The roof was less accessible for Greeks between 2018-2021, as almost 1/3 of households spent more than 40% of the income to meet this basic need. This conclusion concludes a study published in the latest issue of the Bank of Greece Bank

As they point out in the study signed by Nikolaos Vettas, George Gatopoulos, Alexandros Loukas, Antonis Mavropoulos and Sotirios Saperas, the latest Eurostat data available for 2023 reveal that Greece is in the most difficult position among the European Member States.

Indicatively, in Greece, almost 1/3 of households in urban areas are recorded to spend more than 40% of its available income to cover housing costs, including utilities, rental loan payments and budget payments.

In conditions of rise in real estate prices and energy costs and high borrowing costs, housing costs are gradually increasing, making housing even less accessible to domestic households. At the same time, public spending on housing, as a percentage of GDP, is for 2022 of the lowest among Member States.

The combination of these circumstances highlights the importance of the issue of housing accessibility, as increased household expenses for housing have immediate social and economic influences.

On the one hand, Greek households are called upon to adapt their consumer standards, as housing demand is generally inelastic. On the other hand, the accumulation of wealth through savings is difficult, which has a direct effect on investment in the real economy and the financial system.

The percentage of households spending 40% or more of their available income to cover housing costs and therefore do not have access to affordable housing, according to the study is higher in urban areas than semi -rural and rural areas.

One main difference is the structure of households per rental status (privately owned or leased home), as tenants are more in urban areas than in semi -rural or rural areas.

At the regions level, but also for the two largest urban centers, the accommodation cost of housing costs higher fluctuations than the median spending rate for housing, suggesting that more difficult access to affordable housing can also affect income inequality.

Specifically, in areas such as the South Aegean, Epirus, Attica, Thessaloniki and Central Macedonia, the highest rates of households are observed without access to affordable housing. These results, in relation to the evolution of housing costs and the available income, suggest that the rise in energy costs and structural changes in household composition of rental status are one of the key factors that have contributed to the reduction of the two laps and the two laps.

The descriptive results of the study show that the issue of housing accessibility: (a) is related to the ownership status of the residence, which is highly fluctuated per region – based on the finding that in both rounds of survey about 60% of households who spend more than 40% of its income. More strongly the younger households, (c) is sharpened when the head of the household is unemployed and, finally, (d) is related to the marital status, as well as to the size of the household.