The president of POMIDA noted that while the demand for housing shows an increasing trend, the supply is decreasing as the old unrenovated apartments are taken off the market while at the same time no new buildings for residential rental are being built. At the same time, the high income tax and ENFIA make renting a house pointless and unprofitable.
Finally, he described as particularly positive the fact that the government did not succumb to the sirens of populism that call for a “ceiling” on rent increases and forced extension of existing leases, measures that practically they would completely exclude the new generation from finding a home, just as he is not bowing to the pressure to destroy the short-term rental.
The full text of his speech of the President of POMIDA is as follows:
Dear President, Members of Parliament,
Thank you for the invitation to briefly present POMIDA’s views on the above important draft law.
As is known, in our country the institution of “social housing” (“social housing”) which is particularly prevalent throughout northern Europe. Anyone who wants to rent a house should look exclusively to the private sector, which alone, helpless and heavily taxed, provides the solution to this problem, and despite what is stated in excessive recent publications, houses today a huge number of old tenants with very low rents, as can be seen from the monthly figures of ELSTAT, and operating under adverse and increasingly unfavorable conditions for him.
Today while housing demand is showing an upward trend, especially 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:
Continuous exit from the rental housing market of the old and unrenovated houses, mainly in the city centers, when they are abandoned by their old tenants, due to the enormous cost of materials and labor required for their functional and upcoming forced energy upgrade, which cost, their owners unable to cope. 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. for a ban on the rental of low energy class homes.
Complete non-existence of construction of new homes for the purpose of renting them out, due to minimization and of rebuilding for consideration, which in previous decades was the main supplier of the market with housing for rent.
Complete discouragement of real estate landlords from providing housing for rent residential due to high income tax, up to 45%, the which in combination with ENFIA, literally acquires a confiscatory 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, make proposals 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 renters, but in practice will completely exclude the new generation from finding a home, or call for an increase in the three-year initial term of principal residence leases, which has been in effect for thirty years with complete success, which will make landlords even more reluctant 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! And it is important that the government in this matter, did NOT succumb to the sirens of populism, adopting such proposals that in the past were the easy solution, but would lead our society and economy to a new and destructive for all tenements, such as It does NOT yield to the sirens of domestic populism that ask it to destroy short-term rentals, this important new and dynamic tourist product of our country, but with this bill, for the first time, a multifaceted housing policy is attempted, with the goal of, what else more effective from the renovation and reuse of existing housing, either by owners or tenants, and the attempt to create for the first time “social housing” in our country through the utilization of the existing huge public real estate, to house new families at low rent. for the rapid increase in the supply of housing for primary residence use by the private sector are as follows:
- Income tax reduction in the rents of the main residenceby ten (-10) units and in the three applicable tax brackets, so that the taxation is not only fairer but also an irresistible incentive for the disposal of the residences in the permanent, instead of the short-term lease.
- Subsidy within the framework of the “EXOIKONOMO” program for the energy upgrade of rental homes under the same conditions as owner-occupied homes, and during the interim period that they they are empty of a tenant, – something that is unfortunately not foreseen today – 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 residential tenants be dealt with.
- Refund of 40% of the cost of the materials, and not only 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 rental or other uses.
In conclusion, we point out that this bill is an important step in the right direction, which should be supplemented with the above serious incentives toincrease the number of landlords and available houses on the market, improving the operating framework of the private sector, 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 the disposal of your Committee members for any further clarification and cooperation!
