You are viewing post New regulations on short-term leases

As foreseen in Article 111 of Law 4446/2016, a new framework is defined that will take effect as of 01.02.2017, according to which, anyone can make short-term lease agreements of their real estate property. For the needs of the law and as per the definition provided by the law itself, real estate property means a) an apartment, b) a house, except for cases where it has been defined as such due to the abolition of the horizontal property establishment as well as c) any other form of a residential building.

Therefore, in order for a property to be leased for a short-term (the law defines what is considered to be short-term, as stated below) to be possible, it is necessary to fulfill the following conditions:

The lessor or the sub-lessor must necessarily be a Natural Person, which is registered in the Short-Term Property Leases Register, which is kept by the Secretariat of Public Revenues of the Ministry of Finance. It is noted that the registration number in this register must necessarily accompany the posting in any digital platforms of real estate properties belonging to them and that in general anywhere where these properties are listed in order to be short-term leased.

Furthermore, each Natural Person, which means, every Tax Identification Number, has the right to register and therefore lease up to two (2) properties.

It is required that the property has all legal building permits or has been legalized as per the provisions of Law 3843/2010 or has been subject to the provisions of Law 4014/2011, to be at least 9 sq.m. and to have natural lighting, ventilation and heating (therefore basements are indicatively excluded)

Each and every property overall is not allowed to be leased for a period longer than 90 days, for each calendar year. In case a property is located on an island with a population lower than 10 000 residents, then the limit is 60 days. The exception to the rule of the 90-days lease applies, in cases when the total income from all the properties that are leased does not exceed 12000 euros.

The properties are leased furnished and no other additional services are allowed, apart from providing bedding.

The leases, in this case, are taxed as per revenue from real estate property and are not subject to VAT.

Failure to comply with the above requirements entails a fine in the amount of 5000 euros, to be paid to the Greek Government.

Competent tax authorities are entitled to request information from any digital platform to identify the lessors and the sub-lessors.

Lease agreements that do not meet the above requirements are considered legal, only in cases when they are related to tourist premises of any operational form and hold the Special Authorized License.