Many of you who own homes in Greece may not be using them as often as you wish or maybe not at all. You also may have thought of renting out your property at times without wanting to commit to a long-term rental agreement or even selling your property but decided to hold on to it.
The good news is that now, you have another option. The Greek government has recently enforced a new fast-tracking law, Law No. 4179/2013, which allows property owners to rent out their homes exceeding 40m² as a short-term holiday rental without registering as a hotel business.
A specific EOT License, issued only by architects and engineers, is granted by The Greek National Tourism Organisation – EOT. Once acquired, you can rent out your beach house, your city apartment or even your patriko in the village for a period of up to 3 months within a year, to one or more individual tenants depending on the surface area of your rental.
When the licence is issued, each property receives a unique EOT MHTE number which must be displayed when advertising on all printed media and online. Owners who fail to do so will be faced with hefty fines.
Additionally, as in long-term rentals, all income gained short-term must be declared on yearly tax returns to be taxed accordingly.
However, to take advantage of this new law, a ‘Declaration of Legal Property Status – Law No. 4178/13’ is required. All property applying must be legal, meaning that all built structures on-site must comply with what has been declared on the building permit and drawings.
You may be wondering, is it worth the fuss? Some benefits to consider other than the additional income are the fact that regular maintenance will help prevent more serious problems than when the property is uncared for and, most importantly, the fact that you can still use your property at any time.