3. Paragraphs and 2 do not apply to leases with a lessor:
a) Real Estate Investment Corporation (A.E.E.A.P.), of para. of article 21 of Law 2778/1999 (A’ 295),
b) companies, whose majority of registered shares, shares or shares or of voting rights belongs, directly and indirectly, to Alternative Investment Organizations (AIOs), which are managed by Alternative Investment Organization Managers (AIOs), governed by law 4209/2013 (A’ 235) and Directive 2011/61/EU and whose registered office is not located in a non-cooperative state in the tax sector, as defined in article 65 of Law 4172/2013 (A 167) on the Income Tax Code, and in a third a country characterized by the European Commission as having a high risk of money laundering or terrorist financing, as defined in Article I6A of Law 4557/2018 (A’139) and Regulation (EU) 2016/1675 (L 254),
c) business operating a shopping center, within the meaning of article 2 of the decision of the Deputy Minister of Economy under data 10938θ9/8296/1161/Β0014/15.Ι0.2007 and Finance (B’ 2022), which has, as a minimum, a total area of fifteen thousand (15,000) sq.m. on several levels.”.
POMIDA clarifications on the scope of the measure and on the legal exceptions.
POMIDA clarifies that this upper limit of 3% applies throughout 2022, in any way the rent increase occurs, i.e. the excessive increase results from an indexation clause, either from a percentage adjustment clause, or from an agreement to increase in euros. those categories of leases which are expressly excluded from the legislation of commercial leases, the main of which are the following, according to article 4 par. 1 of Presidential Decree 34/1995: p style=”text-align: justify;”>a. leases which, according to good faith and business ethics, are usually concluded for a period of time that does not exceed a year (seasonal leases),
b. the leases of spaces exclusively for carrying out advertisements in any way as well as the leases of common spaces for placing advertising signs,
c. the leases in which the rent is used as a boarding school,
d. the leases of premises within border stations or areas of ports or airports,
e. the leases of spaces within public, municipal or community gardens and groves belonging to the public, municipalities or communities,
f. the leases of spaces within cemeteries,
g. real estate leases within archaeological sites,
h. leases within premises belonging to higher education institutions,
i. leases of real estate classified as preserved, which are concluded after September 1, 1990,
i. the leases of school canteens,
k. the leases of spaces used as canteens or for the installation of advertisements and located in sports centers and gyms which are N.P.D.D. and are governed by the provisions of Law 423/1976. This regulation is also applied to the leases of these premises existing on September 18, 1986,
l. the leases of spaces used as canteens or for the installation of advertisements and located in the Olympic Center of Athens, in public, municipal or community sports centers. This regulation is also applied to the leases of these premises existing on September 18, 1986,
m. the real estate leases acquired by the European Community and its institutions for housing its services or the services of its institutions, regardless of the time of conclusion of these leases,
no. the leases of spaces within the Athens Concert Hall,
ie. the leases of properties owned by the International Exhibition of Thessaloniki that are used or intended to be used as exhibition spaces,
p. the leases of stores selling fruit and vegetable products in the Central Vegetable Markets of Athens and Thessaloniki,
q. the real estate leases, whose owner or lessor is NPDD under the name “Athens Stock Exchange” and which is necessary for housing its services, of the anonymous company established by it under the name “Securities Depository Company” as well as the services of the supervising service of the Ministry of National Economy,
i. real estate leases that have been demonstrably acquired, these or the land on which they were built, with the introduction of foreign exchange by the lessor, which corresponds to at least 2/3 of their value or this value was covered by the same percentage with the introduction of foreign exchange and the lessee has complete the use of the lease for a period of at least twelve (12) years. This time also includes the time of its licensors. In the cases of this subsection, the provisions of articles 59 and 60 hereof shall be applied accordingly. wrong message…”.
On the occasion of the announcement by the Minister of Development and Investments Mr. Adoni Georgiadis, about imposition of a ceiling of 3% of annual duration on the rent increases for commercial premises, and in fact retroactively from 1.1.2022, the following was pointed out by POMIDA:
Our opinion, which based on our experience of the evolution of the rental market over the last 40 years or more, is that the market self-regulates much faster and more effectively through the consultation of the parties concerned than through any kind of government intervention, which, although temporary, inevitably brings the seed of the long and destructive tenement practices of the past. No landlord will risk his income by forcing out a good tenant by demanding an exorbitant rent and expecting a supposedly better tenant…
Thus the ceiling even limited, even temporary, is the wrong measure that sends the wrong message to the market, since there is a risk that it will lead either to underground transactions, or to low supply (which pushes rents up), or, most simply, to “signal” the market to demand increases at the level set by the state cap, which in most cases would not even be deserved!
The lever that pushes up the rents are the combination of the continued predatory taxation of the rents with the untouched scale of 15-35-45% and also the ENFIA, and not the allegedly unreasonable demands of the owners. That is why the best direct and effective intervention that the state can and should do in favor of the owners and their tenants is the drastic rationalization of the tax burden on real estate and any income they have.
