Worsening housing crisis hits Greece hard

The housing market is tightening in one of Europe's southernmost countries.

Transcript

00:00Housing prices in Greece increased by almost 11% from 2022 to 2023, according to a recent

00:09study by real estate agency Global Property Guide.

00:13This means the Mediterranean country is bearing the brunt of a worsening European housing

00:19crisis.

00:20There is a housing offer, but people complain a lot about the price.

00:27And this is logical, because in Greece, unfortunately, we do not have official housing prices.

00:35And this creates a special problem, because everyone is talking about prices based on the

00:42price of the announcements.

00:44But the price of the announcements comes from the owners or from the representatives of

00:49the owners.

00:50And it is not the prices that close the transfers.

00:53This problem is compounded by Greece's massive overburden rate, meaning the total housing

00:59costs over 40% of disposable income.

01:03In the housing sector, there is indeed a very big problem of mobile offer.

01:09Because there, the demand for housing is five times higher than the offer.

01:15So today, five people are asking for housing, and only one is renting.

01:19And in fact, what is being rented is usually an old type of apartment.

01:25Because usually, when the owner is in the process of renovating an apartment, or building

01:31an apartment, either this apartment is sold in the real estate market, or it is sold

01:38mouth-to-mouth in a very closed circle of renters.

01:43The closing prices in the real estate market are estimated to be 15-20% lower than the

01:49required prices.

01:50If the interested owners, buyers and renters had a clearer picture of the real prices,

01:56the market would be more self-regulated.

01:59The experts support this.

02:02The Greek government says it will unveil new measures designed to target the country's

02:08deteriorating housing market by September.

02:13www.globalonenessproject.org