Islands face short-term rental freeze
Greece is moving to restrict short-term rentals like Airbnb on islands and in tourist-saturated areas under a new spatial planning framework for tourism, though most measures stop short of immediate enforcement.
The framework, published this week by the Environment Ministry for a two-week informal public consultation, would allow authorities to impose geographically differentiated conditions on short-term rental activity – up to and including outright bans in designated zones. Beds offered through short-term rental platforms would also count toward calculating the tourist “carrying capacity” of a given area.
The provisions do not take direct effect. Instead, they establish a legal architecture for future restrictions, including rules on how long properties may be rented, limits on new registrations in high-pressure areas, and geographic exclusion zones.
One concrete measure flagged for followup legislation is a suspension on registering newly built homes on the islands into the short-term rental system. This would be achieved by halting the issuance of new property registration numbers – known as AMA – by the Finance Ministry through the Independent Authority for Public Revenue.
The inclusion of even modest restrictions on short-term rentals reportedly delayed finalization of the framework, with negotiations continuing until the last moment. Officials from the Tourism Ministry indicated the rental provisions were added on their initiative.
A legal quirk complicates enforcement: Although short-term rentals are effectively hospitality businesses, Greek law classifies them as residential use, placing licensing authority with the Finance Ministry rather than the Tourism Ministry, which can only inspect properties following complaints.
Similar restrictions were legislated as far back as 2016 but were not applied until 2025, and only within select central Athens districts – areas the new framework classifies as “developed” rather than critically saturated.
Source: eKathimerini.com
