Owners of small stores at a dead end
The owners of ground-floor stores in secondary commercial zones around the capital say there is a complete lack of renting or buying interest.
As the president of the property owners’ association, Stratos Paradias, says, “many store owners actually prefer not to evict tenants who don’t pay their rent, as they fear that if stores are left empty, the homeless, immigrants or drug addicts would take over the place the very following day.”
Owners of basement apartments in the center of Athens, mainly in districts such as Kypseli, Pangrati, Kato Patissia among Victoria Square, among others, have the same fears. In the past, it would mainly be economic immigrants who rented those those properties.
Now those properties are for sale at prices of 5,000 euros and even lower, but the owners still cannot find any buyers.
One solution for those owners is a plan which the state has considered, regarding the concession of properties to the state by any owners with amassed debts to the tax authorities. However, the proceeds of the sale would only serve to cover past, present and future tax debts to the state, without the payment of any cash, and the plan has been shelved time and again. It is unknown when or if it will ever be implemented.
