THE 39TH POMIDA CONFERENCE: COMPLETE AND FINAL ABOLITION OF THE ADDITIONAL TAX ON ENFIA IN ANY FORM!

The president of POMIDA, Mr.Stratos Paradias, emphasized in his introductory speech that during the last two years there have been significant positive developments in the problems of property owners, such as support of landlords with 800 million euros, tax-free in fact, due to the forced reductions in rents, and the exemption from tax on parental benefits and donations up to 800 thousand euros. It was preceded by the immediate but not equal reduction of the ENFIA, the three-year suspension of the Capital Gains Tax, the three-year suspension of VAT in consideration and the exemption from retroactive Municipal Fees for the undeclared and non-electrified areas. 

“Let’s see,” he added, “what I pointed out exactly two years ago in this room, what were the five main ‘threats’ to private real estate, and where we are today:

1. Increasing property values ​​that drive up capital taxes. This will now happen to ENFIA, especially if the additional tax, in whatever form, is not completely abolished and the necessary countervailing measures are not taken so that burdens do not arise, especially for those already burdened.
2. The obsolescence of existing buildings from the implementation of the energy saving measures, which come from the European directives. The cost of materials should definitely be included in the tax exemption for building renovations. 
3. The claims of the State through the Land Registry, forest maps, coastal demarcation, etc. With the Hatzidakis law, which was deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court, the legal private properties were declared in the forest archives, but most of the declarations were not included in the new maps. The ownership problem of off-plan real estate, which currently sends a million owners to the commissions and courts, must be resolved immediately.
4. The extensive taxation and urban planning certificate bureaucracy in real estate transfers, which turns them into a real “Calvary”. Our request is the abolition of certificates such as for TAP, and their electronic issue with simple procedures.
5. The risk of returning to “rental-type” arrangements in housing leases, under the pretext of homelessness. In order to increase the supply of housing in the main residence rental market, and to stabilize rents, we again propose the targeted reduction of the taxation rate of residential rentals by -10 points in relation to the rents of short-term and commercial etc. leases!” .

Today our main requests to the relevant Ministries are the following:

To the Ministry of Finance:

1. FULL & DEFINITIVE Abolition of the ENFIA SUPPLEMENTARY TAX, in any form.
2. REFUND OF 40% AND OF THE ENERGY UPGRADING MATERIALS OF BUILDINGS, and not only of the related works, which remained inapplicable.
3. DISCOUNT OF INSURABLE BUILDINGS FROM TAXIOPEO INVENTIONS
4. REDUCTION REDUCTION PREPARATION RECEIVES, and partial regulation of age in the event of partial settlement of small areas. TAXATION OF THE INCOME OF APARTMENT HOUSES
5. REDUCTION OF RENT TAX COMPONENTS AS A MEASURE OF STABILIZATION. In particular: POMIDA insists on its proposal to reduce the unreasonable tax rates of the rental scale, the only one that has not been reduced and which reaches 45%, which will essentially help stabilize rents and increase the supply of houses for rent.    

ELEVATORS: By decision of the competent ministers which is under publication, the deadline for inspection, renovation and registration of the country’s elevators is extended until 31.8.2022. The registration of elevators will henceforth be done online in the “National Register of Elevators” of the General Secretariat of Industry and no longer in the Municipalities and Regions, which will henceforth have an exclusively controlling role.

To the Ministry of the Interior:

1. Automatic stoppage of charging municipal fees to vacant and non-electrified properties
2. Debt statute of limitations municipal fees in 5 years
3. Maximum fines 50% of the debt
4. Repeal of the TAP non-debt certificate
5. Permanent operation of the KEDE platform for owner declarations

To the Ministry of Environment and Energy:

1. Similation of the subsidy rates of of rental houses in EXOIKONOMO
2. Repeal of the Forest Service’s certificates regarding the non-existence of State rights
3. Measures to save the listed buildings of our country that are collapsing
4. Unilateral amendment of horizontal properties for changes with neighboring properties
5. Unilateral abolition of the right to “rise” in existing apartment buildings.
6. Resolution of invalid parking spaces with millimeters in the pillar of apartment buildings.
7. Not in selective insurance of new buildings in hazardous areas. In particular: Natural disasters are the leading risk facing our modern civilization. In our time, climate change causes enormous disasters from floods, forest fires, snowfalls with an extremely painful social footprint, while at the same time our country is the most earthquake-prone country in Europe and one of the most earthquake-prone in the world. These risks increasingly threaten our real estate, while, although our ownership rate is the highest in Europe, yet 85% of our 6.5 million homes are currently uninsured! And this is because while we invest in real estate, we expect the state to protect our own individual investment!

In this light, the proposed by the MFA selective insurance of new buildings in the dangerous areas is not sustainable, only the generalized insurance of the country’s buildings with a low premium and with an effective tax incentive, so that the damages from natural disasters in private buildings are covered by private insurance, and not by tax-paying citizens. 

The delegates were also informed about the energy supply programs (electricity and natural gas) on preferential terms through the cooperation of POMIDA with Protergia of the Mytilene Group & for POMIDA’s building insurance program with INTERAMERICAN.

During their speeches at the conference:

EBEA president Mr. Ioannis Bratakos noted that the positions and interests of the two bodies (POMIDA and EBEA), which defend the interests of their members who were affected by the pandemic and the ten-year period of recession are often connected.

The Minister of Finance Mr. Christos Staikouras, who represented the government at the POMIDA conference, reported on the issue of ENFIA the following: “It is entirely possible for most of our compatriots to pay even less ENFIA, permanently, from 2022, in a socially fairer way. Announcements will be made in the coming weeks.” Mr. Staikouras also focused on the tax measures that have been taken to date, such as the reduction of ENFIA by 22% in 2019, the increase of the tax-free limit of parental benefits/donations for first-degree relatives that concerns values ​​up to 800,000 euros, the suspension of VAT and capital gains tax. 

Referring to the measures for the pandemic, he emphasized that to date 808 million euros have been paid in compensation to the owners and added: “I want to thank the real estate landlords who responded positively to the decisions of the Government and shouldered a significant financial burden, through the adoption of the measure of the suspension of rent payment”. The minister noted the increase in construction activity and foreign investments in real estate

The representative of SYRIZA, former Deputy Minister of Finance, Ms. Katerina Papanatsiou argued that the reduction of the ENFIA on small and medium-sized properties and its progressive transformation into a tax on large real estate is a priority, combined with a reform of the income tax scale in order to make taxation more progressive and fair. “We didn’t bring ENFIA, but we solved a lot of problems,” emphasized Ms. Papanassiou. He also noted that the building identity instituted under the previous government in conjunction with the land registry gives security and goodwill to owners. As for Exochionomy, he proposed changing the criteria in order to upgrade 40-60,000 homes every year.

The 2nd Member of Parliament for Thessaloniki of KINAL Mr.Giorgos Arvanitidis pointed out that the income from ENFIA for this year will be the same as last year, so there will be no overall relief, while for “Excoionamo” he requested a modification of the eligibility criteria, a revision of the budgets to meet the increase in the cost of materials, simplification of procedures, better cooperation of banks. He also proposed the establishment of a natural disaster insurance guarantee fund.

The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mr.Kostis Hatzidakis noted that the law 4685/ 2020 on forest maps “fairly dealt with multi-year pending cases in relation to parcels of land which, contrary to all rules of logic, were considered forest although the State had previously officially recognized them as having a different character. We freed the owners from state surrealism,” he said characteristically. He also recalled the intervention in favor of the law that POMIDA brought to the Council of State while referring to the Save program that started in 2009 and continues, to the arrangements for the liberalization of commercial leases in 2014 that contributed to the normalization of the market and the restoration of the institution of transportation building factor in order for this valuable tool to pay off for the owners of listed buildings and for the whole society.

The Deputy Minister of the Interior Mr.Stelios Petsas stressed that a provision has already been prepared for the abolition of the TAP certificate in contracts, while he also expressed his positive opinion regarding the request to make the KEDE platform permanent for owner declarations, with the proviso that those who rushed to pay with those who come later.

The Deputy Minister of Finance Mr. Theodoros Skylakakis, estimated that the course of the real estate market in the coming years will is very good as there is great interest in investments, while he pointed out that the course of taxation and especially of ENFIA will also be better. “In the coming weeks, the new ENFIA will be announced which will be much fairer and will alleviate the extreme injustices that this tax had at the beginning and continued to have for many years.

The Secretary General of Forests Mr. Konstantinos Arabosis pointed out that by the summer the goal is to have 90% of the forest maps approved while he noted that many of the obvious errors included in the posted maps are being corrected without the participation of citizens. He announced the filing, immediately, of legislative regulation in the Parliament for forested fields.

The commander of AADE Mr. Giorgos Pitsilis stated that the myproperty platform has received 105,000 transfer tax, gift and parental benefit returns, while over 20,000 returns were submitted in the last 10 days alone. Within the year, as he said, legacies and informal donations will be added to the platform. During the year, the digitalization of the issuance of tax information and certificate of debt will also be implemented. He also announced that the preparation for interfacing the AADE database with the Land Registry has begun. 

The deputy mayor of Athens, Mr.Vassilis Koromantzos, pointed out that there is currently an assistance program for the citizens to restore the facades of the buildings , with the same procedure as a similar program was applied in 2004.

The president of the Notaries, Mr. Giorgos Rouskas, referred to the problems that are still exist in real estate transfers, emphasizing that for simple cases one month is needed, while for more complex ones from 3-9 months. He underlined the problems with the issuance of tax information, forest maps, the TAP certificate (in Thessaloniki, as he said, 4,000 certificates are pending), insurance information, etc.

The POMIDA conference was also attended by the president of the Athens Bar Association and the Plenary of the Bar Associations of Greece, Mr. Dimitris Vervesos.

In his greeting, the Regional Governor of Attica, Mr. Giorgos Patoulis, noted that the Region, with infrastructure projects and renovations, is upgrading the safety and property of citizens, while he predicted an increase in interest in buying and leasing real estate.

The president of the Building Insurance Committee of the Association of Insurance Companies of Greece Mr. Erikos Moatsos stated that the provision for mandatory insurance of homes in high risk areas for natural disasters proposed by the Ministry of Environment and Energy is in the right direction, however the limitation of its application in these areas creates significant problems, mainly that the premium will be greatly increased. The Union has submitted proposals to make the regulation more functional. POMIDA’s Insurance Consultant, Mr.Nikos Kechaiaoglou, also spoke about the need to expand building insurance.

The hope for improving the image of preserved buildings of buildings with the utilization of European funds expressed the legal advisor of the Association of Preserved Buildings and Monuments Owners Mrs. Evi Mamidaki. 

The arrangements of the new “Excoonamo” as well as the regime in relation to the settlement of arbitrary fees were presented by the technical advisor of POMIDA, Mr. Kostas Karabambas.