Property taxes for 2014 are 8 times higher than in 2009
Owners of real estate in Greece will have to pay eight times more property tax next year than they did in 2009, according to the 2014 draft budget tabled last week in Parliament.
The budget provides for revenues from all forms of property taxation to reach 3.93 billion euros, against revenues of just 526 million in 2009. A year later, in 2010, property tax revenues came to no more than 487 million euros, as it became clear that the Finance Ministry was unable to collect the FAP property tax – as it was then known – which was supposed to be paid by the owners of properties worth 400,000 euros or more. Those with properties valued at under that amount did not have to pay.
In 2011 the tax collected more than doubled to 1.17 billion euros, which soared to 2.85 billion last year with the introduction of the extraordinary levy paid via electricity bills. Direct taxes on properties for this year are expected to reach 2.78 billion euros, according to data presented over the weekend by Stratos Paradias, the president of the Panhellenic Federation of Property Owners (POMIDA).
While levies have risen eightfold, transactions have effectively stopped, rents have nosedived and thousands of properties remain empty.
