Vacation rental

The phenomenon of short-term holiday lets has shaken things up in Athens's residential property rental market, with the cost of renting a flat in Koukaki, near the Acropolis, having risen above rates in the affluent northern suburbs of Ekali and Nea Erythraia.

Foreign visitors to Athens prefer so-called homesharing accommodation such as that offered on the Airbnb and Homeaway websites, while the number of beds in apartments available for short-term leasing is now higher that that at the capital's hotels, statistics show.

The expansion of the short-term rental market has created divisions between owners of apartments in the center of Athens, as some are earning significant amounts of money by leasing their properties on websites such as HomeAway and Airbnb while others feel they are threatened by the trend, complaining about the noise, the garbage and even decency issues.

Homeowners renting out their properties on online platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway operate in Greece without any limits to the number of houses they can let but also face the threat of high fines if they try to skip out on their taxes.

The short-term rental market is booming in Greece, with an estimated 12,000 properties in the capital available to visitors via Airbnb. Nationwide, more than 50,000 rentals are hosted on the platform, 14,650 of which are in Crete alone.

The electronic tax platform for property owners to register income from short-term rentals as advertised on Airbnb and other websites will be up and running by the end of August, the head of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR), Giorgos Pitsilis, said on Friday. 

The register of properties leased on a short-term basis through online platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway should already have been up and running since early 2017, which would have contained tax avoidance by the majority of owners.

The number of properties in the center of Athens that are leased out via the Airbnb online platform has exceeded 8,000, as the appeal of short-term leasing among property owners has grown and the number of foreign visitors who opt for such accommodation is soaring.

The Greek tax mechanism has planned random checks with the aim of identifying taxpayers with revenues from short-term property rentals through online platforms. Due its current inability to cross-check the data, the tax officers will go undercover posing as guest-clients in a bid to establish whether revenues are declared.

Foreign buyers of property in Athens who are interested in advertising houses and apartments for short stays via online platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway are now targeting alternative neighborhoods near the city center.