Trade with Greece
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“objective” (i.e. administratively set prices, deter-
mined by the tax authorities) prices apply, since
tenants are forced to abandon such dwellings as
their income is not sufficient to cover the new
imputed income assessed by the tax authorities
(based on those “objective” prices). As a matter of
fact, rents for apartments over 150 square meters
have dropped by more than 30%.
Transactions, as well as the improvement of the
climate in the property market, are impeded by
taxation, which pesters and ―in the majority of
cases― imposes burdens on both owners and
prospective buyers. In an effort to rekindle buyer
interest, the government abolished the provision it
had passed in April 2010 on the implementation
of “origin of funds” testing for the purchases of
homes, starting from the first euro of value and
the first square meter of area. From now on, and
for the next two years, prospective buyers will not
be subjected to “origin of funds” testing, i.e.
demonstrating which was the source of the
money used for purchasing a piece of property, in
case this property is used as a primary residence
and its area or value do not exceed 120 m
2
or
€200,000 respectively.
The Ministry of Finance has pledged to raise
“objective” values within the first half of 2011,
since its aim is to establish a system where these
values will provide the best possible approxima-
tion of market ones. This requires extensive mar-
ket research, as well as cooperation among local
agencies, professionals and tax officers. If the tar-
get of ―even approximately― matching market
to “objective” values is eventually achieved, it
