Cheap housing for young people

With the stated objectives of supporting mainly young couples, unemployed people and students living far from home, the Public Employment Service (DYPA, formerly OAED) is expected to play a central role in the implementation of the government’s plan to relaunch Greece’s housing policy.

According to State Minister Akis Skertsos, the focus of the “important announcements by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Thessaloniki International Fair” will be on young workers and especially young couples, with the aim of improving their accessibility to cheap property.

The plan includes a number of actions, some of which will be implemented through DYPA’s cheap housing programs. Moreover, a significant part of the plan hinges on the utilization of OAED’s large and underutilized real estate holdings.

A key component for the relaunch of the housing policy program is the €1.5 billion reserve from the Single Account for the Implementation of Social Policy (ELEKEP), which can now be used more flexibly for initiatives involving both the purchase and construction of real estate and the subsidization of loans or rents.

Labor Minister Kostis Hatzidakis told Skai TV that the new housing policy will focus mainly on young couples as the cost of housing in Greece is so high that it is often impossible for them to find a home of their own, something which also exacerbates the demographic problem, because “it is one of the reasons why young couples do not have children,” he noted.

Bearing this in mind, the purpose of the next announcements will be to assist young people, primarily couples, who are low and middle income earners, unemployed and students, including those studying far from where they come from and have to pay rent.

To this end, the officials tasked with the implementation of the policy are already examining the housing programs of other European countries, such as Spain and Portugal, while also redesigning existing ones.

Based on the new institutional framework adopted in the spring, actions are planned via DYPA for the construction, reconstruction and concession-rental of social housing through public-private partnerships, rent subsidies and grants for the acquisition of first homes with subsidized loans.

A new tool, which will be at the forefront of the new housing policy, is expected to be that of renting apartments for a certain period of time with the possibility of buying them before the end of the lease (rent-to-own homes).