Comment by muse900 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by muse900 | Hacker News Reader

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I won't agree with you just because you are presenting "some" numbers.

I know for a fact that my parents that live in Greece, and do not rent and own 3 flats and 1 house all of them divided equally to a different person within the family including me have to pay an "emergency" taxation on the electrical bill which is a lot of money. (A LOT OF MONEY!)

Atm my parents are pensioniers and they don't rent neither have any money in the bank. They are called out to pay 4000 euros / 2 months tax on the property they own. Eventually they will have to sell their property in order to be able to afford to live. Issue is that the market has crushed and the money they gonna make if they sell their property that has been with them from grandgrand parents and more which means sentimental value as well, is gonna be sold for pennies.

The problem is that people around the world don't understand that middle class Greeks are suffering for what "RICH" Greeks and politics have caused. Sure its middle class people that voted those politicians in and didnt hang them up including rich people but meh...

Seriously Rich people in Greece pay no tax and they don't care as well.

Dictatorship has been governing Greece for a very long time including now.

Btw sorry for coming strong on you, its just that your facts are literally off.

Just curious - why do they hold on to those flats if they don't rent them out?

because the flats value is 30% of what it was in 2008, while we know that 2008 and before is not coming back, they are located in Central Athens and no matter what happens in lets say 50 years from now their value might be up to what it was before.

Also don't forget the sentimental value as well, my dad bought 1 of the flats himself with his hard earning while he survived the invasion of Cyprus and lost everything there. He is old as well so good luck getting him to sell the only thing he acquired in his life.

Same goes for my mom, she inherited the 2 flats and the house and they belonged to her family since before WW2 for the flats and since the 1900 for the house. Very hard to sell on that.

But again think even if someone more greedy that doesn't understand the sentimental value of the property gets his/her hands on it, still imagine you have to sell for 250k-300k while in 2008 it was costing 1m. Again this is just an example but it shows the price drop and again since they are in central Athens which is a city for a very long time in history at some point their prices will climb up again, not the the maximum but still.

Totally understanding that. My parents are too holding on to some real esatate mostly for emotional value. But renting them out should be an option to generate cashflow?

> own 3 flats and 1 house

> Seriously Rich people in Greece pay no tax and they don't care as well.

Maybe you should realize your parents are the rich people.

No and here is your mistake, sorry I have to call you an idiot because you triggered me.

Someone that inherits property doesn't automatically mean that he/she is rich.

They never rented out or sold any property, and they worked for private companies their whole lives. The money they had were pretty limited on what they could do.

Also property in Greece is not like other countries of EU. Atm you can find flats in central Athens for 20k euros... Go buy 10 flats and then say you are rich because you own property valued at 200k.

So yes your argument is pretty stupid, you just want to blow off steam for some reason I am guessing you are a German.

I m a greek idiot who doesnt own any houses. If i owned 4 i would certainly not consider myself middle-class.

house != flat, but how would you know.

If someone that owns 3 flats and 1 house is considered rich then all good I am rich, why am I even working for? damn, why my parents can't pay their electricity(tax) bills and have to make arrangements with the government to pay in installments, noone knows, we are just rich, I'll go get my private jet and fly off this comment section now.

Yeah, this is typical. I know this lady who owns one house in Plaka [1] right under the Acropolis, another in Kifissia [1] and lives in a house in the Liston [1], in Corfu (think Plaka, but on an Ionian Island). She never stops complaining about ENFIA [2] and how unfair it is that she has to pay property tax.

Well I don't have to pay any tax at all. Because I don't own anything. Sometimes it's just very hard to sympathise with people who are several times as wealthy as I am, and who complain because they will now have to pay taxes for it.

Because let's not forget that the devaluing of properties is a very recent thing. Until now having a couple of properties meant a steady stream of income- which most people would probably not have paid any tax on... because they dodged it. Which contributed to the dire situation we are in right now. And in particular caused the current government to resort to the harsh measures that are being imposed.

No, really- I don't want to see anyone punished, or having their properties repossessed, that's truly awful. But I can't really find it within me to feel, you know- compassionate.

________________

[1] To non-Greek readers: all those are very posh, very expensive districts in Athens or Corfu, the latter being one of the more well-off (and therefore, expensive) islands in the Ionian sea, the more upmarket set of Greek islands.

[2] A newly introduced property tax.

> Someone that inherits property doesn't automatically mean that he/she is rich.

That depends on the value though. They could be asset rich, and (very) cash poor. That's a tough spot to be in. Arguably, that could even be worse if you can't sell them. But you said the apts are currently worth around €300k each?

Is there no way to unlock cash from them, e.g. by renting them out at €1,000 a month or by taking out a €100,000 bank loan against them? Alternatively, how about AirBnb? I know a guy making good money with a small business renting out several AirBnb apts in a popular city. That way you would at least not have to sell them.

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