Four in 10 Greeks spend twice as much as the average European Union household on housing costs, according to a Eurostat survey.
More specifically, four in 10 Greeks spend more than 40 percent of their disposable income on housing costs, says the European Commission statistical authority.
Only 11.4 percent of households in the 28 EU member states spent more than 40 percent of their disposable income in 2014 on housing, a rate that the EC considers a housing cost “overburden.”
Greece ranks first, as households spend 40.7 percent of disposable income on housing, followed by Germany with 15.9 percent, the Netherlands with 15.4 percent and Romania with 14.9 percent.
At the lower end of the scale are Malta and Cyprus, with 1.6 percent and 4 percent respectively, followed by France and Finland, both with 5.1 percent.
The high housing cost percentage is attributed to the economic crisis that hit Greece in 2010. Substantial wage and pension cuts left Greeks with much less disposable income.
However, the reduction in housing costs has been, respectively, much lower, thereby leaving housing costs high. At the same time, the new property tax (ENFIA) has increased housing costs.
Kathimerini newspaper reports that according to figures presented over the weekend by the Panhellenic Federation of Property Owners (POMIDA), Greek households will be called upon to pay eight times more in property taxes next year than they did in 2010.
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