“To a large extent, I agree with the diagnosis of the problem,” the prime minister said in response to Nikos Androulakis’ question about the housing problem in the country, as part of the Prime Minister’s Hour.

“Indeed, today the country is facing a big housing problem that forces especially young people to live with their parents until they are 35, creating many secondary problems,” he stressed.

The problem also manifests itself at other levels, especially in areas under pressure due to tourist development, where public officials cannot find a house to stay, he noted.

Short-term leases have boosted the property market but also limit the number of properties available, while rents have increased by 40% since 2018, Mr. Mitsotakis noted.

The problem is pan-European, he added and emphasized that in Greece it is structured in a different way.

Responding to the Androulakis criticism, the prime minister said that “you are doing the government an injustice when you say that it is not dealing with the problem. Since 2019, we have dealt with overtaxation of property by reducing ENFIA, we have facilitated market mobility, there is no VAT on construction, the ‘Save’, ‘Renovate-Rent’ programs are running.”

Referring specifically to the golden visa, he said that “you have chosen to be the villain of the case, yet he said that 7% of the purchases and sales were related to the golden visa.

It is not causing this increase in property prices, he said.

The prime minister announced that “we are discussing with the finance minister a further significant increase in the golden visa investment threshold for rent-pressured areas such as urban centers and islands. The limit will go higher, maybe 800,000 euros,” he said characteristically.

“Intervention is coming, not with the suspension of the golden visa measure, but for larger-scale investments, which will not compete with the average apartment someone will rent,” he said.

Today the golden visa investment limit is 250,000 in most regions of the country with the exception of the central, northern and southern sectors of Attica, the municipality of Thessaloniki, Mykonos and Santorini, where it is 500,000 euros.

For short term leases he said he “doesn’t have an easy solution to the issue, it is correct that there is a risk of spoiling neighborhoods inhabited by tourists through airbnb” and added that a committee that will study the issue will propose solutions.

N. Androulakis: The crisis is unprecedented, you pretend you don’t see it

The cost of housing has skyrocketed, said the president of PASOK in the topical question to the prime minister Nikos Androulakis presenting data on the housing problem in the country.

Residents are forced to move because they cannot afford the costs, he added.

The golden visa leads to the de-Hellenization of entire regions, imagine the difficulties faced by students especially in tourist areas, he added and added that they get to the point of doing computer science based on housing costs and not based on what they want to study.

The housing crisis is unprecedented, and you pretend not to see it, added Mr. Androulakis, noting that PASOK has tabled many proposals.

He then harshly criticized government policy, saying they were not tackling the problem at its root.

The right to housing should be affordable for everyone and not for a few, concluded Mr. Androulakis.

According to information, the prime minister is expected to announce a series of actions to relieve and rationalize the real estate market, which shows an increase in purchase and rental prices, with a parallel lack of real estate.

Among the solutions that Megaron Maximos has considered to stimulate the real estate supply are the tax incentives to the owners who will decide to put their properties on the market.

Thinking based on the recent proposal of POMIDA, if the lessor or grantor is a natural person to deduct a rate of 5% for repair, maintenance, renovation or other fixed and operational costs of the property.