HomeAway

The phenomenon of short-term holiday lets has shaken things up in Athens's residential property rental market, with the cost of renting a flat in Koukaki, near the Acropolis, having risen above rates in the affluent northern suburbs of Ekali and Nea Erythraia.

Foreign visitors to Athens prefer so-called homesharing accommodation such as that offered on the Airbnb and Homeaway websites, while the number of beds in apartments available for short-term leasing is now higher that that at the capital's hotels, statistics show.

The expansion of the short-term rental market has created divisions between owners of apartments in the center of Athens, as some are earning significant amounts of money by leasing their properties on websites such as HomeAway and Airbnb while others feel they are threatened by the trend, complaining about the noise, the garbage and even decency issues.

Homeowners renting out their properties on online platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway operate in Greece without any limits to the number of houses they can let but also face the threat of high fines if they try to skip out on their taxes.

The register of properties leased on a short-term basis through online platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway should already have been up and running since early 2017, which would have contained tax avoidance by the majority of owners.

The Greek tax mechanism has planned random checks with the aim of identifying taxpayers with revenues from short-term property rentals through online platforms. Due its current inability to cross-check the data, the tax officers will go undercover posing as guest-clients in a bid to establish whether revenues are declared.

Foreign buyers of property in Athens who are interested in advertising houses and apartments for short stays via online platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway are now targeting alternative neighborhoods near the city center.

The short-term property lease sector that utilizes online platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway has created a new investment market in central Athens as well as in areas of interest to visitors around the country.

The Greek state could have obtained revenues of more than 1 billion euros in total from 2015 to 2017 had it imposed the same tax on properties advertised on short-term leasing online platforms that it imposes on hotels, according to a Grant Thornton survey for the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels.

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.