Make Exarcheia’s Housing Affordable Again

Abstract

The economic crisis that affected Greece since 2011 and European Austerity politics led to considerable cuts in the Greek public budget and shortcomings of social welfare (VAIOU & KALANDIDIS 2016: p. 462). The reduction or loss of income afflicted prosperity and pushed great parts of the population into poverty. The impacts also arose regarding housing affordability (MALOUTAS 2014: p. 159). Originally, the percentage of private ownership was higher than the share of tenants (EUROSTAT 2018). However, the crisis increased the dependence on loans and slowed down purchasing activity at the mortgage market (SABANIOTIS & HARDOUVELIS 2012: p. 3). Moreover, during the crisis, the housing taxation was raised while salaries decreased, which impeded the affordability of housing for the common people. Generally, there is no comprehensive housing policy in Greece that could support people who were not any more able to afford their homes (MALOUTAS 2014: p. 159). This is an extraordinarily relevant topic in Exarcheia, an area that can be considered as a residential neighbourhood. Still, homelessness is a significant problem as becomes apparent in the streetscape. However, there are numerous abandoned houses that form a potential that could be used for the implementation of a higher stock of affordable housing. Furthermore, the area accounts for several listed - thus protected - buildings, whose renovation underlies strict regulations, and which can hence not be adjusted for social housing. Nevertheless, an increasing share of recently opened short-time rentals (e.g. AirBnB) have also appeared for touristic reasons and have been discussed to be one cause for the withdrawal of affordable buildings from the housing market (HOST COMPLIANCE 2018). These contradictory developments affect the housing situation in Exarcheia and can thus be interpreted as a danger for affordability in the area. In this context, affordable housing is defined as “social rented, affordable rented and intermediate housing, provided to eligible households whose needs are not met by the market” (GOVERNMENT DIGITAL SERVICE 2018) with a focus on particularly vulnerable groups like low income or homeless people. The emerging questions are, why affordable housing is particularly relevant for Exarcheia and how the matter could be solved with regard to the particularity of the area. Thus, the present article shows an overview of the housing market and ongoing changes in Exarcheia (See Chapter 2). A SWOT analysis (see Chapter 3) was conducted to identify the potentials and risks for the neighbourhood of a more intense use as an affordable residential area. However, the expansion of a supply with affordable housing requires the involvement of different stakeholders which will be reflected by different scenarios of development which were considered as realistic (see Chapter 4). As to this, possible approaches will be presented in Chapter 5.