NewsItem.

Freeze on Property Tax in Greece Paid by the Seller!

Exciting news for the property market in Greece! The government have taken action to boost sales in the housing market by freezing the property tax in Greece, which is imposed on sellers known as ‘Yperaxia’ for 2 years starting 1st January 2015 until 31st December 2016. Now extended.

The ‘Yperaxia’ property tax came into force in 1st January 2014 but it has not yielded the expected results and brought money into the economy so in a turnaround decision, it has been temporarily suspended. This will hopefully encourage owners to reconsider selling their properties and get the market moving better.

This is excellent news especially for owners of properties in Greece who bought at a time when the property prices were relatively low and would have been facing a hefty bill in order to sell. So now is the time to sell for owners to avoid the extra expense of paying property tax in Greece!!

Tourist Investments In Greece Boost

More than 300 million euro funds will be allocated to tourist investments in the next two years, George Tziallas, secretary general of Tourism Policy and Development, said.Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura expressed her satisfaction over the performance of tourism in the current year. As she said, 1.5 million additional tourists came to Greece this year compared to the previous one, ΑΜΝΑ reported.Despite the increase in tourists, revenues may be marginally lower, she said adding this must be examined after the collection of all data. Based on recent data, she said, tourists of higher income visited Greece while our country is not included in the list of "cheap" destinations to justify the drop in revenues.

Good News for renters : EOT License no longer required.

It now means with no EOT licence :- No specifications needed : All properties can rent : Do not require a business Renting Agreements via the Tax Department's Web App : There are no limitations concerning how long you can rent. : Not a business : This also means that there is no need to pay insurance/pension but you cannot subtract the costs like spending from the taxes.

From January 1st 2014 the property tax when purchasing a property in Greece was reduced as part of a series of new laws & incentives announced by the Greek government.

They include substantially reducing the purchase tax paid by buyers of homes and land in Greece to the government. Previously, property buyers were subjected to a Government purchase tax of between 8% on the first 20,000.00 Euro and 10% on the remaining amount of the purchase price of a house or a piece of land.

From January 1 2014 ,these taxes have been reduced to only 3% of the purchase price to encourage investment into the Greek property market. This is very good news for property buyers with possible huge money savings being made as a result.

In 2013, the Greek housing market saw an upturn in foreign clients wishing to invest in the country and the introduction of this lower property tax in Greece is expected to further attract overseas investment. With houses prices over the last few years dropping in price, it seems now is an excellent time to either make an investment and build or buy a home in Greece.

Property wise also, a change in the law means that anyone buying a property over 250000 € is assured of receiving a 5 year residence permit regardless of nationality. This opens the door to many and avoids long procedures without and assured result as we had in the past. Great news for all those buyers from outside of the European union.