ATHENS – Greece’s government is looking at using some of the 600,000 empty apartments and vacant properties around the country to create more housing and deal with a critical shortage that’s made rents and purchase prices soar.
The problem has been exacerbated by the Golden Visa program that has seen thousands of homes and apartments bought by rich foreigners to obtain a 5-year residency permit for themselves and their families and Greek passports.

That has emptied whole neighborhoods, driven out long-time residents in favor of tourists, lessened supply and intensified demand for housing with many people being priced out of the market.

It’s also a problem for the ruling New Democracy, along with high supermarket prices and families and households disgruntled over costs and many unable to even think about buying a home or unable to afford rents and looking for cheaper areas.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to address the issue when he speaks at the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair Sept. 8, his government having wooed rich foreigners to get money and now raising the threshold for eligibility from 500,000 euros ($555,860) to 800,000 euros ($887,377) in popular areas.

A cumbersome design for the property registry that lists property sizes, sales and rental prices is difficult to navigate online and Kathimerini said the government is looking at a redesign based on American models.

It’s also hoped that would cut down on tax evasion through real estate transactions, which now are supposed to forbid the use of cash but an uncertainty is how many of the abandoned property are in usable condition.

The government also doesn’t have sufficient data about short-term rentals through platforms such as Airbnb that now are supposed to be limited in how many nights annually they can be let out for.

Mitsotakis earlier announced a second phase for My Home, a subsidy program for young households that will use the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Fund for 1.7 billion euros ($1.89 billion) of the 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) needed.