Objective values will not change before 2016
by Prokopis Hatzinikolaou and Nikos Roussanoglou, ekathimerini.com, 13 October 2014

Property tax will continue to be based on present-day values until early 2016 even though these are far higher than going market rates, according to a document signed by Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis and forwarded to Parliament on Monday. The reason is that it will take around a-year-and-a half for a new system allowing the automatic adjustment of so-called objective values to become operational.

The plan is to scrap expert committees assigned to decide on the values for each zone and to replace them with an online system that will draw data for the whole of Greece from entities such as the Bank of Greece, the real estate authorities of the Finance Ministry and land registries.

This will create a single platform for state bodies such as the Finance Ministry, local and town planning authorities, utility companies, chambers etc. A set zone rate will be created for every area and the only variable will be the tax rate, depending on the revenues the state is looking to collect.

Therefore, for the Single Property Tax (ENFIA) to go down in 2015 as the prime minister vowed on Friday, the government's only option is to cut the property tax rate.