Year-Long Restriction on Extra Airbnb-type Properties as of Jan 1

Property owners in Greece, especially those in three Athens municipal departments, face more state restrictions as of Jan. 1, 2025 in case they want to exploit their real estate assets through short-term leasing, via the now ubiquitous Airbnb-style platforms.

Beginning from the first day of the new year, the state will allow the short-term rental availability of only three properties – managed or owned by the same legal entity – located in Athens’ first, second and third municipal departments.

The “cap” in this case refers to a maximum of three properties that can be listed on a special electronic short-term lease registry created and maintained by Greece’s tax bureau (AADE or IAPR). A property cannot be legally exploited via the international online platforms if it’s not on the tax bureau’s registry, which was created as part of efforts to better collect taxable income generated from this booming sector in Greece.

In terms of greater Athens, such short-term properties are predominately small to mid-sized dwellings in apartment buildings.

The more-or-less interventionist measure on the part of the center-right Mitsotakis government, however, will expire in a year, and specifically on Dec. 31, 2025.

The proliferation of short-term dwellings in the center of Athens, especially in districts close to sights and monuments that attract millions of visitors every year, is cited as one of the causes of a housing shortage in the Greek capital as well as the wider Athens-Piraeus urban agglomeration.

The three specific municipal departments in Athens include all of the neighborhoods around the Acropolis, including the Plaka “old quarter” and Thisseio.

Recently, Alexis Patelis, the prime minister’s top economic adviser, said roughly 100,000 properties in the east Mediterranean country are listed on the tax bureau registry, with 40,000 added in the last four years alone.