Mortgage

Taxpayers are suffering from the double standards on expired arrears in Greece: On the one hand the Greek state pays interest of just 3 percent to its suppliers when there are delays in the repayment of its debts or a case is pending in court, while on the other households and corporations have to pay interest of 8.76 percent - from the very first day past due at that.

The mass sale of properties by banks is getting under way with Eurobank's initiative for the concession of two major real estate portfolios with a total value of 120 million euros. They contain residential as well as commercial properties, and their progress will be the first test for the market of major real estate managers.

Just two days after submitting legislation to Parliament outlining a new framework for the protection of overindebted borrowers from foreclosures, the government on Thursday submitted an amendment watering down that protection after coming under pressure from the country's international creditors. 

Far from sticking to its guns, the government has yielded significant ground on the new foreclosure protection framework, a draft of which was tabled in Parliament late on Tuesday and will be put to a vote on Thursday.

Lawmakers in Greece have begun debating tougher regulations to deal with household insolvency after the financial crisis left nearly half of mortgages and commercial loans non-performing or in distress.
The debate started Wednesday at a parliamentary committee despite failure by the government so far to finalize an agreement with bailout creditors on details of the new regulations.

Following strong disagreements with creditors over the level of protection from foreclosure of debtors' primary residence, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos outlined the elements of the bill finally tabled by the government in Parliament on 26 March.

He said the draft legislation will come to a vote within the week.

Greece is planning to submit a bill to parliament on Friday to protect borrowers from home foreclosures, a government official said on Wednesday, though it is yet to secure the agreement of its lenders on its terms.

The government is preparing a new bill aimed at tackling the entire set of debts to the tax authorities, social security funds and local authorities.

The government will on Wednesday attempt via another conference call to find common ground with the country's creditors on the new protection framework for borrowers' primary residences after Tuesday's fruitless effort, with just five days left until the March 25 Euro Working Group.

Greece has until the Eurogroup meeting of eurozone finance ministers on March 11 to complete all of the pending prior actions it needs to secure the disbursement of 1-billion-euro from creditors, the Euro Working Group decided in Brussels on Friday.