Urban renewal

The number of people living in houses they own has dropped, as the cost of buying or renting has skyrocketed and demand for homes by Greek and foreign buyers has strengthened.

The housing problem is now acute and Greece must find ways of dealing with it while lacking any social housing tools, in contrast to the rest of Europe, where such interventions cover 20%-30% of the market.

Alejandro Gkikopoulos stands in his shop, Polyamorous, in downtown Exarchia. Specializing in flowers and spirits, it was recently vandalized by unknown perpetrators purportedly seeking to stem the tide of gentrification in this once-bohemian Athenian neighborhood. Subsequent attacks occurred on other businesses perceived as contributing to the area's changing character and rising prices.

Every time I go to a nice new wine bar in some Athenian neighborhood on the outskirts of the city center, I am overwhelmed by contradictory feelings.

Within the scope of an urban transformation project, the target to renew around 600,000 houses in Istanbul that urgently need reconstruction has been set to five years.

The parliament has approved a law that aims to speed up the process of urban transformation in areas that face earthquake risk.

Nobel laureate author Orhan Pamuk has become embroiled in a legal dispute with his neighbors over the urban transformation process of their residential building in Istanbul, which was deemed as risky in terms of earthquake resistance.

The government plans to make total funding of 1.5 billion euros available over the coming years as part of its goal to reactivate social housing.

Cypriot Interior Minister Konstantinos Ioannou introduced the government's new housing policy on Tuesday.

In his opening statement, he outlined a comprehensive plan involving multiple levels of actions and measures, which allocates 77 million euros over a five-year period for the implementation of specific initiatives.

A neoclassical residence in the Exarchia district of Athens was targeted by vandals over the weekend. 

The 1874 building on Benaki Street, which had recently undergone renovations and was now available for short-term rent, was targeted by unknown suspects who splashed green and black paint on its facade. 

Upgrading the dense, occasionally appalling, urban fabric of Athens with its mazes of gray, multistory concrete blocks and bare party walls standing even next to world-famous archaeological sites, is no doubt a daunting task - albeit one that is exigently called for.