Real property law

Cyprus is unlikely to receive the next tranche of rescue funds from international lenders after apparently falling foul of them over new legislation on loan foreclosures, the island’s government said on Thursday.

By Evgenia Tzortzi

The issue of extending the foreclosure protection period for financially troubled homeowners struggling with debts will form part of the government’s negotiations with representatives of the country’s international creditors in Athens at the end of the month.

International lenders will withhold the next payment in Cyprus’s 10-billion-euro bailout unless the island’s Parliament passes a crucial law this week speeding up foreclosures of nonperforming banks loans (NPLs).

By Evgenia Tzortzi

The coalition government appears determined to extend the agreed foreclosure protection period for first homes and vulnerable social groups, even if unilateral action is required in the event that the country’s creditors, known as the troika, do not consent to the initiative.

The Panhellenic Federation of Property Owners (POMIDA) expressed disappointment on Thursday over a Finance Ministry decision to indefinitely postpone gradually reducing the new ENFIA property tax for empty properties that do not generate any income.

Taxpayers will be able to pay off the newly introduced unified property tax (ENFIA) in six installments, while revisions to the tax rates for 4,000 residential areas around Greece will also be made, the government decided on Tuesday, offering some clarity to one of this summer’s most controversial issues.

Three Syrians have been found dead in a house they had been renting in the southern province of Hatay.
The trio, which included two women, had all suffered gunshot wounds, according to reports.

The bodies were eventually discovered after their landlord used spare keys to open the property after not seeing them for three days.

It is essential that the government find a way to adjust the property values used for tax purposes so they match commercial property values as determined by the local market.

The row over the troublesome unified property tax (ENFIA) continued on Thursday as coalition partner PASOK said that children’s charity Smile of the Child was incorrectly asked to pay the levy.

PASOK said the Finance Ministry had made a mistake in sending a bill to the charity after its president, Costas Giannopoulos, revealed that its property tax bill came to almost 95,000 euros.

By Nikos Roussanoglou

Athens offers the smallest discounts in rental rates for professional properties among 21 cities in the Europe, the annual report by Savills estate agents has found.