Airbnb

Owners leasing their properties via short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway will have their earnings taxed at the same rates as regular rental incomes and without having to pay value-added tax, according to a circular released by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue.

The number of houses and apartments in the center of Athens leased using popular online platform Airbnb has soared this year.

Short-term property rental platform Airbnb has announced that it will be helping to find housing for some 35,000 asylum seekers trapped in Greece, a representative for the company told the Concordia Europe Summit in Athens.

Owners of rooms for rent are threatening to return their operating licenses to the state unless the government withdraws legal clauses that fully liberalize the short-term urban lease market where accommodation is advertised through platforms such as Airbnb and Homeaway.

Home rentals in Attica are evolving into a two-tier market: One side is fed by demand for short-term leases through popular online platforms such as Airbnb or Homeaway, and the other suffers from the decline in prices for conventional household rentals.

Uber faces the biggest challenge yet to its European roll-out after the region’s top court was advised to rule that the U.S. ride-hailing firm is actually a transport service not an app.

The rapid rise of short-term property leasing to tourists via online platforms such as Airbnb, HomeAway, FlipKey and HouseTrip has turned the Greek property market upside down.

The first signs of a recovery emerged in some parts of the housing market during 2016, at least as far as Attica is concerned.

Short-term property leases to tourists through websites such as Airbnb are becoming increasingly in Greece, as a regulation for their taxation has still not gone into force. Meanwhile, it is estimated that for every 100 hotel beds in Athens there are another 70 offered through the "grey" market on the Internet. There are similar rates in other parts in the country.

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