The gvt’s affordable housing plan: Who will benefit and how

Cheap housing for workers and young people is provided by the government employment agency – OAED plan, totaling 1 billion euros.

The government aims to use new tools such as working with the private sector, buying new homes and giving them away, with a symbolic rent and a low-interest or interest-free loan to young couples starting their lives.

For these actions, the reserve of 1 billion euros that has been collected in OAED from the accounts of the former OEK (Workers’ Housing Organization), of which OAED is the universal successor (the contributions have not stopped being collected) will be utilized.

Housing policy

The resumption of the housing policy by OAED, which has been frozen for almost 10 years, includes, among others, the rent to own model (rental agreement for a certain period of time and the possibility of purchase before the end of the lease).

The model that has existed abroad for a long time is precisely aimed at facilitating the purchase of real estate for employees who can not immediately pay the full amount required to purchase a home and do not have access to bank lending.

Thus, they pay the rent that they will agree on with OAED, maintaining the possibility to buy the property they rent at a predetermined time and at a preferential price by receiving an interest-free loan. The time required until the tenant reaches the real estate market is determined based on the agreement he has made with the Agency.

In particular, in the new housing policy package, OAED will be able:

to rent out its plots for housing development through PPP programs with individuals
to buy suitable plots in which real estate will be developed
to provide houses to the unemployed or young people with low rent, so that in a few years with specific conditions the house passes to the tenant with the method of “rent to own” or
to proceed with a rent subsidy or and
to proceed with a mortgage interest rate subsidy or and
to subsidize the purchase of a first home and
renovate existing buildings so that they can then be made available to employees.

Young couples

Recently, Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, during his speech in the Plenary Session of the Parliament, in the discussion of the bill “Jobs Again”, also referred to the intention of the government to launch cheap housing policies for young couples.

“So the problem of cheaper housing – a problem that has been raised by other political forces in this room – is real now. The other side of a prosperous real estate market needs to be tackled, with rising prices, rising rents, obviously something that favors landlords, further increasing the pressure to be able to launch smarter policies for cheaper housing, especially for our young couples who are having a hard time at the moment significantly in case they do not have access to their own house “, said Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

In Greece, despite high rates of ownership and home ownership, 37% of the population spends over 40% of their income on housing expenses. In Europe, this number is significantly lower. One in three Greeks has overdue debts related to housing.