Greece is considering further restrictions on the Airbnb market by limiting how many nights apartments and homes can be used for short-term rentals, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said earlier this week.
“We are studying the Airbnb market mainly in Athens, to see if we can logically limit short-term rentals, to free up more properties for long-term rentals,” he said.
“We will also see how much time we should allow in total during the year that a property can be rented through Airbnb-type platforms. We are studying it because it is a complex issue,” he added.
The Airbnb market in Greece is blamed for spiking prices and drying up the market for long-term rentals. Many Greek households struggle to find properties to rent.
Golden Visa holders had scooped up multiple properties when the threshold for qualifying was only 250,000 euros ($270,272) and saw many put those out for nightly rentals.
Earlier, Mitsotakis had the threshold needed to qualify for the visas – with 5-year residency permits and valuable European Union passports for holders and their families – raised to 800,000 euros ($864,872) in popular areas.
Golden Visa led to a rally in the Airbnb sector in Greece
The government is said to be looking at ways to rein in the exploitation of the housing market that was created by the Golden Visa program that benefitted rich foreigners. At the same time, even Greeks in the Diaspora with ties to the homeland have to wait for residency permits.
That reportedly includes prohibiting short-term rentals in more than two properties per tax registration number (AFM) of income beneficiary or time restrictions to no longer than 90 days a year.
If the property is located on an island with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, the time limit would be a maximum of 60 days but if that brings in less than 12,000 euros ($12,973) it could be extended, although property owners could find themselves holding units they might not be able to rent once the limit was hit.
But the limitations won’t apply this summer as the government is eager to keep the tourist flow going and short-term rentals are even more popular in some places than hotels, that industry complaining about the competition.
Based on the data compiled recently by the company AirDNA, during the first quarter of this year in the center of Athens, 18.5 percent of properties are short-term rentals, amounting to 12,762 units, although that’s the lowest rental time of the year.
Mitsotakis also told Action24 TV “We have already enforced restrictions and requirements for those using Airbnb for commercial purposes. Additionally, we will discuss the appropriate duration for short-term rental of properties.”
The government announced plans to consider tax incentives favoring long-term rentals and stricter penalties for non-compliance and will compile data this year to determine the effect of those regulations.