Two European-funded housing programmes in Greece expire on August 31, prompting a surge of applications from households and property owners seeking subsidies or subsidised loans before the deadline.
The home loan scheme Spiti Mou II has approved more than 15,000 mortgages totalling over 1.8 billion euros, absorbing 95 percent of its available budget. According to the latest figures, funding for approved households is expected to reach or exceed 98 percent of the total budget once all loan contracts are signed. Approved applicants have until August 31 to finalise their agreements.
Nearly all loans issued under Spiti Mou II went to households that declared incomes of up to 44,000 euros on their most recent tax return, according to available data. One in three recipients declared income above 24,000 euros, while only one in ten declared income below 12,000 euros. Economic officials said this pattern shows the scheme resonated primarily with middle-income households earning between roughly 2,000 and 3,650 euros per month.
Renovation subsidies for vacant homes
The separate Anakainisi Katikias renovation programme has drawn more than 150,000 applications, with an estimated 77,000 properties approved as eligible by the end of July. Officials describe it as the first pilot programme of its kind across Europe to subsidise not only energy upgrades but also broader renovation work such as flooring, kitchens, bathrooms and painting.
Applications for occupied properties closed on July 31, but applications for vacant or inactive properties were extended through August. Subsidies under the scheme can reach up to 36,000 euros per property, or up to 95 percent of renovation costs, and are funded through ESPA structural funds. The programme also carries tax incentives for inactive properties.
Conditions for vacant properties are stricter: owners must commit to renting the property long-term for five years, with rents fixed for three of those years, and short-term rentals are prohibited. Those restrictions help explain why only about one in ten eligible properties under the scheme involved a vacant home.
To widen participation, authorities lowered the minimum ownership or usufruct threshold for vacant properties from 50 percent to 20 percent, and raised the electricity consumption limits used to verify that a property is genuinely inactive. Eligibility certificates for vacant properties will be issued through the platform anakainisi.gov.gr until August 31, 2026.
Both programmes were added to Greece’s Recovery Fund after 2023, when the housing crisis emerged as a pressing issue in Greece and across Europe, according to the source. The Recovery Fund itself also expires on August 31.
