Major real estate tax hikes in store, especially for low end property owners

The radical overhaul of the tax bureau’s assessment of property values across the country will bring the entire real estate market tospy-turvy, as there will be huge hikes in the valuation of cheaper properties in low income areas, which currently have a value of 550-700 euros per square metre.

The increased “objective value” of properties – as the tax bureau calls it – will also hike a series of other property-related taxes – on the purchase of a property, on parents offering a property as a gift to their children, and on other gifts of property to third parties.

As a consequence, many property owners face the spectre of considerably higher ENFIA real estate taxes.

According to the valuations by state-hired assessors, the tax value of properties will be hiked in 60 percent of the country’s regions (around 6,000 zones), will be reduced in 23 percent (2,030 zones), and will remain unchanged in 17 percent of the regions.

Increases are expected in over half the areas in mainland Greece (including Attica), as well as in the Ionian Islands, the northern Aegean, and areas with a high level of tourist demand.

As the daily Ta Nea reports, the wave of increases will hit working class neigbourhoods, whose residents are in the lower income brackets, hardest.

In Attica, those areas include Zefyri, Malakasa, Avlona, Varnava, Mandra, Drapetsona, Ano Liosia, Elefsina, and Agia Varvara.

But there will also be steep hikes in the values (for tax purposes alone) of properties in Patras, Samos, Laconia, Larisa, Trikala, and Preveza, all areas where the current tax valuation is around 600-700 euros per square metre.

In many cases, there may be increases of between 20-30 percent, so that the tax valuation will approach the sale price of newly built apartments, of which there are extremely few around the country.