The article mentions the word "tax" 14 times, but it never says what it actually is.
How bad is it?
How bad is it?
It looks like property tax tops out at 2% annually of assessed value. This is similar to tax rates in Wisconsin, but if they play the same games in Greece that some local governments do, the properties are assessed well above anything you could sell the property for.
I'd be lucky if I got half of that If I actually tried to sell it at the moment.
[1] - http://www.bestplaces.net/economy/city/washington/tacoma
The property tax can be about 200 euro / year for relatively small apartments in lower class neighborhoods and rise pretty fast (e.g 800 euros / month) for better neighborhoods. If you own the land (you aren't leaving in an apartment) things go south even faster.
Also the property tax doesn't consider any special cases. For example you could have build your house 60 years ago in a remote location, now rich people came to leave around you and you have to pay 6000 euros / year on a 600 euro / month pension.
The problem is with properties that are not rented long term.
The economic troubles of Greece have been similar to those of the eastern european countries. The issue with Greece is that the politicians did not take tough measures early in the crisis and the recovery is too far ahead.
While other countries reduced their headcount in the public sector, in Greece the headcount remains much the same. I blame the politicians, though the political party that manages to win, is the one that offers not to reduce the public sector headcount.
This inability of the politicians is also reflected in the enforcement of the smoking ban. While in public transport there is no smoking, in most restaurants, cafes and elsewhere, the ban is not enforced. Even in the Greek parliament there is smoking, and even the Minister of Health is regularly seen smoking. See https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/52dif3/the_sad_real... and weep.
Frankly, investors should use the smoking issue in Greece as an indicator whether the country is actually recovering. As long as the smoking ban is not enforced, the recovery is not happening.