Property tax

This will likely be the year of the property sector, as the interventions already set in motion and those expected will contribute toward the recovery of construction activity and sales.

Greece's Golden Visa program has fetched some 2 billion euros into the country's property market since the launch in 2014 of the scheme for the concession of five-year residence permits to non-European Union investors who spend at least 250,000 on local realty.

The Turkish government is set to reevaluate the recently imposed "valuable house tax" for one year, following President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's instructions, his spokesperson has said.

Corporate tax must be reduced further, the Bank of Greece advised in its intermediary report released on Friday, noting that, at 28 percent, its current rate in Greece is eight percentage points above the European Union average. The 2020 budget provides for a reduction to 24 percent.

Turkey's new "valuable house tax" regulation went into effect on Dec. 7, and notices have started to be issued to landlords who own properties in metropolis Istanbul's upscale neighborhoods.

This year's Single Property Tax (ENFIA) is set to fetch 150 million euros more than the government had originally expected, according to the estimates of a senior Finance Ministry official.

As part of a bid to rationalize the system of public revenues, the government is planning to introduce a measure for automatically writing off all debts to the Greek state below the amount of 10 euros.

In its review of objective values - property rates used for tax purposes - the Finance Ministry is aiming to include real estate valued at an estimated 80-100 billion euros and at least 7,000 new areas in the system.

The weaker financial classes stand to benefit the most from the 2020 budget, having already enjoyed the biggest benefit this year from the Single Property Tax (ENFIA) cuts, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday.

Property taxation will ease further next year, according to Finance Ministry plans, as the inclusion of new areas in the system of zone rates used for tax purposes (the "objective values" system) is creating some fiscal leeway for interventions as of 2020.