After Greece promoted the buy-to-invest immigration program, domestic investors began to pay attention to news about Greek real estate. Greece is adjusting the objective value of real estate. The objective value of real estate serves as the benchmark for calculating related taxes and personal income tax, as determined by the government. In recent years, the Greek real estate market has been sluggish, with significant declines in property prices, and the previously established objective values have far exceeded the market values of property transactions.
To reflect the true market situation and alleviate the tax burden on property owners, the Greek Real Estate Valuation Committee is collecting data from real estate agencies, notaries, and the Bank of Greece to lower the objective values of real estate in certain areas based on market prices, and will submit a report to the Ministry of Finance in the near future.
According to Greek real estate market insiders, the commercial real estate market in Greece is expected to end the continuous decline of recent years and achieve growth in 2014. The trends of falling rents, reduced rental volumes, declining property prices, and increasing vacancy rates will continue until the third quarter of 2013, but this situation has also created some investment opportunities. The decline in property prices, including the highest quality buildings, is the main reason why recent investors are seeking opportunities in the commercial real estate market, as it indicates higher capital returns. On the other hand, the current investment yield for office buildings has increased to about 8.5%. The real estate manager of Eurobank Greece believes that market opportunities will multiply this year, and a rental adjustment period is expected by the end of the year. The general manager of the real estate division of the National Bank of Greece stated that its real estate company will increase bidding in the real estate sector.
