New road map for real estate purchases and short-term rentals in Greece

A series of sweeping changes to real estate laws regulating the market for short-term property rentals via online platforms, such as Airbnb, is being planned by Greece's national economy and finance ministry, which will soon introduce the new measures.

These will even the playing field as regards the taxation of such properties relative to hotels and rented rooms, abolish the use of cash for property purchases and impose stricter penalties on owners and managers who fail to declare properties as short-term rentals to the tax office.

Another important measures is the new requirement to pay VAT and open books for those who own or manage more than two short-term rentals, as well as the imposition of a visitor's tax and climate-crisis tax on 170,000 properties, as charged in hotels and rented rooms.

A number of the measures aim to correct the shortage of long-term rental accommodation that has arisen from the switch to short-term rentals, while others seek to eliminate unfair competition for hotels and rented rooms.

Among others, when an entire building or complex of buildings is made up of short-term rental properties, it will automatically be considered tourist accommodation and be subject to the relevant licencing requirements.