POMIDA participates in the national mourning for the death of former Prime Minister Kostas Simitis, expressing sincere condolences to his family, it is noted in a statement it issued.

At the same time, however, as she states in the same announcement, she considers it her duty to point out that apart from the significant achievements of Costas Simitis for Greece and Cyprus, and for securing their position in Europe, for which others are competent to mention, an invaluable legacy to the society and economy of our country was also the liberation of private real estate from the long-standing shackles of the Tenancy, as well as other positive measures that they relieved the property owners during his Prime Ministership.

As stated in the announcement “on Kostas Simitis and his partner Mr. Sokratis Kosmidi, as General Secretary of Commerce and subsequently of the Council of Ministers:

  • In 1994 forced extensions of residential leases were ended and the three-year initial duration of each new principal residence lease proposed by POMIDA was legislated and remains in place today, 30 years later, so that every owner can rent out their residence without fear that he will lose her!
  • In 1995, the termination of the decades-long forced extensions of commercial leases and the gradual expiration of their duration to 30 years in 1995, to 20 years in 1996 and to 12 years in 1997, which had been proposed by POMIDA and was implemented with the smoothest way, because its purpose was not to carry out evictions, but to restore relations and cooperation of owners and tenants in a spirit of equality and mutual understanding!
  • In 1997, POMIDA’s request was accepted and the Minister of Justice, Evangelos Yiannopoulos, established for the first time the procedure for ordering the return of rent to deal with difficult tenants, which reduced the time to return a property for non-payment of rent from about a year to about three and a half months.
  • In 1999 it was established by the Minister of Trade Mr. Evangelos Venizelos the abolition of compensation (intangible commercial value) in the termination of commercial leases, in exchange for their four-year extension.
  • In 1999, the earthquake in Attica creates pressure on the government for legislative measures of a tenement character for housing the earthquake victims. Immediate and successful intervention-appeal by POMIDA to the owners of houses for the housing of the affected, strong resistance to the pressures for the imposition of tenancy by the Deputy Minister of Trade Yannis Charalambous and successful institutionalization of a 15-month tax exemption of rents from leases to earthquake victims, with the proposal of POMIDA and proposal of the Minister of the Interior Vassos Papandreou.
  • In 2003, with the recommendation of the Minister of Public Works and Transport, Vassos Papandreou, the long-standing request of POMIDA was accepted and the ownership problem of the properties within the plan was solved by the endless legal claims of the State with the law 3127/2003. Also with the law 3208/2003, it was defined as a forest to be considered what is generally defined by the law, and not by each forest office.

The adoption of the above measures and in particular the abolition of tenancy bonds in residential leases but also in particular the multi-year, literally for generations, extensions of commercial leases, gave value to private real estate, hope to its owners and shelter to tenants, and the possibility development of the real estate market but also of reconstruction in order to respond to the housing and professional activity needs of the Greek people.

The liberalization policies implemented by the governments of Costas Simitis for the real estate market and successfully tested in practice, show the way to deal with today’s challenges. In particular, without the liberalization of commercial leases, the billions of investments of the last decades by international and Greek companies would never have been made in our country, with multiple positive results for the economy, employment and our society in general.

This is due in large part to the political audacity and acumen of Kostas Simitis and his associates, and is an important part of his legacy that we must not forget, above all by not turning back to the nightmarish tenancy practices of the past, which we are in danger of falling into. bring sooner or later, measures like today’s unacceptable “ceiling” of 3%”