and varies with the area:

  • Styria: 10 €/sqm
  • Salzburg: 10-20 €/sqm. depending on the aging
  • Tyrol: 10-25 €/sqm depending on location
  • Forerlberg: 8.25-18.5 €/sqm. Depending on the percentage of vacancies

IRELAND

It began to apply in 2023 and is annual. It is paid every November 1st by the property owners who provided their property for less than 1 month in the previous 12 months.

In 2024 the fine was 5 times the “Irish ENFIA”. This year it will go up to 7 times.
Increases are imposed for payment delays.

PORTUGAL

In the country the law of compulsory rental has been imposed in cases where a property remains unused for more than 2 years

DANIA – Amsterdam Dutch

In Denmark, the property owner who is left vacant for more than 6 weeks has to declare it in a special register and the municipality then undertakes to find a tenant.
The same obligation is in Amsterdam for real estate that is left for more than 6 months.

Slovenian

A 1.45% tax is planned on the value of the property for all secondary residences. If a secondary residence is rented, then the rent is offset by tax. The short -term lease is excluded.

UNITED KINGDOM

Since 2013, municipalities have been given the right to increase the local real estate tax for empty houses.

Jerusalem – Israel

Here in the real estate that is left for more than 6 months Arnona, the Israeli, is doubled.

CANADA

In Canada by 2022, the so -called incomplete use tax of the property for houses remaining more than 6 months is applied. The tax is annual, 1-5% of the value of the property according to the state.

Some American cities such as Washingo or Harrisburg of Pennsylvania, South Korean Seoul, Colombia’s Bogota and Marikina also impose inaction tax in the Philippines.

SPAIN

In Spain, Pedro Sanchez has decided something more drastic and is planning a 100% tax on non -Europeans’ homes who will use them as cottages. According to the Spanish prime minister alone, in 2023, it was 27,000 such sales.