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I remember someone claiming that property taxes in Greece only come into effect when a building in completed, and as a result there are lots of homes with unfin

I remember someone claiming that property taxes in Greece only come into effect when a building in completed, and as a result there are lots of homes with unfinished roofs and whatnot. Any truth to this?

Balero 8y ago
As far as I understand there are tax incentives for being able to add another floor to a house, as opposed to expanding another way. So the rebar out the top is due to tax. I am fairly sure that you are not exempt from tax if you have an unfinished roof.
- brazzy 8y ago
  It has absolutely nothing to do with taxation. It's simply easier (and cheaper) to add floors in the future that way.
  - Balero 8y ago
    I stand corrected! It's good to get the facts straight, there is a lot of misinformation about Greece and tax dodging (which, I imagine, is where I got the idea)
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
brazzy 8y ago
Nope: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/27662/do-greeks-evade-taxes-by-not-finishing-their-houses https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/27662/do-greeks...
virmundi 8y ago
Depending on how much you believe Quora, it looks like other municipalities follow a similar approach. https://www.quora.com/Why-are-there-so-many-unfinished-buildings-in-North-Cyprus https://www.quora.com/Why-are-there-so-many-unfinished-build...
saiya-jin 8y ago
just came from trip in Bolivia - whole La Paz is a sea of red brick walls, without any paint (and since the place is 3600-4100m high, its always cold). reason - finished painted buildings get taxed, so nobody ever finishes them, and rather lives fugly but cheap. Also valid for other towns, but it was most visible in La Paz, especially when using teleferico.
obelos 8y ago
When I asked in India about all the buildings with unfinished tops I was told it was for tax purposes, though I didn't hear the specifics.
- harryxps 8y ago
  Of course it may vary from place to place, but in many places in NCR (Delhi and nearabouts), people expect government to eventually allow adding an extra floor so they add on pillars / iron bars for future needs.
logfromblammo 8y ago
When I visited Greece in 1995, I didn't notice any unfinished roofs. I did notice that almost every single newer building had multiple options for future expansion. This included exposed steel rebar sticking up from the tops of concrete columns, for building additional stories, and some concrete foundations that extended beyond the roof cover. Those would likely follow the usage pattern: patio, roofed patio, interior room. Our Greek-American family-friend (who owns a Greek restaurant in the US, and an American restaurant in Greece) explained that Greeks couldn't easily finance home construction or home improvements, so they build what they can afford at the time, and add on to it whenever they saved enough money (or collected enough stolen/black-market building materials). So everything has to be built for future expansion. And if that two-story building is taxed as a one-story building for a while, before it gets reassessed.... But this was before EU economic changes, so my information is likely out of date.

Balero 8y ago

As far as I understand there are tax incentives for being able to add another floor to a house, as opposed to expanding another way. So the rebar out the top is due to tax. I am fairly sure that you are not exempt from tax if you have an unfinished roof.

brazzy 8y ago
It has absolutely nothing to do with taxation. It's simply easier (and cheaper) to add floors in the future that way.
- Balero 8y ago
  I stand corrected! It's good to get the facts straight, there is a lot of misinformation about Greece and tax dodging (which, I imagine, is where I got the idea)

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

brazzy 8y ago

Nope: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/27662/do-greeks-evade-taxes-by-not-finishing-their-houses https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/27662/do-greeks...

virmundi 8y ago

Depending on how much you believe Quora, it looks like other municipalities follow a similar approach. https://www.quora.com/Why-are-there-so-many-unfinished-buildings-in-North-Cyprus https://www.quora.com/Why-are-there-so-many-unfinished-build...

saiya-jin 8y ago

just came from trip in Bolivia - whole La Paz is a sea of red brick walls, without any paint (and since the place is 3600-4100m high, its always cold). reason - finished painted buildings get taxed, so nobody ever finishes them, and rather lives fugly but cheap. Also valid for other towns, but it was most visible in La Paz, especially when using teleferico.

obelos 8y ago

When I asked in India about all the buildings with unfinished tops I was told it was for tax purposes, though I didn't hear the specifics.

harryxps 8y ago
Of course it may vary from place to place, but in many places in NCR (Delhi and nearabouts), people expect government to eventually allow adding an extra floor so they add on pillars / iron bars for future needs.

logfromblammo 8y ago

When I visited Greece in 1995, I didn't notice any unfinished roofs. I did notice that almost every single newer building had multiple options for future expansion. This included exposed steel rebar sticking up from the tops of concrete columns, for building additional stories, and some concrete foundations that extended beyond the roof cover. Those would likely follow the usage pattern: patio, roofed patio, interior room. Our Greek-American family-friend (who owns a Greek restaurant in the US, and an American restaurant in Greece) explained that Greeks couldn't easily finance home construction or home improvements, so they build what they can afford at the time, and add on to it whenever they saved enough money (or collected enough stolen/black-market building materials). So everything has to be built for future expansion. And if that two-story building is taxed as a one-story building for a while, before it gets reassessed.... But this was before EU economic changes, so my information is likely out of date.