Greece Digitizes Real Estate: End of Tax Loopholes?

Greece, a country with a rich history and an equally complex real estate accounting system, is taking a decisive step into the future. The launch of the Unified Digital Real Estate Registry promises to radically change not only the real estate market, but also the entire economic system of the country.

The reform, initiated by the Minister of Digital Governance Dimitris Papastergiou, is an ambitious project aimed at eradicating the long-standing practice of tax evasion related to real estate. Can we call it a revolution? Let's take a closer look.

For a long time, the Greek property registration system resembled a labyrinth, where disparate data from cadastres, tax offices and utility companies existed in parallel, without a single point of integration.

This created fertile ground for fraud: property owners declared their properties "unused" for years, avoiding paying taxes, while freely using utilities (water, electricity). The scale of such abuses remained unclear until now, which led to significant losses for the state budget.

Solution: a single digital register – a "social number" for each house
A single digital register of real estate is an analogue of a "social number" for each object. The system combines all available data into a single, constantly updated database.

This means that each house, apartment, land plot will receive a unique identifier linked to detailed information:

• Technical characteristics: area, number of floors, availability of utilities (water, electricity, gas), type of building, etc.
• Data on owners and tenants: complete and up-to-date information on persons entitled to own or use the property.
• Cadastral data: information on the location, boundaries of the plot, etc.

The system is fully integrated with the Gov.gr portal, providing access to data for various government agencies, as well as for real estate professionals. Interaction with the cadastral office, energy companies, courts and insurance companies is carried out in real time.

Key benefits:

• Automation of taxation: declarations will be filled in automatically based on up-to-date data from the registry, which will significantly reduce the possibilities for manipulation and tax evasion.
• Fight against fraud: the system will effectively identify and prevent fraudulent schemes related to the receipt of social benefits, based on real data on the ownership and use of real estate.
• Simplification of procedures for professionals: lawyers, realtors and engineers will have access to reliable information, which will significantly reduce the time and costs of transaction execution and documentation.
• Increased transparency of the real estate market: the registry will provide a higher degree of transparency and predictability in the real estate market, which will attract investment and stimulate its development.

Prospects and risks

The successful implementation of the project depends on several factors, including data quality, the efficiency of integration of various systems and the reliability of information security. However, if the system is fully operational, it will be an unprecedented event for Greece, allowing for increased tax revenues, strengthening law and order and stimulating the development of the real estate market.

However, the experience of implementing similar large-scale projects in other countries shows that the path to success can be thorny and will require time and resources. It is important to ensure competent project support, timely resolution of emerging technical and organizational problems, as well as informing citizens about the capabilities and limitations of the new system.