Real property law

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.

By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

The government is considering an increase in the number of installments allowed for the payment of the new Single Property Ownership Tax (ENFIA) for 2014 and to reduce its size from 2015 if the amount taxpayers are asked to pay exceeds that provided for by the budget.

International lenders concluded a fifth review of Cyprus’s economy on Friday, saying the island was making “relatively good progress” after a bailout last year but that key challenges lay ahead.

By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

The Finance Ministry is blocking real estate transactions for owners who have not paid their property taxes in the last five years. Any transactions attempted without the ENFIA certificate, whose title comes from the Greek acronym for the Single Property Tax, will be deemed invalid.

The UN committee called on the government to suspend the eviction of the families until a complaint filed by their lawyers on the merits of the decision to demolish the houses and subsequent compensation claims are heard.

By Sharon Smyth, Nikos Chrysoloras and Christos Ziotis

Greek banker Theodoros Kalantonis, who has survived the worst of times the past six years, said he can finally see the resurrection of home lending.

Property owners who have failed to pay any installments of the emergency property tax (EETA) that is levied via electricity bills face the risk of being classified as debtors to the state and fined accordingly, Greece’s largest power company said on Tuesday.