‘Objective values’ need more tweaks
The European Commission’s compliance report on Greece provides for the adjustment of property prices used for tax purposes – known as objective values – by 2020, effectively disregarding the new rates issues last week.
The creditors have obviously chosen to turn a blind eye not only to the process followed by the Finance Ministry, but also to the result, which has failed to truthfully reflect reality in the property market.
The report stresses that Greek authorities have pledged to gradually adjust the objective values by at least 50 percent of the spread with actual market prices in 2019, before fully aligning them with the going rates in 2020. That would entail significant changes to the Single Property Tax (ENFIA), whose rates are set to change both in 2019 and 2020, with hikes in downmarket areas and reductions in upmarket ones.
