By Nikos Rousanoglu
The purchase of real estate is being drugged by the failure to find a solution to the chronic problem of transfers, as a significant part of housing is currently off the market because of the inability of their owners to make the necessary corrections, either due to time, or due to costs, or a combination of these two factors. The chronic discrepancies of the declared surfaces are the most common factor in dealing with them, which is now perceived by the competent bodies, with AADE being forced to postpone the implementation of the new Real Estate Property Data Register (MID), with 2027 becoming the next "landmark" and two extensions have already been given. The MID was to be operational as early as last June, which ultimately was not possible, as the services found what they were tracking and almost all owners interested in moving on to the sale of their property in recent years: that the surfaces declared on the Land Register rarely to never coincide with the respective surfaces of E9, or the elements of the DEDIE (on which the TAP is calculated). The extent of the phenomenon is clearly greater than initial estimates, as it does not only concern property cases, which had previously been incorporated into settlement procedures, corrections (e.g. for semi-universities).
On the contrary, as reported in recent years by real estate market officials, the problem is deeper and is due to the fact that the initial transfer contracts rarely indicate the actual square meters, especially as old as the property is. About 50-60% of the country's residential stock has been built before 1980, but when the measurement of the surfaces was not done with the same consistency and accuracy, another timeless pathogen of the land market. Today, when measurements are much more accurate, the problems and inconsistencies of the surfaces are revealed, which are corrected only when the property is transferred, or is part of an energy upgrade program, as only then is it mandatory to issue an electronic building identity, which solves the problem.
These problems were now perceived by the competent bodies, who attempted to obtain the data from the Land Register, tax administration and the HEDNO and it was revealed that they are very little as a percentage of the total, the properties where ATAK and KAEK agree, i.e. the unique codes of the same property in AAD and the Land Register respectively. Apart from any errors and oversights of the owners, which are easy to correct, mismatches are observed and because in E9 any changes made due to, for example, arbitrariness arrangements, legalizations of semi-university spaces, etc., are updated, while the Land Register continues to record the initial square meters declared on the basis of contracts and property titles. To be updated in the Land Register, however, a horizontal property amendment is required by an engineer and notary, a process that not only takes a lot of time, but also costs. And the great workload of both engineers and notaries also works at the expense of speeding up the whole process.
The result is to stay out of the market, unsold and empty thousands of homes, as many owners, especially older people, or those who stay away from the property they are interested in making use of, are disappointed and give up every effort. According to a recent analysis by KEFIM (Centre for Liberal Studies), the average duration of completion of a real estate transfer to Greece is 226 days (about 7.5 months), while in several cases it exceeds one year. Accordingly, issuing a building permit requires an average of 100 days. This is a development that few take into account, but has eventually evolved into a basic "embankment" at the entry of more housing into the market.
In fact, according to the KEFIM study, the economic importance of these administrative charges is greater than it seems at first sight. A large part of the existing housing stock (estimated more than 50%) carries small or larger deviations between contracts, E9, Land register and real estate status, as well as town-planning pending or arbitrary interventions requiring settlement prior to any transfer". At the same time, it complements that these procedures create additional bottlenecks for engineers, notaries and city-planning services, causing additional delay in the transaction. As a result, several owners, especially older or lower financial capacity, are unable or avoid taking up the cost and complexity of compliance, choosing to keep properties off the market, either as a sale or as a lease."
