Transcript Greece Team Presentation

Country Presentation on
Greece
Thomas Konistis
Attorney-at-Law LL.M (Athens Bar)
Team Leader: Professor Elena Bargelli
Faculty of Political Sciences
University of Pisa, Italy.
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At present, absolute absence of any kind of
aggregated and cohesive social housing policy.
Law no 2963/1954 was the only state initiative
towards the formation of a socially sensitive
housing policy. It enacted the constitution of
‘Labor Housing Organization’ (in Greek:
«Οργανισμός Εργατικής Κατοικίας», abbreviated as
‘O.E.K.’).
O.E.K’s policy comprised loans for the purchase of
a house with subsidized interest rates,
subsidization of rents to low income families and
housing of sensitive social groups.
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Law no 4046/2012 abolished O.EK, and all the
obligations already undertaken of the latter were
transferred to a Temporary Administrative
Committee, explicitly deprived of the right to plan
and implement any new social housing schemes.
The preamble of L. 4046/2012 reads: “First, as a
prior action, we will enact legislation to close small
earmarked funds engaged in non-priority social
expenditures (O.E.K.)…”.
Conclusion: Housing policy is confronted as a
non-priority social expenditure and that any
housing scheme existed, is abrogated as a direct
effect of the economic crisis.
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The only social housing possibilities that can be
found lie within initiatives of charitable trusts
or certain municipality services.
However, only a very small part of the
population can benefit therefrom (e.g. The
municipality of Athens houses 160 people,
while the Athenian population amounts to
3.089.698 inhabitants).
Therefore,
such
initiatives
cannot
be
characterized as any form of social housing
plan.
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Real Property Right of Ownership. It affords
the owner all powers over the thing, while
precluding any infringement of any third party
thereon without the owner’s consent (art. 1000
GCC).
Most preferred type of housing tenure. 71,72 %
of Greek households inhabit owned houses.
Home ownership is also regarded as a socially
superior housing tenure, due to the ‘security’
afforded to the owner and the welfare status
that is symbolizes.
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Financing through own savings, inheritance and
mortgaged based loans.
Mixed work contract: Very common way of
financing home ownership. The owner of a plot of
land assigns the contractor with the construction of
a condominium, with the latter’s own expenses. In
return, the contractor gets the majority of rights
over the land, which respectively correspond to a
number of dwellings.
Condominiums: Regulated as a special type of
ownership known as ‘horizontal ownership’.
Defined as the distinct ownership of a floor or of
an apartment, combined with co-ownership on the
land on which the condominium is built.
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Severe taxation over home ownership is introduced as
an effect of the economic crisis.
Apart from the taxes that already existed (Immovable
Property Transfer Tax etc.) VAT in a rate of 23 % is
imposed on new built dwellings. Result: Dramatic
decrease of the national construction activity.
Moreover, Law 4021/2011 introduced further taxation
known as ‘Temporary Special Tax of Electricity Supplied
Surfaces’, which is collected on a two-month basis
through the electricity supplier bill. Said tax is imposed
only to the owner of the dwelling, the tenant being
provided with the right to lawfully set off above tax
with the monthly rent due.
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Rental tenure presumes the conclusion of a
tenancy contract, according to which the landlord
undertakes the obligation to yield to the tenant the
use of a thing for as long as the tenancy contract
lasts and pay the landlord the agreed rent (art. 574
GCC).
Greek Law does not provide for any distinction
between rental tenures with and without a public
task, basically due to the absence of cohesive
national social housing policy.
Rental tenure is socially regarded as an inferior
housing tenure, due to the feeling of living in
someone else’s property.
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Less popular tenure type, compared to home
ownership, as 19,8 % of Greek population
inhabit rented homes.
Tax reliefs: Despite the fact that tenant cannot
deduct the paid rent premiums from his
taxable income, however, paid rents can be
deducted from the total tax imposed in a rate of
10% of the taxable income and under the
condition that the deducted tax will not exceed
the amount of 1.000 €.
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Housing quality is depicted in the following
chart:
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According to official data, the total of available
dwellings reports to the number of 5.476.162
dwellings, while the number of households
was found to 3.654.568 and the total population
10.964.020.
Conclusion: In Greece, the supply of available
dwellings for residential purposes is sufficient,
while their quality appears more than
satisfactory.
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Regulated by the provisions of art. 574-618 of the Greek
Civil Code (GCC), as well as of Laws 1703/1987 and
2235/1994.
Law 2235/1994 completely liberalized private tenancy
law.
There exist no provisions concerning any mandatory
limits, and the content of the contract is subject to the
parties’ free will.
The only ex lege restriction still in force concerns the
minimum duration of the contract, provided that the
dwelling is used for residential purposes; the contract
is valid for three years, even if the parties have
contractually agreed a shorter duration.
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However the provisions of art. 288 (dictating the
principle of good faith in the execution of the
obligations) and 388 GCC (in case of exceptional
change to the circumstances on which the parties
had been based in order to conclude the contract),
can be invoked in order to judicially modify the
contract.
Recent jurisprudence has accepted that the impact
of the international economic crisis to Greek
economy can be considered as an exceptional
change to the circumstances on which the parties
had been based in order to conclude a lease
agreement.