Building contractors are offering their properties at reduced prices to find buyers for the approximately 200,000 apartments they have built over the last five years and remain empty during a crushing economic crisis.
In their attempt to sell the houses that remain unsold, before the implementation of a single increased property tax at the beginning of 2014, contractors have become bankers and are creating their own financing packages and selling directly to buyers without going through banks for mortgages..
The new promotion tool of unsold house requires advance payment and installment repayment in the form of rent. That means that the buyer pays a part of the total amount and agrees with the contractor on the payment of the rest in 5, 10 or 15 years monthly payments.
The contractor and the buyer sign an agreement, which is not the final contract, as the contractor keeps ownership and the buyer/renter ha the right to stay in the house and waive the retention with the completion of the agreed time.
Six months before the implementation of the single property tax, the contractors are trying to sell the thousands of empty apartments to avoid paying the tariff. They had previously averted payment by cutting off power to apartments as the current 100 percent property tax surcharge is linked to the electric bills. Under the new unified bill, the contractors would be faced with paying a doubled property tax and are desperately seeking a way around it.
When they sell the houses with those financing packages, the new owners undertake the emergency property tax, however the title retention remains to the contractor until the expiration of the agreement and the signing of the final contract.
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