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In the early 1990s Lampros bought a ground floor space of 200 sq.m. in Upper Ilisia, to house his craft. When 2010 stopped its operation it had no difficulty finding a tenant, and for a decade the ground floor hosted a print shop. «They rented out six years ago and since then the place has been empty. There's no interest in a professional. The nature of business has changed and I know very well that it will be difficult for a merchant to come to a neighborhood. But what had not crossed my mind is that it could be used as a residence».
Today, Lambros from where he thought he was at a dead end has found himself in front of two options: to turn 200 sq.m. into four small apartments for students, utilizing the proximity of the area to universities, or to sell it to an investor looking for a property suitable for Golden Visa. His dilemma illustrates a much wider shift that has been taking place lately in the housing market: former ground floor shops, warehouses and professional spaces are increasingly converted into small houses as a more economical and readily available response to housing pressure.
Former stores become lofts
«This trend has been significantly accelerated over the last year and a half», says to «M» The real estate consultant Anastasios Yangas. As he explains, the increased limit of Golden Visa in Attica, which now reaches EUR 800,000, has made it even more attractive to buy commercial real estate for the purpose of legally converting them into housing, where the corresponding limit remains EUR 250,000. «The most popular are ground floor with a loft, which are purchased by companies or private investors and converted into lofts. The license, since there is no problem with the statutes of the apartment building, costs from 3,000 to 5,000 euros. A former store can be purchased even 30%–50% cheaper than a corresponding apartment. But now even these are becoming difficult to find. For example, in Piraeus where retail trade has shrunk, any untapped stores that could be converted into housing have already been convertedCorrespondingly what they avoid is the underground. As old apartment buildings, of the 1960s, are usually located there the pipes of the apartment building, so living is not pleasant».
Former store on Esperid Street was converted into a 64 sq.m. residence.
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Among his customer apartments there is a former shoe store in Pagrati as well as a former pharmacy in the New World. In most cases, however, it is ground floor that has been closed for so long that we do not even know what the last store they hosted was. «The owners in their majority are old and had accepted that this is a closed space. Now that there is interest they are willing to sell it to investors so that they can share the money with their offspring. They are usually the youngest who inherit such a space and enter the process of turning it themselves into a home to make use of it.». As Golden Visa investments are not allowed to be made available for short term leases, the main long-term tenants of the ground floor are mainly students and young people who are first left alone. As regards renting, on average it moves from EUR 10 to EUR 14/sq.m. «We would say about 100 to 200 euros less than we would rent the exact same house if it were on the third floor. 90% are given for rent either fully equipped and furnished, or even with electrical appliances», notes Mr. Yangas.
Former store on Lykourgou Street in Kallithea was converted into a residence of 55 sq.m.
680 € for ground floor 47 sq.m. «It's coming in.»
Anastasia's experience, which lived three years in a former store in Exarchia, shows however another aspect of this model of residence. «In my case, the owner was Greek who owned the entire building. The apartment was about 47 sq.m., a single space. You walked in through the door and were on the first level: a double bed, the bathroom door and the balcony door leading to the courtyard, where the laundry room was. You go down two stairs and you were on the second level that had a kitchen like those of the rooms to let, a poof couch and a kitchen table. It was renovated and furnished with the aesthetics you often encounter in Airbnb. There was no special light, but in my eyes at least it was very cute.»He says. It was her first house in Athens when she had come to work at the age of 25.
I'm convinced that when you rent a house, you automatically accept that you'll never get warm.
«It was high and the former store entrance never became an airtight window so it wouldn't enter. The air conditioner felt more like ventilation than heat. Now I'm convinced that when you rent a house, you automatically accept that you'll never get warm. The feeling of privacy, however, did not concern me, nor of security.»Mr. Yangas explains that the facade of a former store that was a window cannot be built even after the change of use. «What can be done is to put a glass window in milky color, as well as to build from the inside side a wall in height e.g. one meter, so that there is a sense of privacy». The first year Anastasia paid 500 € including bills, then there was an increase to 530 € And the reason he left was because the owner asked for 680. €. «After the first year I shared the washing machine with two basement apartments, which were renovated and also rented. Despite the difficulties, the house on the ground floor loved it. But the basement would make me...».
The «before» and «after» a ground floor store of 103 sq.m.
Bar's warehouse turned into a house
A.A.’s experience (ed.: asked that only the initials of its name be published), a contractual conservationist of antiquities, who lived two months in a basement, illuminates the boundary between «financially feasible» and the real habitable. «Three years ago, when I was 35 years old, I found myself in Northern Greece as a contract conservationist of antiquities. In the first wage scale I belong to the salary is clearly less than 900 €, along with the border and dangerous work allowance, and unfortunately not all the relevant host antiquities bodies have for their contractors. So I found myself in Drama after a contract in an adjacent county.»H.A. was desperately looking for a house for two to three months, until the house where she would live with her partner was ready. He found a space around 25 sq.m. that was originally a storeroom, as he put his liquor store there a neighborhood bar.
The owners informed her that in the bathroom there is a dehumidator that must always be open.
«It was converted into Airbnb and then rented to students and contractees. It had electrical appliances and air conditioning. Outside there was room for a smoothie and a chair with a table, but it was impossible to spread your underwear out to the passersby.», recalls H. «The price was 430 € with all means, Internet, water, electricity. On the bus, the acceptance of a lease seemed only 100 €When I asked them to change it and that they hadn't informed me and I don't want to hide anything from my rent, they told me they did, and they will. They never changed it.». When H moved in, the owners informed her that in the bathroom there is a dehumidator that should always be open. «I opened him up, but the first weekend I was away from home, so I shut him down. When I got back, it smelled like shutdown and mold. Since then I've kept him running. And yet, in the first month, I began to have cough, sleep disturbances. I couldn't get the sun in the house, since they would see me passing by. I left in two months, and although it's been about three years, I have a level three allergy to mold and some fungi, confirmed by an allergy test. Because of my overexhibition in them».
Είναι ο χώρος όπου κάποιος θα ζει και θα κινείται. Πρέπει να είναι τουλάχιστον 50 τ.μ., να έχει ανοίγματα για να μπαίνει το φως και να υπάρχει παράθυρο στο υπνοδωμάτιο.
THE Δαυίδ Ογκανεσιάν, ιδιοκτήτης εταιρείας στρατηγικού σχεδιασμού και αξιοποίησης ακινήτων, έχει αναλάβει μέσα στον τελευταίο έναν χρόνο 4 διαφορετικά πρώην καταστήματα στην Καλλιθέα και είναι κάθετος στις προδιαγραφές που πρέπει να έχει ένας χώρος προκειμένου να μετατραπεί σε αξιοπρεπή κατοικία: «Είναι ο χώρος όπου κάποιος θα ζει και θα κινείται. Αρα πρέπει να είναι τουλάχιστον 50 τ.μ., να έχει ανοίγματα για να μπαίνει το φως και να υπάρχει παράθυρο στον χώρο που θα γίνει το υπνοδωμάτιο. Το ιδανικό είναι να υπάρχει και πατάρι». Ο ίδιος τονίζει πως ειδικά στην Καλλιθέα υπάρχουν πολλοί κλειστοί επαγγελματικοί χώροι με αυτές τις προδιαγραφές. «Θυμάμαι πως το 2019-20, που δραστηριοποιούμουν ως μεσίτης, θεωρούσα πως δεν υπάρχει κανένα ενδιαφέρον στο να αναλάβω ένα κλειστό επαγγελματικό ακίνητο. Πλέον, λόγω Golden Visa, από μια τέτοια επένδυση μπορείς να έχεις απόδοση από 10% έως 30% μέσα σε 6 με 12 μήνες. Και η ίδια η πόλη όμως το έχει ανάγκη, αρκεί να θυμόμαστε πως μέσα σε αυτά τα σπίτια θα κατοικήσουν άνθρωποι».
Η Αναστασία, που πλέον συγκατοικεί στα Ιλίσια, σε ένα διαμέρισμα 3ου ορόφου, σημειώνει ότι δεν θα επέλεγε ξανά να ζήσει σε «σπίτι τσέπης», όπως τα αποκαλεί. «Δεν μπορούν να μετατραπούν όλα τα ισόγεια σε σπίτια. Καλό θα ήταν όσο δεν τηρούν τις προδιαγραφές να παραμείνουν καταστήματα, ή να μετατραπούν σε μπαρ».
