In addition to plans for new direct tax cuts, the government is working intensively to increase the supply of properties in order to meet demand and reduce prices, as well as to address high rents.
The economic staff is already studying various scenarios such as the utilization of the approximately 25,000 properties in the portfolios of banks and debt management companies. “We are moving towards a combination of measures that will offer new incentives to property owners to open closed residences and rent their homes more easily, bypassing procedures,” Minister of National Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis recently stated.
And while interventions such as imposing a ceiling on the rate of rent increase have been rejected, a reduction in tax rates for landlords who rent out their properties is under discussion, in an effort to open up closed properties and increase supply. More specifically, a horizontal reduction in tax rates or the creation of an intermediate rate for rental income from 12,001 to 20,000 euros is on the table, in order to avoid the abrupt transition from the 15% to 35% currently in force.
Property Ownership and Management Registry
At the same time, the Property Ownership and Management Registry “MIDA” will start operating during the summer. The main goal is to uncover any undeclared income from rentals or incorrect amounts and, by extension, the pre-completion of tax returns.
Property owners will declare their leases on the platform and the AADE will automatically extract the data for E1 and E2. In this way, the tax returns will arrive almost ready to the taxpayer and all he will have to do is check and confirm or correct any inaccuracies. But tenants will also be able to see what the owner declares for the property they are renting.
In the coming period, the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family plans to proceed with the submission of a bill concerning the institution of social compensation for public properties. The new framework brings improvements and incentives for developers, with an obligation to allocate 30% for social housing.
“My Home” Program
While the “My Home 2” program is underway, the possibility of providing a new “My Home” program, provided that the necessary funds are found, is already under consideration. In less than five months since the submission of applications began, housing loans worth over 734 million euros have been approved, with absorption rates reaching 38.18%.
Government officials who are monitoring the development of the program noted that the approval rates were clearly higher compared to “My Home 1.” In the first 100 days of the new program, there were 5,387 approvals, i.e. 59% more compared to the corresponding period of “My Home 1”, when 3,381 beneficiaries had been included in the program.
At the same time, the expanded age criteria allowed more middle-aged people to join “My Home 2”, in contrast to “My Home 1” which was aimed at interested parties up to 39 years old. Over 41% of those enrolled to date are people aged 40-50. Most loan approvals, as expected, are located in Attica and Central Macedonia.
