Greece’s New Short-term Rental Regulation Unclear for Property Owners

Photo © Greek Travel Pages (GTP)

The new regulation on short-term rental activity in Greece, which has raised several questions for property owners, was one of the main issues discussed at the recent ShortStay Conference 2024 in Athens.

Part of Greece’s updated tax bill, the regulation is an attempt of the government to regulate the short-term rental market to balance conflicting interests with the hotel sector.

Speaking via video-call during the conference, Greek Deputy Minister of Finance Harry Theoharis said the Economy and Finance Ministry proceeded with the reform to bring “social justice” to the hospitality community.

“In this context, a combination of interventions in the short-term leasing sector was introduced to address unfair competition and counter the negative effects on the (hotel) market,” the minister said.

Greek Deputy Minister of Finance Harry Theoharis at ShortStay Conference

AADE answers questions on new rules

At the ShortStay Conference 2024, Aggelos Kouros and Apostolos Boutos, advisors to the governor of Greece’s Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE), were invited to participate in a special session to answer questions from the audience.

In force since January 1, the reform brought the imposition of additional fees (such as the climate crisis resilience fee and a stayover duty in favor of municipalities), stricter fines for violation of rules, a 59-day limit per lease, and the obligation to owners renting out more than two properties to register as businesspersons for tax purposes.

The regulation also exempts owners who have three registration numbers (AMA) for the same property from the obligation to register as businesspersons.

Aiming to be more specific, the advisors gave the following example: an individual that leases a property and has issued an AMA for a partial lease of one floor; a second AMA for another floor; and a third AMA to rent the entire property, will not be considered to be owning three properties and therefore will not need to start business operations.

Aggelos Kouros and Apostolos Boutos AADE Consultants at ShortStay Conference

The second important change on short-term rental activity in Greece concerns the introduction of a 59-day limit per lease.

According to the rule, owners can rent their properties throughout the year provided the duration of each short-term lease does not exceed 60 days. Leases with a duration of over 60 days will qualify as long-term.

Moreover, the regulation refers to two new activity code numbers (KAD), one for properties booked via an online platform; and one for properties booked offline.

More clarifications expected

Despite the clarifications given by the advisors from AADE, quite a few questions remained unanswered such as those related to value-added tax (VAT) on fixed assets and the deduction of prices before five years of operation.

According to the advisors, AADE is expected this week to release a circular clarifying the new regulation for the short-term rental market.

In an effort to shed light of the new regulation, Christina Bougioukou, member of the board of KRS, and Ioanna Kellarakou, CEO of Kalypso Hospitality, spoke about their own experiences in the field of short-term rentals. They agreed that the new tax regulation for short-stay rentals still has unclear terms that require further clarification.

Christina Bougioukou, member of the board of KRS, and Ioanna Kellarakou, CEO of Kalypso Hospitality

“We have been waiting for clarifications since 2026 and certainly received some today. However, theory is a long way from practice,” Kellarakou said.

On her part, Bougioukou stressed that the short-term market is a tourism sector that continues to develop, with the new regulation being proof of that.

More than 130,000 Greek short-term rental properties are currently active listings on the Airbnb online platform, a number up 19 percent compared to January 2023, according to data presented by Beyond during the ShortStay Conference 2024. Beyond is a revenue management solution for short-term rental managers and owners.

The biggest event focusing on the industry of short-term rentals, villas and serviced apartments, the ShortStay Conference aims to provide insight, networking, and inspiration to professionals in the field. The event was organized by BnBNews.gr and took place from February 9 to 10 at the Conference Center of West Attica University.