Athens

Athens faces a severe housing crisis, marked by soaring property and rental prices that have outpaced incomes, particularly since 2017. Residential property prices in the city increased by roughly 90% from their post-crisis low, while disposable household income in Greece fell by nearly 24% between 2009 and mid-2024. The supply of homes available for sale and rent has dropped, with only 7% of property owners in Attica willing to sell as of late 2024, down from earlier years.

The crisis is magnified by very strong demand: prospective buyers outnumber sellers at least two to one. The share of households renting rather than owning has risen sharply, climbing from about 23% in 2010 to over 30% in 2024. Long-term rental inflation is pronounced, with rents rising over 10% year-on-year in central Athens, driven by limited supply and the conversion of homes into short-term rentals catering to tourists.

The hardest hit are low- and middle-income residents, young people, and families seeking affordable housing, as well as long-term city inhabitants pushed out by rising costs. With international investors—accounting for nearly 40% of property transactions—fueling further price growth, the affordability gap is widening, leaving many Athenians struggling to secure stable housing in a competitive, supply-constrained market.

The housing market in Athens is experiencing steady growth, with property prices averaging €2,480 to €2,944 per square meter for residential properties as of Q1 2025. Rental yields vary significantly by location, with an average gross rental yield of around 5%. Recent figures indicate a decline in home ownership, with more people opting for rentals.

The percentage of people renting versus owning homes in Athens is not explicitly documented, but the trend suggests an increase in renters. The median rental price per square meter is not provided, but the average asking rent exceeds €10 per square meter in central areas.

Publicly owned housing plays a limited role in Athens compared to other European cities. There is no specific data on the share of public housing in the market. In Greece, public housing typically refers to government-owned units, whereas social housing is a broader concept involving long-term public investment to keep prices affordable. Social housing is not a prominent feature in Athens, unlike in some other European cities.

Rental prices are driven by demand and limited supply, especially in central areas, which are in high demand due to tourism and urban regeneration projects.

Athens' city administration, together with the Greek national government, is taking new steps to address affordable and sustainable housing as part of broader national strategies. The latest targets focus on significantly increasing housing supply: the primary national goal is the delivery of 350,000 new homes by 2030, responding to the acute supply-demand imbalance and affordability crisis.

Key programs include a major public-private partnership (PPP) drive to build new affordable homes on underused public land, especially for people under 39 and vulnerable groups. Developers who build on state land can retain partial ownership, while the state receives at least 30% of new units for affordable housing, which are then offered at regulated rents or through rent-to-own schemes.

A separate “social exchange” program, under public consultation in mid-2025, aims to provide 25,000 new homes (60% in Athens and Thessaloniki), using public real estate for affordable and social rental units. Beneficiaries are selected by strict social criteria, and rent-to-own is available after ten years.

To curb rental inflation and regain supply, authorities have imposed a temporary ban on new short-term rental registrations in key Athens neighborhoods from January 2025 and introduced incentives for landlords to convert short-term rentals to long-term leases, including multi-year tax breaks.

All strategies emphasize combining public land reuse, private sector leverage, transparency, and stricter regulation of short-term rentals to boost affordable housing and protect residents.

In Athens, several key individuals and organizations have voiced strong interest in addressing the housing crisis and advancing affordable, sustainable housing. The Municipality of Athens, under Mayor Haris Doukas, is leading municipal partnerships—including with the University of Athens—to convert public buildings for affordable housing and provide rent subsidies for youth and low-income families. National ministries, such as the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family, are driving the new social housing and public-private partnership initiatives. In academia, the University of West Attica and the National Centre for Social Research are active in housing policy and program design, while the Technical Chamber of Greece represents the engineering sector’s perspective on large-scale solutions.

Local NGOs such as Eteron foster broad collaboration between researchers, grassroots movements, and policymakers, and the Greek Network for the Right to Shelter and Housing implements practical projects for vulnerable populations. In the real estate sector, the Hellenic Property Federation (POMIDA) and Housing Europe facilitate engagement with the private rental market, and the Bank of Greece contributes vital research on affordability challenges. For partners from the startup or innovation sphere, organizations linked to sustainable urban development—especially those aligned with landmark regeneration projects (such as Ellinikon or Faliro Bay ventures)—are promising candidates. Collectively, these groups offer a well-established basis for impactful collaborations spanning public, academic, business, and civil society arenas to tackle Athens’ housing challenges.

Housing cooperatives in Athens play an extremely minor role in the city’s housing landscape. Historically, cooperative models have existed mainly to facilitate land access for self-built homes rather than to provide affordable, non-profit rental housing. Unlike many European cities, modern cooperative housing that operates on democratic principles is almost absent, with only a handful of pilot initiatives or research projects active, mostly centering on co-housing and collective ownership as championed by groups such as CoHab Athens.

No reliable statistics exist, but the share of cooperative housing is estimated to be well below 1% of total housing units and remains experimental. New interest has emerged in recent years due to rising affordability pressures, deteriorating housing quality, and exclusion from the mainstream market, but actual development is slow and faces legal, institutional, and social barriers.

Athens municipality and the Greek government have started to explore ways to promote collective housing: activities include participatory design workshops, legal advocacy for regulatory reforms, and support programs for local groups interested in co-housing. There are provisions for civil housing cooperatives and pilot support schemes for collective projects, as well as scattered tax incentives. However, so far, policy support for cooperative housing is limited, exploratory, and lacks comprehensive regulation or dedicated funding; the sector remains at a nascent stage and has yet to scale up meaningfully.