Realty brought taxes over €3 bln

The major increase in property transfers recorded in 2022 continued in 2023 too, following years of stagnation due to the pandemic and the energy crisis.

According to data from the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, transfers posted a new record last year, mainly thanks to the major interest by foreign investors.

State revenue from taxing the sale of houses and plots of land amounted to 520.24 million euros last year. The biggest increase came from the sale of apartments, which rose 14.76% from 2022 to reach €426.04 million. If one factors in the revenue from inheritances, parental concessions and donations (€240.67 million), the amount the Greek state collected in 2023 topped €760 million.

The myProperty platform received over last year more than 400,000 declarations of transfers, parental concessions, donations and inheritance taxes, up by 73.5% from 2022 (when most declarations had been submitted in handwritten form).

If one adds the revenue from the Single Property Tax (ENFIA), the state’s annual revenue topped €3 billion.

Unlike most other European countries, Greece exempts property from value-added tax, though several other countries exempt VAT from social housing or property construction. Almost all European Union states impose tax on property and, according to recent EU data, Greece has the highest rate of property tax takings out of all its tax revenue, at 6.1% in 2021, against an EU average of just 2.6%.

Data from the Property Transfer Value Register reveal that the gap between the taxable prices of properties (known as “objective values”) and the market rates has widened, after more than two years from the application of the new zone rates in property transactions. The biggest differences are recorded in the more expensive areas of Athens, and the northern and southern suburbs of the capital.

On the other hand, figures point to a reduction in the distance between the sale prices of newly built and older properties.