At the end of December, the call for the “Renovate – Rent” program is expected to open, amounting to 50 million euros from the Public Investment program, through which 40% of the costs up to 10,000 euros are subsidized to upgrade houses that have been declared vacant for the last three years , announced from Patras the Minister of Social Cohesion and Family, Sofia Zaharaki.

Speaking at the event organized by the Panhellenic Federation of Property Owners and the Association of Property Owners of the Prefecture of Achaia, Sofia Zaharaki, on the subject of real estate ownership in the context of the 26th Development Forum, presented the government’s actions for housing policy.

In particular, referring to “My Home” programsaid among other things that “we have disbursed 1,290 loans in four months and we see that there is now a better flow”.

“The greatest demand”, he continued, “comes from people with an average age of 35 and is recorded in Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras”, emphasizing at the same time that “currently there are approximately 1,900 approved applications, which within the first quarter of 2024 they will also have found the way of disbursement”.

As he added, “the total number of applications that have been approved is 9,620 and we hope that they have produced a result, that is, they have found a home and the loan has been disbursed by the end of 2024, which means that over 18,000 people can have found a home ».

Furthermore, Sofia Zaharaki referred to the social housing program, which, as she said, “we are running for 100 apartments that we, as the Ministry of Social Cohesion, will provide, through the recovery fund, the financing for the renovation of the specific apartments”.

At the same time, he emphasized that “the program is in progress ‘Housing and Work’where we have 850 beneficiaries throughout Greece and of course we also have the ‘Coverage’ program, with 44 municipalities”, which concerns the free housing of vulnerable people in private houses with the payment of rent by the State.

Also, during her speech, Sofia Zaharaki underlined that “we, as a state, will see what we will do with the social compensation, i.e. the utilization of public properties, so that through programs together with builders a large part of these properties will be given in social housing and the rest normally in leases, which will be done at a normal market price”.

“Our goal,” said the Minister of Social Cohesion and Family, “is to expand the options for ownership, for the part of acquiring a home, but also for anyone who wants and has the ability to rent, because we consider it a measure of social cohesion”.

For his part, the former European Commissioner and Member of Parliament for Ilia of the ND, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said, among other things, that “Greece today is an attractive destination for real estate investments, which has skyrocketed real estate prices” and added: ” There is a danger that the new generations will start to sell off what they get from parents and grandparents because they cannot afford the tax bases. Property is protected internationally and by the Greek Constitution, and is often an easy target as a source of funding. The state takes all this into account and takes the necessary measures.”

In his presentation, the president of POMIDA, Stratos Paradias, presented the Federation’s positions and proposals, stressing that “an immediate bold transitional tax intervention, which will bring tens of thousands of houses to the market, is absolutely necessary. Specifically, he said, among other things: “Without waiving our basic demand, which is the reduction of tax rates for all types of real estate rentals, since their taxation scale is the only one that was not eased by the governments of the Netherlands. from 2019 onwards, we propose a three-year tax exemption for owners from income tax, of houses that were vacant for the whole of 2023 and of those houses, which are currently available for short-term rental, to be rented out as a main residence for at least three years. The regulation will cause the immediate and massive reintegration into the main residence rental market of many thousands of vacant and renovated homes throughout the country, without creating a fiscal problem for the Ministry of Finance.”

At the same time, he pointed out that “the government’s housing measures are moving in the right direction, which is the creation of housing acquisition and renovation programs and not the imposition of rental commitments that would ‘lock’ available homes.”