End-of-the-year rush to register booming real estate transfers in Greece; higher tax-free ceiling cited

An end-of-the-year rush to complete real estate sales as well as parental grants and “living inheritances” is attributed to a decision last autumn by the current center-right government to allow a tax-free ceiling for such transactions of up to an objective tax value of 800,000 euros.

According to figures based on the tax bureau’s myProperty online platform, since the beginning of the year more than 212,000 electronic real estate transactions, parental grants and transfers have been submitted. Real estate transfers alone exceed 136,000.

By Greek standards, the 800,000-euro tax-free ceiling is judged as very generous, although a portion of the left-of-center political opposition criticized the measure as favoring more affluent taxpayers.

According to the Greek statistics authority (EL.STAT), parental grants and transfers in 2021 exceeded the previous year’s figure by a whopping 90.6 percent – 49,452 to 25,944 in 2020.

Other reasons given for the “boon” is that older taxpayers want to avoid paying property taxes (ENFIA) on real estate essentially designated as inheritance; to help children or other family members acquire housing and to even reduce their “taxable footprint”.