There is still a long way to go in order to address the problem of arbitrary or unregulated construction in urban centers and the periphery, given that only 3% of houses are fully compliant with their building permit.
According to Manos Kranidis, civil engineer and board member at the landlord federation POMIDA, “based on the hundreds of inspections that I have carried out, only 3% of the properties have no deviation from the initial building permit. Urban planning does not function as it should.” This means that for the remaining 97% of cases, time and money are required until it becomes possible to issue the electronic building identity, which in turn is a prerequisite for completing any purchase or sale, or parental concession.
Surprisingly, older apartments show smaller violations, but they also have significant issues, such as the absence of a building permit file, while others have one but it has become illegible.
The above issues cause some of the long-term delays in sales. Dion Gavriilidis, managing partner at Elxis-At Home In Greece, told the recent Prodexpo real estate conference that “while, traditionally, a purchase and sale in Greece can require from two to six months, in cases where the electronic building identity already exists, the same transaction can be completed in just two to six weeks.”
However, in addition to the significant discrepancies between the actual buildings and the “virtual reality” of building permits, significant issues are also presented due to the fragmentation of databases. In her speech at Prodexpo, Cerved Property Services CEO Evelyn Hadjiyerou proposed the creation of a Property Data Authority, which would collect and validate data.
In this context, the operation – probably in early 2026 – of the new Property Ownership and Management Registry (MIDA), where each property will acquire its own digital file, is considered very important. It will record all related information (from the square-meterage, the lease agreement, and the tenant’s details, to whether the same information has been declared by the owner and tenant). There will also be automatic cross-checking with other other state records of properties, to correct discrepancies in size etc.