Travel refund offer

If you are unable to take advantage of flight bargains for work or other reasons, travel costs to view overseas properties can be expensive.

To help clients reduce this expense, we are offering travel refunds for the Crete Property 2008 Season!

If you sign a deposit contract with us for property purchase by 30 November 2008, and later go on to complete the purchase successfully with us, then:

we will refund €375 for a single buyer, or €750 for two or more joint buyers, on completion of purchase.

That seems a very "fare" offer!

Learn About Ktimatologio or Lose Your Property

The Ktimatologio is a modern and better organized Hypothykophylakion, or public registry for titles of all kinds of immovable property in Greece.

The Ktimatologio office is a data base of legal and technical information and descriptions for the accurate assessment of real estate property in Greece. The Ktimatologion ensures legal security and certainty regarding immovable property rights and obligations, so that every person of good faith is protected if he/she gives faith to the Ktimatologio registrations.

Not every place in Greece has a Ktimatologio office yet. In fact, most towns and villages in Greece still have their Hypothykophylakion, which is the old public registry, an office which, despite its shortcomings, has ensured and continues to ensure everybody's rights over immovable property.

However, there are many Ktimatologio offices around Greece and they multiply over time. As a first step, the Ktimatologio office operates alongside the Hypothykophylakion in the same area. There are places, though, in Greece, where the Ktimatologion has been organized up to its final stage (like in Chalkida, or some places in the greater Athens area). In those areas, every transaction, sale, acquisition, mortgage etc. over real estate is registered only in the Ktimatologio and not in the Hypothykophylakion of the area. Any title search done by a lawyer for this area is done at the Hypothykophylakion for the past on up to the present and at the Ktimatologio from the time it started operating on into the future.

"You may discover that your property has been registered as the 'property of unknown owner' [or] . . . .under the name of another person. . ."

In the areas where the Ktimatologio is fully operative it is deemed that all pieces of real estate of all natural and legal persons within the limits of that particular Ktimatologio are already registered. In theory, all real estate owners of that area have already declared and registered their property with the local Ktimatologio.

In reality, however, there are thousands of pieces of real estate (lands, lots, apartments/condominiums, houses, undivided properties, inheritances, etc.) which have not been registered with the new Ktimatologio. Now, the situation regarding those undeclared properties can be either that nobody has declared them so far, or that trespassers have declared them as being their own property (worst case scenario).Those transgressors are attempting to take advantage of the lack of information of the real owners and are trying to make these 'forgotten" properties illegally theirs, but under the legal veil of Ktimatologio.

So, the real danger is in those cases where the so-called 'first registrations" in Ktimatologion have been completed. If you are the owner of property in an area where the Ktimatologio first registrations are operative, and you have not yet registered your rights, you may discover that your property has been registered as the 'property of unknown owner". In this case, you have the right to file a lawsuit action at the courts, technically against the Organization of Ktimatologion, in order to prove that the property in question is rightfully yours and that it should be registered with Ktimatologio under your name. In such a case the Organization of Ktimatologion is not really your adversary, but you file this lawsuit in order to register your property, even belatedly.

If, on the other hand, you discover that your property has been registered in the new Ktimatologio of the area under the name of another person (private person or legal entity), your lawsuit must be filed against and served to that person, so that, again, you prove before the court that the particular piece of real estate is yours and not theirs.

In both case the time limit to file the lawsuit action is five (5) years from the time that the Ktimatologion office has started its full and exclusive operation in the area. If your residence is outside Greece, then this time limit is seven (7) years.

If the time limits pass without you filing the proper lawsuit, then you automatically lose your property rights over the immovable property and you only retain the right to claim fiscal compensation for the real estate you lost for good.

- Christos Iliopoulos, 17 June 2008

Christos Iliopoulos is an attorney at law, LL.M., in Athens, who specialises in International and European Business Law. For more information about him, see here

Ktimatologio Goes Everywhere in Greece!

The Ktimatologio Public Registry for real estate properties was introduced in 1996 and already covers about 6.3 million property rights in many places of Greece. From 17 June 2008 a new wave of Ktimatologio offices is sweeping through the country, in Athens, Thessaloniki and the capital towns of every Prefecture in Greece. This new program of property registrations will cover about 6.7 million property rights.

The time limits for the new declarations, which must be submitted by property owners, are very tight. All property owners, (Greek or foreign citizens), who reside in Greece, must submit their title until 30 September 2008. Property owners, (Greek or foreign citizens), who permanently reside outside of Greece, must submit their title until 31 December 2008.

After these time limits expire, property owners who failed to file their real estate property titles will still be able to do it, but through the courts, a more lengthy and costly procedure.

It is noteworthy that failure to declare the property to the Ktimatologio office means that the owner cannot sell, donate, transfer in any other way, build or develop the property.

What all Greek real estate property owners must know is that, those who reside in Greece and failed to declare their properties within eight (8) years from the start of the Ktimatologio office in their area, will lose their property for good! The ownership of the non-declared property will automatically go to the government and the only consolation for the property owner who lost his/her property will be a compensation claim against the government. Such compensations, knowing the Greek law and practice, will probably not be equal to the true, market value of the lost property.

Property owners, who permanently reside outside of Greece and failed to declare their titles to Ktimatologio for a period of ten (10) years after the start of the Ktimatologio office in their area, will also lose their properties. They, too, will be left with a compensation right against the government.

The declaration of the property to Ktimatologio is done by filling out a form with the owner’s data and the description of the property. In addition to that, a photocopy of the title by which the owner obtained ownership of the property must also be filed. A topographic plan (survey) always helps, especially if the property is a land in a rural area. The owner must also declare his/her Greek Tax Number (AFM) and documents which prove it, (deeds where the AFM is stated, electricity or other bills in the name of the owner, tax documents with AFM printed, etc).

In many cases property titles, especially in Greece, are not very easily described and other documents may also be needed for a proper Ktimatologio declaration. Such additional documents, depending on the type of the ownership right declared, may be proof of adverse possession by which the applicant became owner of the property, lease agreements which recognize the applicant as owner - landlord of the property, mortgage documents, lawsuit actions, inheritance documents etc.

In any case, those who own property in Greece and have not settled their cases for various reasons, must do it now. A large number of Greeks who reside outside of the country are entitled to inheritance shares. Now is the time to administer the inheritances by sorting out who are the heirs, what is their share, which and where are the properties inherited, what is their tax and market value and how the heirs will officially obtain title over the inherited property.

An inheritance is usually administered in Greece either through a legal procedure which is finalized with a deed signed at a notary public or through a court decision, which recognizes the heirs and their share. Before the heirs go to the notary, they must settle with the tax authority, if they owe taxes. A number of certificates must be obtained from various Greek authorities and in most cases legal advice is required.

Apart from filing the titles, topographic plans and forms for the property, the owner will also have to pay, (through the bank or the internet), 35 euros for every property right it is being declared and 20 euros for secondary rights. If one property is jointly owned by more than one persons, (undivided shares, parent and child co-owners of the same property etc.), each of them will have to file independently and pay the above amounts in full.

- Christos Iliopoulos, 17 June 2008

Christos Iliopoulos is an attorney at law, LL.M., in Athens, who specialises in International and European Business Law. For more information about him, see here

Homeowners pay the price

Millions of homeowners across the country will be forced to dig deep into their pockets this summer, paying the price for the country's long-awaited and grossly mismanaged land registry project that was embarrassingly stripped of European Union funding back in 2001.

Some three million Greek and expat property owners in 107 municipalities nationwide have between June 17 and September 30 to register their title deeds with the Ktimatologio AE, the state-owned company in charge of compiling the countrywide land registry. Property owners residing abroad will have until the end of this year to register their title deeds.

The land registry would have been free for property owners if Greece had spent millions of euros in European Union funds more efficiently about a decade ago. In December 2001, the EU's directorate general for regional policy had discovered that although the 140 million euros in Brussels funds earmarked for the project was spent by Greece, the country's land registry was still not operational. Greece was forced to return 100 million euros as a penalty.

That is why, according to Environment, Public Works and Town Planning Minister George Souflias, property owners are now required to pay for the land registry themselves.

"The cost of the land registry is estimated at 1.5 billion euros," Souflias said on June 10. "As you all know, the EU refuses to fund the project. In order to address this problem, we are financing it ourselves through a realistic and fair land registry fee."

As announced by the Ktimatologio, property owners, including joint owners, must each pay a fee of 35 euros to register their home, apartment, building, shop and/or plot of land. An additional 20 euros will be charged for each parking space or storage room.

This is the first phase of the land registry process. The second phase, which will be completed by 2012, involves a 0.1 percent charge on the property's objective value (the official estimate fixed by the finance ministry) minus 20,000 euros.

The good news is that this fee cannot exceed 900 euros and owners of property with an objective value of 20,000 euros or less will not be required to pay the 0.1 percent charge.

The procedure

The first step is for property owners to head for their nearest bank to pay the initial land registry fee. The Ktimatologio has commissioned the services of 13 banks: Alpha Bank, Eurobank, Marfin-Egnatia Bank, Pro Bank, ATE, Attiki Bank, Geniki Bank, Ethniki Bank, Emporiki Bank, Bank of Cyprus, Piraeus Bank, Dodecanese Bank and the Bank of Hania.

The next step for property owners is to go to their local branch of the Ktimatologio to register their property. Note: They must register the property in the municipality in which the property is located. This means that the owner of an apartment in Aigaleo and a patch of land in Kozani must register the apartment in Aigaleo and then travel to Kozani to register the land.

To register property, the owners must fill in a three-page application form (available from the Ktimatologio branch offices) and provide a photocopy of their title deed, as well as a bank receipt showing they have paid the registration fee.

A list of the Ktimatologio branch offices is available online (www.ktimatologio.gr).

Property owners, however, may avert the queues by registering by mail or online by visiting the website www.ktimatologio.gr. If they register by mail, their application must be postmarked by the September 30 cutoff date. To register online, property owners will have to pay the registration fee by credit card and scan their title deed so that they may send it as an attachment.

Those who fail to meet the September 30 deadline will be subject to a fee that ranges between 50 and 1,500 euros.

Property owners residing abroad may apply by proxy if they cannot come to Greece by the end of this year.

- For more information, visit www.ktimatologio.gr or ring the special hotline 1015

- Greece, along with Albania, is the only European country without a land registry.

- If all goes to plan, some 300,000 hectares of land in 107 municipalities nationwide will be registered this year. This means two-thirds of the country's real estate will have been registered with the Ktimatologio.

- A list of all the 107 municipalities and Ktimatologio branch offices is available online (www.ktimatologio.gr)


Example #1
The owner of a new 200m2 apartment and 10m2 storage room in Kifissia, a 50m2 summer home on the island of Samos and a small plot of land inherited from her grandmother in Larissa will have to pay a total of 125 euros (35 euros for the apartment, 20 euros for the storage room, 35 euros for the summer home and another 35 euros for the land on Samos) to register the properties.

In the second phase (by 2012), the owner will be called to pay 780 euros (= 800,000-20,000/1,000) just for the home in Kifissia, the objective value of which is currently fixed at 800,000 euros. But even though the summer home on Samos and the land in Larissa may have driven up the fee to several thousand euros, she will only be called to pay 900 euros (the maximum).


Example #2
A husband and wife jointly own their home (a one-storey house with a closed parking space worth 100,000 euros) in Aigaleo. They will each pay 55 euros (35+20 euros). By 2012, each of them will have paid an additional 80 euros ( = 100,000-20,000/1,000) or a total of 190 euros to the Ktimatologio.


Example #3
If the husband and wife in example #2 had transferred their property to their 10-year-old daughter, but still hold on to the majority stake of the property, all three of them will each have to pay 55 euros to register with the Ktimatologio. And by 2012, the family will have been called to pay 240 euros ( = 80x3).

- Athens News 13 June 2008

Hard times force mortgage holders to sell

An increasing number of Greek property owners now seem to be willing or have been forced to take the tough decision of selling their places. Selling a two- or three-year-old apartment was a rather unusual move some years ago.

As a means of comparison, the same phenomenon in the past affected only 5 percent of the market, with most of the apartment sellers doing so in order to make a profit, i.e. to capitalize on the great surplus value offered by the market from 2000 onward.

“A year ago, we could speak of only one in 10 residencies being sold because of failure or difficulty to repay a loan. Now this number has simply doubled,” commented a real estate professional with one of Athens’s major companies.

Two in 10 homes are now sold because of loan repayment difficulties.

The trend is more evident in the lower- to middle-class areas, where apartment costs are relatively cheaper, and mainly concerns places of up to 100-120 sq.m. of floor space, at prices of between 200,000 and 300,000 euros.

“As a rule, such places are resold by people who cannot repay their mortgages,” another professional said, adding that what lies behind homeowners’ difficulty to repay is primarily poor planning and the failure to take into account possible future interest rate hikes.

For some, reselling their home certainly means avoiding the eventuality of it being repossessed and auctioned by the bank.

However, seen in a different light, the higher number of used apartments for sale is an indirect help for the market as this specific segment now is recording the highest demand.

What is now different than in previous years, apart from generally dropping demand, is the limited amount of business in general and the low number of property transactions.

A crucial period that the market would allow for the estimation of future trends will be from September onward, when demand normally rises. If business is as low as its current levels, it is very likely that property values could drop considerably.

Renting

Renting a newly built home is again becoming a popular practice among developers. Offering new apartments for rent was a thing of the past for many years, but is now being seen as a way out of property market trouble. Higher bank pressures on developers who have borrowed drives them into leasing their apartments for a number of years, and this at least helps them to service their loans.

But rentals significantly increase amortization, with property market returns dropping to extremely low levels, even below 5.0 percent. So renting out an apartment would normally be a developer’s last choice.

But again, when it comes to the falling apartment prices, the construction contractors are viewing things as altogether negative. They say profit margins have dropped to alarming levels.

Most prospective home purchasers are now considering either buying an older home or renting a place, instead of buying new. Data provided by property market sources show that in 2007 used-home purchasing deals accounted for 70 percent, compared to 20 percent in 2005.

- Kathimerini 2 June 2008

Bureaucratic hurdles thwart wind farm permit applicants and plans

Although Greece is one of the windiest countries in Europe, wind farms have been slow in coming. The country gets just 3 percent of its power from wind, compared to 30 percent in Denmark.

In 2007 125 megawatts of wind power were added to the arsenal, raising the total to 870 MW (0.93 percent of the world’s total), produced from 1,096 wind generators, widening the gap Greece must close before it meets its targets under the Kyoto Protocol.

According to a European Commission proposal, renewable energy sources (RES) should supply 18 percent of total energy consumption by 2020, from 6.9 percent in 2005.

According to estimates, this means that wind energy should account for 8,000 to 10,000 MW.

There are several reasons for the shortfall. Although the Public Power Corporation (PPC) was one of the world’s pioneers during the 1980s, it abandoned its efforts in the 1990s, just when the technology was becoming more efficient.

“Cheap” lignite and the petroleum lobby worked their miracle. Then the deregulation of the market put a halt to PPC’s ventures in RES. Business interests, which proved to be considerable, took up the gauntlet.

Yet despite their initial enthusiasm over the good winds and fixed price per kilowatt hour, investors were soon faced with obstacles, chief among them Greece’s notorious bureaucracy that calls for 36 documents before final approval is given for a wind farm.

The Center for Renewable Energy Sources (KAPE) has estimated that the entire process takes 820 days, even though it is supposed to have been simplified over the past two years.

Moreover, the lack of a zoning plan has defeated all plans for wind farms opposed by local residents who have lodged protests with the Council of State (the country’s highest administrative court), which has ruled that in the absence of a national zoning plan, no wind farms can be sited.

This problem is expected to be overcome, as the Environment and Public Works Ministry is rushing through its bill on such a plan and a special plan on RES, despite opposition from the Technical Chamber of Greece and environmental and other groups.

About 1,000 MW of wind power are estimated to be in the final stages of planning permission.

Problems still remain, however. The wind farms are meeting with considerable opposition in many areas, particularly where there are large concentrations of them (as in southern Evia). Many have also been sited in inappropriate places, spoiling landscapes of natural beauty. Community consultation is rare; the wind farms are seen as get-rich schemes for private interests. The other major problem is that the specifications for developing the system for conveying wind energy cover only 5,500 MW, far below the target.

- Kathimerini 23 May 2008

Construction worries as prices stay put, transactions decline

One of the pillars of strong Greek economic growth since the late 1990s, the construction business, is not doing well according to data and various people working in the sector, raising concerns about its impact on other related sectors and the country’s economy in the quarters ahead.

Much depends on the course of the local residential market, which has been sending signs of greater fatigue for quite some time.

According to civil engineers, architects, workers and others active in the private construction sector, things are not looking good. Of course, it is not the first time in the last eight years or so of booming business that these professionals have expressed concerns about the conditions in their industry. Many had done so in the months leading up to the Summer Olympics in Athens in 2004, when they feared a severe slowdown which never materialized.

This time though things look a bit different because they are backed by disappointing figures and an international credit crisis spreading into different European markets, such as the UK, Spain and Ireland.

According to the National Statistics Service (NSS), construction activity fell by 13.4 percent year-on-year in the January-February period based on new building permits issued, and by 2.5 percent in terms of volume measured in cubic meters.

Private construction activity, which constitutes the bulk of total construction, fell by similar percentages. But the fate of construction is to a large extent tied to the status of the residential real estate market. Although no official statistics are available, the residential market is widely thought to account for 80 percent or more of the Greek real estate industry.

The balance is split between retail, office, logistics, hotel and other sub-sectors. The value of residential real estate is estimated at more than 700 billion euros and is believed to account for more than 80 percent of Greek household wealth.

One would expect industry executives, advisers and agents to agree on the current status of the markets. However, it is easier to find consensus between supporters of Greece’s top soccer teams than among them. This is no surprise, given the fact that it is a fragmented market with different trends prevailing even in neighboring districts of the same city.

House surplus

The stock of unsold houses is an example. According to a handful of real estate agents and advisers, there are some 400,000 unsold apartments and other houses throughout Greece, a high number by any standard.

Still, the large majority puts them at 100,000 units or less. It should be noted that the surplus is not the result of weak demand but the rush of many construction companies to obtain building permits in the second half of 2005 and erect houses before the introduction of the unpopular VAT (value-added tax) on new houses which made them more expensive.

In reality, all these are rough estimates and nobody knows the exact number of unsold houses.

However, this example highlights the sharp differences of opinion in the industry. Judging from the signs of new houses for sale in some Athenian suburbs, one would side with the pessimists, but just looking at the center or other areas one can easily conclude things are not so bad.

Impact on buyers

Still, these numbers, in conjunction with the news of the slump in foreign real estate markets, with record foreclosures and the sharp drop in selling prices of houses, appear to have had an adverse impact on the psychology of potential Greek buyers.

The fact that banks have become more selective and cautious in lending, along with the increases in interest rates, has also caught the attention of the local media and consequently the individuals interested in buying a house.

Most banks no longer advertise special mortgage offers, which until recently included below-market introductory lending rates for the first few years of the mortgage loan, to lure customers and/or offer to pay various expenses.

At this point, most new mortgage loans for 15 to 20 years or longer carry an interest rate in excess of 5.5 percent, according to senior bankers specializing in retail banking.

One could also add worsening labor and incomes conditions but this theory is not supported by facts. The pay of the average Greek employee in the private sector is projected to rise by more than inflation again this year and there are no signs that employment will stop growing. This means the disposable income of the average Greek worker will go up after adjusting for inflation.

Moreover, the vast majority of Greek buyers think they are being asked to pay too much when they want to buy an apartment or a detached family house.

This is one of the reasons half or more of the buyers have switched to more affordable used apartments rather than brand-new ones in the last six months or more, according to the data of some of Greece’s largest real estate brokerages.

However expensive, a top apartment in a prime area of Athens cannot fetch the 36,825 euros per square meter asked in London at the end of 2007 or the 35,000-euro tag in France’s Courchevel or the 32,500 euros per square meter in Monaco.

Still, the majority of the Greek population appear to have become more pessimistic in assessing the impact of the global credit and housing crisis on the local residential real estate industry.

This translates into broadly steady prices since the start of the year and a lower volume of transactions compared to the same period in the previous two years.

Whether the dent in psychology can translate into a protracted stagnation as argued by some industry officials or a blip in an otherwise upward trend remains to be seen.

A lot will depend on general macroeconomic conditions, where there is a two-way interaction between the residential property market and construction on the one hand and economic growth on the other.

- Kathimerini 12 May 2008

Measures for borrowers

The prime minister presented in Parliament yesterday a series of measures for the protection of people who take out loans that is soon to become law, while also sending a warning to banks.

Speaking during the prime minister’s question time, Costas Karamanlis announced that the government is studying various regulations to protect consumers when they borrow from banks. This development comes in view of the excessive number of repossessions and house auctions seen in the last few years owing to indebtedness from loans.

The measures considered include the banning of auctions of properties at prices below their officially determined value (objective value), the compulsory holding of auctions only in magistrate courts with sealed bids, a grace period up to one year for borrowers before a property is seized, a set of social and economic criteria used for the handling of each borrower, a ban on seizing monthly salaries up to 1,500 euros, and the possible increase of the 10,000-euro threshold in debts, below which a borrower’s sole house cannot be auctioned.

Consent

Therefore, the government is adopting most of the opposition’s proposals, which PASOK leader George Papandreou greeted with satisfaction.

“There are thousands of families who lose their houses,” he said, asking for more measures.

Karamanlis also warned banks that their behavior toward their clients is being carefully watched: “We recognize their contribution to the country’s development, but they need to show increased social responsibility. We will not tolerate practices which contravene good faith or transaction terms which are abusive.”

He then referred to debt-collecting firms, saying that this is an issue brought to light by the Consumer Ombudsman and that the competent ministries “are working together to produce an institutional framework that will set some rules in this particular industry.”

- Kathimerini 10 May 2008

Bill aims at energy tests on buildings

All buildings being rented or sold in Greece will have to pass an energy efficiency test, according to a draft bill submitted to Parliament yesterday.

The draft law, submitted by the Development Ministry, will come into effect in six months and will apply to properties above 50 square meters being sold or rented, regardless of age.

“The real estate market and the relevant authorities are being asked to familiarize themselves with the new facts immediately in order to avoid delays,” said Development Minister Christos Folias.

“There will be an information campaign in regards to the procedures that will need to be followed in order to obtain the certificate as quickly as possible and with the least expense to owners.”

The government will also put together a team of inspectors to check that the measure is being adopted.

Currently the energy certificate is only needed for buildings that are over 1,000 square meters that are new or being renovated.

Buildings account for 40 percent of total energy consumed, on a European level, and account for 50 percent of carbon dioxide emissions produced that contribute to the greenhouse effect.

Opposition parties described the draft bill as being unclear and accused the conservative government of introducing an ineffective measure in order to simply avoid being taken to the European Court of Justice by the Commission.

- Kathimerini 7 May 2008

Zoning plan submitted to Parliament

Bill to be voted on in May.

Greece's first national zoning plan, which aims to regulate land development over the next 15 years, was submitted to Parliament yesterday.

Experts have criticized the draft bill, saying that it does not deal with the problem of uncontrolled urban sprawl or illegal construction activity and also fails to provide for the country's islands.

The bill says it «addresses the management of measures, after thorough studies, such as the creation of bus lanes and setting up of toll roads in areas or urban centers where traffic has come to a standstill.»

A number of municipal officials, political representatives and transport experts have opposed plans to set up toll areas, arguing that it will be an ineffective measure just aimed at earning the government revenues.

A parliamentary committee is expected to debate the draft bill over the next two weeks, giving MPs an opportunity to modify the draft plan, which will head for a final vote by lawmakers in May.

The initial proposal is the result of efforts by about 40 experts from various fields, and was submitted to the Environment and Public Works Ministry where it was subsequently divested of any «troublesome» amendments or innovative approaches.

The designers of the plan had mentioned the need to wean the islands off dependency on Athens and Thessaloniki and to organize the Aegean archipelago as an autonomous unit with four centers - Iraklion on Crete, Ermoupolis on Syros, Rhodes and Mytilene.

The zoning plan submitted to Parliament yesterday, however, has failed to take this into account, say experts.

«Points of growth for the mainland have been clearly set out but for the islands they are non-existent,» said one architect, Rania Kloutsiniotis, who was one of the experts who initially drafted the plan.

«They could have created new sea and airport routes between the islands that do not necessarily pass through Athens.»

- Kathimerini 17 Apr 2008

National zoning plan for Greece

"Bringing order to the building anarchy of Greece" was the way Environment and Public Works Minister George Souflias described the finalised national zoning plan, which was unveiled on February 27. Having been approved by the inner cabinet earlier that day, the plan will now be put to parliament before Easter. Seen as essential for the sustainable development of industry, tourism and housing, the country's first such national zoning plan could, therefore, become a reality by summer.

"This national zoning plan is one of the most important structural changes to have taken place in this country in recent decades. From now, everyone will know what they are able to do and where," said Souflias. He conceded, however, that the plan, which is to be supplemented by more specific zoning plans for tourism, industrial and renewable energy installations, is no more than a guideline and will only be properly enforceable once nationwide land and forest registries have been completed.

Specifically, the zoning plan outlines the completion of land and forest registries and the streamlining of municipalities, prefects and regions (all within four years of the plan being passed by parliament), the completion of studies on 80 protected Natura 2000 sites (by 2013) and the completion of sewage and waste treatment facilities for areas of more than 2,000 people (within five years). The plan envisages zones identifying areas for industrial and tourism development. These zones, said Souflias, would be supervised and the law enforced through fines. However, the plan stopped short of banning or further restricting out-of-town planning construction (viewed as a motivating factor for forest-burning) as proposed in draft versions of the 77-page document.

"This is a significant step in the right direction, but I have many reservations," Vivi Batsou, a senior member of the representation committee of the Technical Chamber of Greece - the state advisory body of engineers and architects - told this newspaper. "It is no more than a guideline. The real question is whether the ministry will be consistent with its interpretation and say that the same rules apply in, say, Komotini and Crete, or whether the current situation where each municipality does its own thing will prevail."

She added that out-of-town planning construction has been extremely damaging to Greece environmentally. "There are a series of exceptions through which out-of-town planning construction is made possible," she explained. "Strictly speaking, you need four stremmata (4,000m2) of land in order to build out of town. In reality, this can come down to 750m2 if you meet certain provisions - for instance, if the land was owned by someone before 1960 or if your land is next to a road linking towns. This is why you see so many buildings along out-of-town roads." Batsou acknowledged, however, that a strict ban on such construction would be virtually unenforceable in the absence of land and forest registries.

Indeed, Souflias outlined that the completion of the forest registry would highlight many instances of illegal construction now deemed acceptable. "Some have said that aerial photographs from 1945 should be used in making the forest registry," said Souflias. "This would expose our hypocrisy as it would show entire suburbs of Athens built on what was once forestland. Would we then demolish these suburbs?" He suggested the use of photographs from 1960, the most recent comprehensive aerial photographs the country has.

Souflias' plan also envisages a drastic reduction in the number of municipalities (currently over 1,000), prefectures and regions across Greece.
- Athens News 29 February 2008

Minister calls for holiday homes to respect environment

The holiday home market should be developed in Greece, but only if it respects the natural and architectural environment, said Tourism Development Minister Aris Spiliotopoulos, speaking at the 2nd Tourism & Property Conference in Athens yesterday.

The minister referred to the tourism zoning plan that is currently the subject of public consultation. He said it is one of the main steps toward the creation of an operative framework for investing with clear rules and priorities so that tourism has a balanced development across the country.

He added that the plan will put an end to anarchy in development, the lack of programming and the haphazard growth of tourism in Greece. “We will not follow the Spanish model of holiday home development,” Spiliotopoulos stressed.

The president of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, Gerasimos Fokas, said that clear terms and procedures should be established for the construction of holiday homes. This will ensure that such homes do not lag behind other residences in terms of quality of construction, while town planning studies are also essential, as new villages spring up from nothing and they should have common spaces and social structures.

Fokas added that there must be limits in various aspects of development, such as a minimum ratio of hotel beds to beds or rooms in houses.
- Kathimerini, 21 February 2008

Greece 7th in UK's top buying destinations

According to a survey published today, in the form of A Place in the Sun magazine’s annual Top 20 buying destinations, despite a raft of emerging markets and USA property prices down 30% on a year ago and a dollar weakened by 25%, it’s the traditional sun-seeker’s favourite Spain that takes the number one spot for the second year running.

The poll, conducted at the recent A Place in the Sun Live exhibition at the NEC Birmingham, the world’s largest overseas property event of its type, also saw France with its enviable lifestyle maintaining its 2006 second place and Turkey climbing into third position on the back of a wide range of developments marketing in the UK offering great value and year-round sunshine.

Other key trends highlighted include the USA’s leaping six places into fourth position as UK investors take advantage of a buyer’s market and two dollars to the pound, Italy moves up three spots into the top five (as Calabria becomes ever more prominent) and the meteoric rise of Canada – the biggest climber – up seven places to number nine.

Seven of the top ten destinations are European, with Cyprus (6) and Greece (7) performing consistently on the wish lists of UK residents looking for a home abroad, but Egypt is up three places and bubbling under (at 11) and threatening to break through alongside its North African counterpart Cape Verde (10).

Another interesting mover is Australia, which jumps from 20 to 15 as more UK residents than ever make a permanent move overseas (389,000 last year according to the Office of National Statistics) – as witnessed by the success of The Emigration Show at A Place in the Sun Live.

Says Richard Way, Editor of A Place in the Sun magazine: “What’s really interesting about our annual Top 20 survey is that it shows UK buyers as traditional in one respect - in favouring Spain and France - but also willing to seek out new hot spots and investment opportunities elsewhere: across Europe, North Africa, North America, Asia and the Middle East. When looking for a second home or a new life in the sun it seems that Spain’s mix of great weather, rich culture and beautiful coastline is keeping the country at the number one spot, but buyers aren’t afraid to consider Germany, Montenegro, Morocco, Las Vegas, Thailand or Dubai.”

The UK’s Top 20 overseas property destinations according to A Place in the Sun:

- A Place In The Sun Live, 15th January 2008