Banking circles are particularly down-to-earth in relation to whether and to what extent the treatment of the most acute problem housing of the country could be done through the opening of the “closed” real estate.
It is recalled that – according to all newsit.gr information so far – the government’s strategy for dealing with the housing crisis is expected in the immediate future to focus in particular on how property owners will be convinced to open them through renovation programs and tax exemptions.
However, newsit.gr’s sources from banking circles state that the number, which “plays” in the public debate in relation to closed properties, specifically 300,000, is not… new.
On the contrary, according to the same circles, 300,000 were more or less closed properties ten, twenty or even thirty years ago.
However, there was no such boom in real estate prices then, as there was a boom in new construction through a giant boom in housing credit.
According to what emerges from the figures of the Chamber of Commerce, in the period 2003 – 2009 (that is, before the Memoranda), housing loans of the amount of 11 billion euros were granted per month on average.
On the contrary, in the period 2019 – 2025 only 1 billion euros were given. That is, 11 times less.
So, in order to address the gap between the low supply of residential properties and high demand (which leads to the jump in their prices) close to 30,000 new properties should fall on the said market every year, according to the same sources.
On the other hand, however, the loan financing of such a scale of new buildings stumbles on the high real estate prices themselves, as correspondingly high levels of loans are required, which are a disincentive for prospective borrowers.