For a roof over our head
It is essential to hold a discussion about the housing crisis, especially when this is conducted with some empathy and understanding, as was the case in Parliament Wednesday, when Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis answered a question on the issue from PASOK chief Nikos Androulakis. The latter was right to talk about a city, Athens, that “is no longer friendly,” and the former was correct when he referred to the capital’s “aged building stock.”
The problems that have stemmed from the proliferation of short-term rentals and the Golden Visa scheme – which may have bolstered the real estate market but also made it a nightmare for the city’s residents to find a house to rent or buy – can be corrected, if only slightly. At the very least, owners could be made more aware of the problem and encouraged to maintain a less aggressive stance.
However, apart from the renovated apartments on the one hand, and the hundreds of thousands of vacant properties (many of which belong to the state or municipal authorities) on the other, there are also countless apartments that have never been modernized and are aging badly, fast. They too contribute to that unwelcoming, unfriendly feeling. It is a problem that is on the same frequency with the country’s very serious demographic problem. Houses are aging along with their occupants. Indeed, a large percentage of people over the age of 65 live in apartments that are the same age, if not older.
Three in 10 are renters. The rest – part of the big wave of urbanization in the 1950s and 60s – dreamed of securing a roof over their heads and invested in property, sometimes more than one. Those properties were then passed down from grandparents, parents and childless aunts and uncles, to the family’s children who, in turn, passed or hope to pass them on to their children.
The question now is whether this chain of inheritance can continue to grow, whether the owners of these assets can afford to keep them. And does the constantly rising cost of living give them any leeway to carry out renovations or even a few much-needed repairs? As humidity and wear and tear erodes walls and pipes, inside and out, the tenants of Greece’s apartment buildings are discovering – much to their chagrin – that how one neighbor lives has an immediate impact on the other.
The struggle to find affordable housing today is so great that we often reduce our demands and agree to live in a house that doesn’t have central heating or is poorly maintained. Which begs the question: How long will it be before these roofs start falling on our heads, symbolically but also quite literally?
