It was the ideal apartment for them. Airy, with high ceilings, a marble floor in the living room and wooden floors in the two bedrooms, the 78-square meter residence in a well-maintained 1975 apartment building was located in Kallithea, in a quiet neighborhood two minutes from the train station. They had already checked out the schools in the area, even though their son is only 8 months old. They envisioned that they might spend the rest of their lives there, or at least that’s what they hoped. “Having your own home makes you feel secure,” Angelos Venetsianos, 32, an accountant, told Kathimerini. “You know that in good times and bad, you’ll stay there.”
The family of three is currently renting a 50-square meter apartment. Through the government’s “My Home II” subsidy program, they received pre-approval for the favorable lending provided and found, with difficulty, a property that met their requirements. The monthly loan installment would have come to 530 euros over a period of 30 years, slightly below the rent they pay now. They thought they could afford it, even if they lost their jobs at some point. The deal seemed all but clinched, until it was time for a civil engineer to evaluate the property for the lending bank.
He valued it at 10,000 euros below what the owners were asking. It’s an amount Venetsianos can’t cover, however, so he is now waiting for a revaluation from the bank. It was an unexpected obstacle, especially when they were so close signing. “There has been a lot of stress and frustration throughout the whole process,” he said. “You keep thinking that there are not many houses available, that you cannot meet the demands of the market, but you feel unable to do right by you family.”
The “My Home II” program seemed to him, as well as to other beneficiaries, an ideal opportunity. However, the reality of the market soon dashed their hopes. Venetsianos had also tried to buy a property in the first edition of the program in 2023. He and his wife had found an apartment, but they missed the deadline because the seller couldn’t resolve certain bureaucratic matters on time.
This year, they started looking for a house in early February. Most of the real estate agencies they contacted did not respond to their e-mails or return their phone calls, until one did. They viewed at least 50 apartments, built between 1965 and 1970. One had a broken marble sink, rickety wardrobes and old parquet floors that creaked with every step. “It was very frustrating, even while working, to keep my mind on properties that are being advertised,” he said. “I don’t think we deserve this hassle.”
Most owners were skeptical when they heard about the subsidy program. They asked a lot of questions, mainly about when the money would be disbursed. They also often asked for a downpayment: Some asked for 2,000 euros, others 5,000, while sale prices were unrealistically high. “They had already gone up since the first edition of the program,” the 32-year-old said. “We couldn’t believe that they were asking 2,400 euros per square meter for a 1970s apartment in Kallithea.” Based on the agreement he has now signed, he will lose the downpayment he made for the apartment, if he ultimately leaves.
Kostas Margaritis is also in the process of looking for an apartment through “My Home II.” He is 36 years old and works as a visual artist at the Greek National Opera. He has received pre-approval for a loan from the bank and has viewed some 10 properties in the last month. “I’ve seen apartments where the balcony is wonky and the water is directed inward. Some are supposed to have been renovated, but they still have old window frames. Or they are in apartment buildings with no elevators and, of course, don’t have heating,” he told Kathimerini.
Margaritis is looking for an apartment of up to 95 sq.m. On the day he spoke to Kathimerini he had already spent more than three hours searching. “The competition is fierce and the best properties are gone immediately,” he said. “I saw an ad that was posted two days ago and when I called, the house had already been sold. I lost a property because another interested party paid everything in cash, while I was waiting for the loan to be pre-approved. Demand has increased so much that some real estate agencies are booking two or three appointments for the same property at the same time. It’s weird because it basically puts you in a situation similar to an auctions, which is obviously not the case. But, I imagine, this is how prices go up.”
Increasing prices
Dimitris Karageorgos from the real estate agency Magna Real Estate estimates that the housing subsidy program has boosted prices by as much as 10% in Attica since the beginning of the year. “In a market that already had limited supply but high demand, the program came along and increased demand even more. That pushed prices up,” he told Kathimerini. “It’s a good measure that’s meant to help people, but it’s coming at the wrong time. The market isn’t quite ready to help it work because of the shortage of properties.”
Another difficulty is that many properties have various encumbrances and are facing planning or legal issues that are not resolved before they go on the market, explained Dimitris Papathanasiou from the same real estate agency. “We advise owners to deal with these issues first so that the sale process can proceed more quickly,” he said.
Real estate agent Giorgos Mazokopos also pointed to the slow, bureaucratic procedures that result in missed bank deadlines and pre-approvals. “It’s a deterrent. Everyone asks, is the property ready for transfer? And most of them are not.”
Recently, one real estate agent managed to find the house she was looking for for herself through the program. “I had put my job aside, I was looking at up to six apartments a day. It’s tough,” she said. “I saw a 68 sq.m. house in Kypseli, renovated, second floor and they were asking for 145,000 euros, when it is not worth more than 110,000.”
Another prospective buyer who spoke to Kathimerini said he had to visit four branches of the same bank to find an employee to help him. “Don’t worry. If you don’t get into the program, we’re here; you can get a regular loan. It’ll cost you the same, actually,” the bank employee told him.
People who could benefit from the program outside of Attica face similar difficulties. Hermes Kanakakis is 37 years old and works as an engineer in photovoltaic installations. He is looking for a house of at least 65 sq.m. with two bedrooms. “When we started the search, we rejected apartments without a second thought. Along the way, we realized that it is statistically unlikely that you will find your dream house within the given time frame, but also the specifications set by the program. We did not expect, however, that we would still be in limbo so close to the expiration date,” he said.
He looked at about 30 properties in a process that resembled an endurance race. Some he turned down because of their location; others had obvious structural issues of ownership problems. A few were in family owned apartment buildings and living with the sellers’ relatives seemed strange, made them feel like intruders upsetting the status quo.
Kanakakis said that similarly to Athens, prices in Iraklio in Crete are also over-inflated. “The available houses are not worth their price. There are houses newer than 2007 or even newly built, with a price per square meter similar to what we are looking for, but these are ineligible [based on the rules of the subsidy program],” he said. “I’m sorry, but such an undertaking is doomed to fail. From the beginning, there should have been a cap on prices depending on the characteristics of each house.”
Although he had received a pre-approval for a loan, which has not yet expired, Kanakakis was recently notified by the bank that he will have to send a new tax declaration for the 2024 fiscal year in order to receive a new certificate of eligibility. He is now trying to figure out what applies in his case.
“We entered this process because of the favorable terms of the loan and the runaway rent prices. Everything would be easier and less exhausting for citizens if there was a coherent policy to control the prices and property rents,” he said. “Unfortunately, the physical and mental exhaustion of looking so intensively – because of the deadlines – makes us wonder: Is it worth it?”