The creation of a Single Real Estate Listing System (Multiple Listing Service – MLS) to enhance transparency, limit duplicate and false listings, speed up transactions and shape a truly functional and reliable real estate market, proposed Prosperty, a technology, data and real estate services company, at the Prodexpo conference 2025, where he presented the latest data on the supply and demand of real estate in Greece.

The survey, presented by the company’s CEO and founder Antonis Markopoulos, captures key market challenges, from aging inventory and wide price discrepancies to a lack of institutional investors and available land, outlining the current state of the housing issue.

As Mr. Markopoulos mentioned, there are four main axes concerning the supply of real estate, highlighting the critical problems and prospects of the market.

1. Aging stock, with a large proportion of old and unrenovated housing. 60% and more of the houses are more than 30 years old and only 10% of the old properties are renovated today.

2. Mismatch between prices and quality, with irrational pricing that does not reflect the quality of the properties. Official figures show huge differences in asking prices and contract values. The average asking price across the country stands at €2,583/sq.m., when the average transfer value is just €1,329/sq.m., proving that listings often do not reflect the real market.

3. Absence of institutional investors in residential real estate, with the result that many apartments remain closed and unused. There is no developed market of institutional managers and funds that will place residential properties on the market (Residential Build-to-Rent Funds, Single-Family Rental (SFR) Funds, or Private Rental Sector (PRS) Funds / Platforms)

4. Suffocating urban fabric and lack of suitable land for large residential developments. The lack of large plots within the urban fabric is today one of the most important limiting factors for the development of organized, affordable and sustainable residential projects.

According to the data he presented, there are approximately 131,000 unique ads for sale in the main areas of Greece. However, asking prices often do not reflect actual transfer values.

Characteristically, in 2024 the average transfer value rose to 1,329 euros/sq.m., according to AADE data, while at the same time the average asking price was 2,583 euros/sq.m. In addition, 1,513 advertisements concern properties over 2 million euros, with an average asking price of 3,447,451 euros and an average price per sq.m. 6,147 euros/sq.m. Mr. Markopoulos pointed out that 30% of the stock is old, over 40 years old and not renovated.

Finally, according to Prosperty data, less than 22% of plots in the main areas of Attica exceed 1,000 sq.m., suggesting that “the city is already built” and that the possibilities for development within the urban fabric are extremely limited.

Housing crisis problem

Old and unrenovated property stock, incorrect prices due to lack of official comparative data, foreclosed properties, absence of institutional housing managers with a large number of properties for rent, difficulty in accessing equity capital for property purchase by young people, increase of new tenants due to demographic developments and culture change, insufficient student housing, lack of large plots and multi-ownership, as well as the non-utilization of public property, make up the multi-level problem of the housing crisis in our country, as was pointed out in the presentation of the research.

Access to reliable data on all the above factors could form the basis for formulating a national, coherent and effective policy.

Particularly important is the development of measures and policies that strengthen home ownership, after the significant decline observed in recent years, such as facilitating access to finance for new homes, tax incentives and support programs for new buyers, so that citizens have the opportunity to own their own home and the housing crisis can be tackled sustainably.

In his speech, he emphasized the need to open anonymized market data and presented modern housing policy solutions that are applied internationally and can also be applied in Greece:

● Rent-to-Buy, a model where the tenant has the option to acquire the property after a predetermined rental period, with part of the rent calculated as a down payment for the purchase.

● “Spiti My III” program with expanded criteria and limits of property value and age

● Shared Equity, i.e. participation of the state or funds with a rate of 30-40% in the creation of residential projects

● State guarantees to cover part of the same participation in specific categories of buyers

● Targeted tax breaks and interventions in critical and insular areas or even in age groups.

Mr. Markopoulos also underlined the need to create a national real estate listing system (Multiple Listing Service – MLS), as is already the case in many countries. A single platform where all brokers, banks, servicers and institutions would register their properties with standardized data could solve critical market issues such as:

● Ending duplicate and false ads

● Enhancing transparency in purchase prices

● Providing reliable data to citizens and professionals

● Conduct faster and safer transactions

● Creation of a national database for housing policy and automatic valuation (AVM)

The establishment of such a mechanism is a prerequisite for the formation of a truly functional market, which will be based on data and not on uncertainty. As he characteristically stated, “a roof is a right” and the country needs a holistic strategy, transparency and action. Prosperty, it was underlined, continues to invest in the development of innovative technological tools as well as in the systematic collection, analysis and exploitation of real estate market data, offering reliable solutions to private and institutional investors, enhancing the transparency, efficiency and sustainability of the sector.