To the Prime Minister Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis
Here, Athens , 24.8.2022
SUBJECT: Incentives for the renovation and offer of houses for main residence use.
which will concern the residential roof, we consider it useful and timely to bring the following to your attention:
As is known, in our country the institution of “social housing” does not exist (“social housing”) which is particularly common throughout northern Europe. Anyone who wants to rent a house should turn exclusively to the private sector, which alone and unaided provides the solution to this issue, housing today a huge number of old tenants at very low rents and with insignificant increases, as can be seen from the monthly figures of ELSTAT, and which, however, operates under increasingly unfavorable conditions for him.
Today while housing demand is on the rise, particularly for larger homes due to the expansion of telecommuting during the lockdowns,the supply of rental housing is steadily decreasing every year for the following reasons:
Progressive exit from the residential rental market, unrenovated houses built decades ago, mainly in city centers, when they are abandoned by their old tenants, due to huge material and labor costs required for their operational and upcoming forced energy upgrade, which costs, their owners are unable to face. The result is the desolation of these homes and the gradual ghettoization of the apartment buildings and the neighborhoods in which these homes are located. The situation will worsen dramatically at the expense of the tenants in advance, if the EU plan is implemented in a few years. on the prohibition of renting out houses with a low energy class.
Complete non-existence of construction of new houses for the purpose of renting them out, due to minimization and the rebuilding for consideration, which in the previous decades was the main supplier of the market with houses for rent.
Complete discouragement of real estate landlords from providing housing for rent residential due to high income tax, up to 45%, the which, combined with ENFIA, literally acquires a confiscation character, and renders this activity pointless. Ultimately selling many of these houses to buyers who will use them mainly for their own residence.
Complete lack of rudimentary protection for landlords against insolvent “tenants” who move successively into private homes with no plan to pay in the first place rent, utilities and water supply, while indulging in electricity theft and damage to them! The uncontrolled action and complete impunity of this purely criminal category, which is the “nightmare” of landlords, creates in the latter a feeling of complete insecurity and justified wariness towards all prospective tenants, the vast majority of whom fight hard to be consistent with the monthly their obligations.
Some who know neither the problem, nor its history, propose so-called “solutions” that will ultimately turn out to be disastrous for the tenants themselves , such as a “cap” on rent increases, (which will be legally accompanied by) a forced extension of existing leases – which will temporarily serve the old generation of tenants, but practically exclude the new one from finding a home – or an increase of – from thirty years successfully implemented three-year initial duration of principal residence leases, which will make landlords even more hesitant to enter into residential leases with new and uncredited tenants.
Measures of this kind are sufficient even as a mere intention to completely close the rental market. The situation will only improve by increasing the supply of suitable houses for rent >, either by individuals, or by the State, from which every relevant initiative and action is welcome. The incentives we propose to increase the private sector supply of housing for primary residence use are as follows:
- Subsidy within the framework of the “EXOIKONOMO” program for the energy upgradeof rental homes under the same conditions as owner-occupied homes, and during the interim period when they are vacant by a tenant, – something that today, unfortunately, it is not foreseen – because only when they are empty is it possible to renovate them, and because only in this way will the “energy poverty” which mainly affects the tenants of houses be dealt with.
- Refund of 40% of the cost of the materials, and not only of the works, energy and functional upgrading of the existing houses, as long as they are allocated exclusively for use as the main residence of owners or tenants and not for short-term lease or other uses.
- Reduction of income tax on principal residence rentsby ten (-10) units in all three applicable tax brackets, so that taxation is not only fairer but also an irresistible incentive to dispose of residences in the permanent, instead of short-term lease.
- Explicit inclusion of real estate lessors in the categories of individuals who will be able to obtain information on the solvency of their prospective tenantsfrom the under recommendation with s.n. of the Ministry of Finance “Independent Credit Evaluation Authority”, the purpose of which will be “the collection, storage and processing of primary data on the credit behavior of natural and legal persons vis-à-vis the State, the evaluation of the credit behavior of households and businesses and their grading for use by public organizations and institutions, financial institutions and/or other individuals”.
In conclusion, Mr. President, we point out to you that a successful intervention by the State for the renovation and offering to tenants, houses for main use housing, should include serious incentives to increase landlords, improving the operating framework of the private sector, and available houses on the market, effectively helping the energy and functional upgrading of existing houses that have gradually been put out of the market due to the inability of their owners to renovate them. Any other “rental type” measure will take us 50 years back, with the first victim being the tenants themselves, and especially their new generation!
At your disposal and your competent partners for any clarification and cooperation
For the Board of Directors
The President The Vice President The Secretary General : justify?”>Stratos Paradias Dionysis Chionis Anastasios G. Vappas
Lawyer A.P. – UIPI President Professor Dim. Home Lawyer A.P. y.D.N.
