Greece plans 15% homebuyer tax for non-EU investors

Greece plans to raise the transfer tax on non-EU homebuyers to 15% from 3% next July, Al Jazeera reported Oct. 19, citing an announcement by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The proposal matters in Exarchia, where residents told the feature that foreign-backed short-term rentals are displacing locals. Non-residents invested a record €2.75 billion ($3.2 billion) in Greek real estate in 2024, according to the Bank of Greece, before easing last year.

Tonia Katerini, a 69-year-old architect, and neighbours have spent months plotting foreign property purchases from public records on a digital map. Her group says Israeli capital accounts for more than half of Exarchia’s new company-run hotels and short-term rentals.

On her street, Katerini said Israeli investors have acquired two buildings, including the flat below her own. “They are nice guys we have downstairs,” she said. “It’s an Israeli company.”

Chrysoulla Papageorgiou, a 46-year-old schoolteacher who has lived in Exarchia for 24 years, said the neighbourhood changed after companies began buying whole blocks following the COVID-19 pandemic. “Overnight, tenants were displaced and apartment blocks emptied,” she said.

No official figures identify foreign buyers in Athens by nationality. Al Jazeera cited To Vima as reporting that an annual RE/MAX Hellas survey of completed sales found Israelis were the largest foreign-buyer group in Attica, the region around Athens, ahead of buyers from Turkiye and Lebanon.

Exarchia’s politics sharpen the dispute. The district is associated with left-wing activism, Palestinian flags and solidarity slogans, and residents have campaigned against short-term rentals they say are eroding its social mix.

The area also carries a long protest history. Students at the nearby Athens Polytechnic rose against Greece’s US-backed military government in 1973, and the 2008 police killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Exarchia triggered protests across the country.

Real-estate agent Vagelis Lazaridis, who heads a branch of the Athens-Attica Real Estate Agents’ Association, told Al Jazeera the investment case was practical. Exarchia “was a run-down area” and therefore “a very good opportunity”, he said, citing proximity to the centre, transport and universities.

Lazaridis said agents’ associations oppose the planned tax rise, which has not become law. It “may not take effect, or may be postponed”, he said, while Al Jazeera cited in.gr as reporting that agents expect some non-EU buyers to accelerate deals before the deadline.

Other rules have already tightened the market. Al Jazeera cited To Vima as reporting that no new short-term rental licences are being issued in central Athens, including Exarchia, and that the freeze was extended in September to the end of 2027.

Iryna Rondyak, an estate agent near Exarchia, said Israeli buyers made up about 60% of her foreign clients when they started arriving about a decade ago. She said foreigners accounted for about 70% of her sales until around 2024, compared with about 30% this year, as state-backed mortgages brought more Greek buyers back.

Rondyak said the short-term rental squeeze has eased but not ended. Rents remain at €10 to €15 ($12 to $17) per square metre, even in southern suburbs, she said, and many owners leave flats vacant because they judge long-term renting unattractive after tax.