Doubts over tax incentive for investors
Property market professionals are reserved about the government’s plan to offer a stable tax framework to anyone investing over 20 million euros in the Greek economy, which would apply to a great extent in the property market.
Although everyone sees this initiative as positive, most market participants are expressing concern about the way such a measure will be implemented and whether similar moves will be made regarding other persistent problems in the sector, which instead of attracting investors to Greece actually drive them away.
“Although the planned incentive constitutes a positive sign for investors to come, the threshold of 20 million euros is relatively high for investments in the local property market as there are very few assets that could demand such an amount,” argues Yiannis Paraskevopoulos, the chief executive officer at Danos & Associates/BNP Paribas Real Estate. “For me, the issue of town planning problems is more important,” he adds.
“Potential foreign investors in the property market read about problems with the utilization of the Afandou estate [on Rhodes], the delays with the [development at] Elliniko etc and realize they are right to stay out of Greece,” notes Dimitris Andriopoulos, CEO at Dimand Real Estate.
