PRESS RELEASE FOR THE 37th ANNUAL POMIDA CONFERENCE!

The aim of this proposal is to stabilize house rents with the only viable long-term method, which is to increase the supply of housing in the market of leases. The effect of the government’s adoption of this measure will be to provide a substantial incentive to property owners, who currently prefer to have their homes available for rent on short-term rental platforms (AirBNB etc.), to reorient them to the main rental market. residence.

“The measure will be applauded by all of society and will definitively solve the problem of offerof available homes for primary residence, making it more competitive than their offer for short term rentals! Landlords will rush to offer every available home, to exclusively primary residence tenants as preferred tenants, and to renew existing primary residence leases. Thus, for the first time in years, a large number of completely renovated houses, in excellent condition, will be put on the market. POMIDA’s proposal will effectively protect the old and new tenants of the main residence, without taking us back to the “middle ages” of the Tenement”, pointed out the president of POMIDA and the International Union of Property Owners (UIPI). Mr. Stratos Paradias (attached is the full text of the proposal to be submitted to the Ministry of Finance).

Present at the event were the Deputy Minister of Finance Mr. Theodoros Skylakakis as the representative of the Prime Minister Mr. Kyriakou Mitsotakis and the Government, the Vice President of New Democracy and Minister of Environment and Energy Mr. Kostis Hatzidakis, the Minister of the Interior Mr. Panagiotis Theodorikakos, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Dimitris Oikonomou, SYRIZA Member of Parliament West. Attica Ms. Giorgos Tsipras, who represented the official opposition and referred to SYRIZA’s initiatives regarding real estate, the Secretary of the Development and Investments Sector, PASOK &  of the Change Movement Mr. Apostolos Pontas, the Regional Governor of Attica, Mr. Giorgos Patoulis, the Mayor of Athens, Mr. Kostas Bakoyiannis, the Vice President of KEDE & Mayor of Kallithea Mr. Dimitris Karnavos, Member of Parliament N.D. South Sector of Athens Mr. Vassilis Spanakis. Also, the Governor of AADE, Mr. Giorgos Pitsilis who mentioned the taxation of real estate owners and the simplification of capital taxation, the Director General of the Hellenic Land Registry Mr. Stefanos Kotsolis who reported on the progress of the Land Registry, and the President of the Athens Chamber of Commerce Mr. Stavros Kafounis,who mentioned the need for cooperation between traders and real estate lessors.

Mr. Paradias emphasized in his introductory speech that recently there have been important positive developments in the problems of property owners, such as the immediate but not equal reduction of the ENFIA, the three-year suspension of the Good Value Tax >, the three-year suspension of VAT in consideration and the exemption from retrospective Municipal Fees for premises settled under trespass legislation.

However, he stood on all five of the main “threats” to private real estate which are:

1. Increasing assessed property valuesthat will skyrocket capital taxes. “Zone prices must remain at the lowest limits of each area, and not be increased by some opportunistic transfers”, emphasized the president of POMIDA.
2. The obsolescence of existing buildingsfrom the implementation of energy saving measures. “The cost of materials should be included in the tax exemption for the renovation of buildings,” he noted. 
3. The claims of the Statefrom Land Registry, forest maps, coastal demarcation etc. Mr. Paradias pointed out the need to immediately resolve the ownership problem of off-plan properties that currently sends a million owners to the commissions and courts.
4. The extensive tax and urban planningred tape in real estate transfers. POMIDA’s request is the immediate limitation of the required documents and their electronic provision.
5. The risk of returning to “rental-type” arrangementsin housing leases. POMIDA proposes as the only measure to increase the supply of housing in the main residence rental market, the targeted reduction of the taxation rate of residential rentals by -10 units in relation to short-term and commercial rentals etc. leases!

During their speeches at the conference:

– The Deputy Minister Finance Mr. Theodoros Skylakakis pointed out that “The direction of the government is a free and fair market and lower taxation”. He announced a new reduction of the ENFIA during this year, in the context of which he committed to examine the POMIDA’s remark that the previous reduction was not completely equal since, as Mr. Paradias, “those who were punished during the design of the ENFIA cannot be punished again at the time of the reduction”. The Deputy Minister of Finance also recognized the legitimacy of POMIDA’s request related to tax exemptions for building upgrade works, which was satisfied with the relevant amendment. He finally noted that it took a confrontation with the institutions in order to pass the suspension of the VAT on real estate together with the capital gains tax.

– Solution to the problem of assertion from the State of entire regions of the country, despite the fact that there have been titles for decades, announced the Minister of Environment and Energy Kostis Hatzidakis, arrangement which Mr. Paradias characterized as ofhistorical importance as it will allow the Land Registry and Forest Maps to be completed. Mr. Hatzidakis emphasized that 170,000 objections have been filed for forest maps and only 10,000 have been examined over a period of 2 years. “If we leave it like this, the objections will be dealt with in 27 years, while even if a citizen’s objection is accepted, he will have to wait for the process to be completed in the entire county in order to use his property. This is nonsense. We will deal with the issues seriously and substantively”, added the minister. He also mentioned that consultation is underway with the Ministry of Development for the announcement of another round of the “Home Savings” program while he presented the regulations for the arbitrary and the identity of buildings.

– The Minister of the Interior Mr. Panagiotis Theodorikakos, referring to the arrangement by which owners who have not declared the actual square footage of their property are exempted from fines and surcharges on municipal fees and TAP, as long as they hurry to do so by the deadline, spoke of a great gesture of the state to property owners. The Minister of the Interior in particular:

1. Clarified that not only municipal fees are subject to deletion, but also TAP
2. He announced that in in ten days the electronic platform of the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece will be ready through which the owners will be able to make their declarations electronically for all the Municipalities.
3. He revealed that he has requested a recommendation from the KEDE and for those who have made statements and pay fines and surcharges while emphasizing that: “We do not want the regulation to be unfair, nor unenforceable. We are putting in order the obligation of everyone to pay for the actual square footage”.
4. He reiterated that an extension will be given until June 30, 2020 to the deadline for submitting declarations for vacant and non-electrified properties, in order not to be charged with municipal fees .

– The Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy Mr. Dimitris Oikonomou said that within the first four months of the year, the electronic services of the Land Registry will begin for citizens and professionals (engineers, lawyers, etc.) for the issuance of certificates necessary for transfers. He emphasized that in the last 5 months, as many declarations were made in the Land Registry as had been made in the previous five years. He announced that a legislative initiative will be taken in order to drastically reduce, from 12 – 14 years to 2.5 years, the time required for the approval of land use plans as well as for the clarification of uses in Natura areas. With another bill, rules will be established to simplify the issuance of building permits, the building regulations will be reformed and the renovation of buildings will be facilitated.

– The Mayor of Athens Mr. Kostas Bakoyannis underlined that the regulation for the declaration of the real square meters of properties “will allow us to reduce Municipal fees and create incentives for entrepreneurship”. He announced the implementation of a financing program for the renovation of building facades as well as the acceleration of the process for the release of properties that have been committed for decades by the Municipality for projects that have not yet been implemented.

-The head of AADE Mr. Giorgos Pitsilis announced the simplification of procedures for capital taxation (transfer, inheritance, parental benefit taxes) with the operation of an electronic platform.

            – The deputy of the New Democracy Mr. Vassilis Spanakis was in favor of POMIDA’s proposal to reduce taxation on income from first home rentals.

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

POMIDA’s full proposal for housing leases is as follows:

In the press we read various reports that there is a shortage of housing for their rental as a main residence, which also raises the asking rents, and that measures should be taken on this matter in favor of the tenants. Many are quick to blame short-term renting, forgetting that in this country, where there is no such thing as “social housing”, building activity has fallen by 95%, that the provision has been wiped out and not a single house has been built for tenants. main residence, that the additional tax of the ENFIA forced the landlords to sell off the houses them, that the NGOs rented a large number of houses for their programs and that the banks for years were unable to give loans for the purchase of a house.  That is why it is proposed to take measures against her, as well as measures of a tenement nature that will “protect” the tenants of the main residence. 

POMIDA’s proposal that will effectively protect the old and new tenants of the main residence, without taking us back to the “middle ages” of the Tenement is the following:

A large number of houses in the cities of our country were finished, renovated, furnished and posted on the international platforms of short-term leases, in previous years when even the non-declaration of their incomes seemed easy due to the non-existence of an institutional and tax framework, but also the demand for accommodation was much greater than their supply.

“The enactment of the tax legislation already in force, the increase in supply in relation to the fact that it was not accompanied by a correspondingly increased demand for short-term rental accommodation, but also the non deduction of current expenses (common users, utility bills, damage restoration, etc.) from the taxable income of the owners of these houses, prevented them from obtaining a registration number (AMA) on the AADE platform, i.e. operating within the new legal framework. 

These residences, estimated at some tens of thousands, will be withdrawn from online platforms very soon, before Article 29 of the new tax law 4646/2019 is implemented.  But the government’s goal must be their immediate return to the primary residence rental market! For this to happen we propose the following specific fiscal incentive:

In income from property leases, (where the tax climate of the previous government remained unchanged, unlike the other two scales (salaried-pensioners and freelancers) where significant reductions were made), we propose to make a reduction exclusively in the tax rate for rents from principal residence leases (of property tax codes 103 & 104) by 10 percentage points in each applicable tax bracket, i.e.:

For principal residence rents up to €12,000 from 15% to 5%

For rents from €12,001 – €35,000 above from 45% to 35%.

This tax measure, which will applauded by the whole society, it will permanently solve the problem of supply of available houses for primary residence, making it more competitive than their supply for short-term rentals! In this way landlords will be quick to offer any available housing, to exclusively primary residence tenants as preferred tenants, and to renew existing primary residence leases. Thus, for the first time in years, a large number of completely renovated houses, in excellent condition, will be put on the market. 

The fiscal loss from the reduction of the tax rate by 10 points, ONLY for primary residence leases, and not for business and short-term and any other types of leases, we believe it will be fully offset by the taxing of tens of thousands of new primary residence leases that will follow. Finally, the large increase in supply that will follow from the resumption of the compensation in combination with the resumption of bank lending that will allow many tenants to once again buy privately owned housing, will also stabilize the amount of rents, operating much more efficiently than the rent subsidy, which will no longer be needed…