Freezing 24% VAT for three years on all real estate with a building permit from January 1, 2006 and later turn over the real estate card very quickly.
After the phenomenon of Airbnb and Golden Visa, which has been heating the frozen real estate market for more than ten years, a new scenario will appear from the beginning of the new year.
A three-year suspension of VAT on all real estate is expected to shake the waters of real estate in Greece. Thousands of houses will go on sale at competitive prices, new houses will again be attractive to Greek and foreign investors, land plots and forgotten provision in return will return to the game, and marketers are discussing leasing solutions with banks as an alternative form of financing private houses.
Freezing 24% VAT for three years on all real estate with a building permit from January 1, 2006 and later turn over the real estate card very quickly.
Changes in the landscape will begin to appear from the beginning of 2020, as soon as about 100,000 houses, offices, shops are placed for sale without VAT. The competition is expected to be fierce, and real estate experts say developers will be forced to cut prices to “get rid” of real estate that has remained in their hands even since 2006.
“Everyone wants to sell unsold real estate in order to raise funds to invest in new real estate,” Dimitris Kapsimalis, president of the Hellenic Federation of Greek Developers, told NEA, predicting lower house prices, while he estimates that even cheaper real estate will appear in the market from investment funds through direct sales or auctions.
It is estimated that over 20,000 properties of all types, which are a guarantee of portfolios of red loans that have been sold or will be sold in the coming months to foundations and groups, will be sold in the coming years. Most of these real estate properties, according to Dimitris Kapsimalis, are 10-15 years old, and many of them will fall into the hands of developers who, after a little repair, will place them on the real estate market at better prices than new objects.
But it is expected that sooner or later prices will fall on the sale of old, 20, 30 and 40-year-old houses, which are now preferred by Greek and foreign investors due to lower prices and taxation.
Changes in the landscape will begin to appear from the beginning of 2020, as soon as about 100,000 houses, offices, shops are placed for sale without VAT.
Thus, their owners will be forced to lower selling prices for their real estate in order to attract the interest of potential buyers, so that they can quickly switch hands. Today, almost 70% of buyers prefer small and old real estate, which they usually repair, in order to further make them available on one of the short-term rental platforms like Airbnb.