Buying a home is costly affair
Greece ranks ninth among 40 European countries in terms of the total cost of property transactions, according to data released by Global Property Guide.
The acquisition of a used house and its resale after some years would cost the interested investor some 15.47 percent of the house’s total value, without even including the capital gains tax imposed by the state at the start of the year, or the property ownership taxes, which include the single property tax.
This constitutes a serious counterincentive for investors from abroad, while contributing to the drop in domestic demand, especially when considering the number of taxes burdening property owners.
Most other countries opt for either charging property buyers through the transaction tax or charging sellers through the capital gains tax. Seldom does one find such high taxation both in buying and in selling a property, the data show.
