Renters’ unions on the rise in Greece

As the average tenant spends over a third of his or her monthly income to cover housing costs, renters’ unions, organizations which are common elsewhere in Europe, are starting to gain ground in Greece too.

“In any conversation, if you want to break the ice, you start by either talking about the weather or about rent. Especially with the latter, everyone can relate to it,” says Vasilis Delis, a founding member of the Xespitogatos (“Evicted cat”) Facebook group.

Over the past few years, he has been party to plenty of conversations, online and in real life, over the difficulty of finding affordable and suitable housing.

A graduate of the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government (EKDDA), Delis is involved in research on housing policy.

When the Xespitogatos group was formed online in 2021, 70% of posts involved queries over the rights of renters and landlords, as the posters were mainly seeking legal advice, but has since evolved into dealing with issues of high rents. The group now numbers some 55,000 members and is starting to show the characteristics of a citizen’s movement.

According to Delis, “it is through this process that we hope to organize institutional representation by forming organized renters’ unions.” The first step was made through an open online call whose participants prioritized the issues of rents and fixed housing costs.

They then drew up a list of demands calling for better quality rentals at affordable rates. The list also calls for five-year rental contracts and for restrictions on short-term lettings, such as those offered through Airbnb. The group also wants the government to stop providing Golden Visas to foreigners who’ve bought property in the country.

“Renters’ unions abroad are very widespread and have well-established positions. Consider the fact that there also exists an international renters’ union. In tandem, of course, there are also landlords’ unions. This need never manifested in Greece, because it seemed that that housing market was functional, or that at least rental prices were not a top concern. This has changed in recent years. The housing market now needs to be adjusted drastically and immediately, based on the needs of the citizens, not the market,” Delis says.

According to Eurostat data for 2023, the average citizen in Greece spends about a third (32.2%) of his or her income to cover housing costs. This amounts to the highest percentage in the European Union, where the average is 19.9%.

One of the group’s concerns is the disparity between rents and the condition of the actual accommodation.

At a glance, it might seem a very theoretical subject, but as Delis explains, the creation of unions supporting renters’ rights have already taken hold in many EU member states.

Delis says that while high rental prices are something that can also be observed in other European countries, the legislation in Greece protecting renters against unexpected price spikes is weak, and that there are many cases in which high rents are being demanded for “houses that are literally uninhabitable.”
At the same time, many European countries have also set caps on how high rents can go up over a specified amount of time.

Xespitogatos calls for a similar policy to apply in Greece. As Delis explains, one can find many cases in which middle-aged renters, who’ve lived in the same tenancy for 20 or 30 years, suddenly have to come face to face with huge rental increases that they cannot meet.

A cornerstone of the group’s request is the creation of a stock of accommodation to be used as social housing, managed either publicly or cooperatively, and not for profit. This stock of housing should account for at least 6% of total available housing, which is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average.

As in Athens, a problematic rental situation has also developed in Thessaloniki, where a renters’ union is also being created.

As Xespitogatos reports in its posts, the first members’ meeting saw the sharing of many real experiences when it relates to rental difficulties, as well as the abuses of brokers and landlords

The members’ second meeting, which took place in January, they moved on to the process of setting up a union.

They also talked about the ways through which they will advance their demands, “by offering, on the one hand, immediate help for everyday problems related to the lack of renters’ protection and, on the other, by intervening in order to create institutional frameworks and policies benefiting the renters, in an organized manner.”