Greece’s housing market is gridlocked by bureaucracy, say both banks and servicers.

Eurobank CEO points the finger back at the state, arguing that it is government-imposed conditions, particularly those tied to property legalization and digital registration, that are delaying housing sales.

Greece’s banks, loan servicers, and investment funds currently hold an estimated 25,000 properties, according to official data. Yet most of these remain unsold, prompting the government to accuse the asset managers of deliberately holding back supply in a bid to extract higher profits.

The result, officials argue, is a limited housing stock that fails to ease soaring demand—especially from abroad—driving prices even higher and making homeownership unattainable for younger households.
However, both banks and servicers strongly reject this claim.

Fokion Karavias, CEO of Eurobank, firmly counters the government’s position, stating that financial institutions have every incentive to sell these assets as quickly as possible. He points the finger back at the state, arguing that it is government-imposed conditions, particularly those tied to property legalization and digital registration, that are delaying sales.

Under current rules, properties must be fully legalized in terms of planning permissions, zoning, and other regulatory requirements before they can be transferred. Banks and servicers can acquire them as-is but can’t resell until all issues are resolved.

This regulatory bottleneck, Karavias insists, is the true cause of the limited supply on the market. He notes that legalising properties and securing digital IDs is a long and complex process, often dragging on for months or even years.

Eurobank and others have suggested allowing property sales without prior digital registration, transferring the responsibility to buyers—but the Finance Ministry has rejected the proposal. Karavias criticises the rigid stance, especially given that only a small fraction of Athens’ housing stock currently has a digital ID.

Theodore Kalantonis, head of doValue Greece, also proposed shifting responsibility for legalizing properties to buyers for a year to help ease supply pressures. He warns that lengthy red tape delays sales and that mortgage approvals now take six months—far longer than the 45 days needed before the crisis—often stalling deals.

Kalantonis warns that mounting delays risk undermining Greece’s edge in real estate, once known for fast deals. He urges the government to cut red tape, starting by letting buyers handle property legalisation and digital IDs, to ease the country’s housing crisis.

Original Story: Tovima
Edition: Prime Yield
Image by Reissaamme from Pixabay

The government would like to see the thousands of closed properties managed by servicers reopen and begin to return to the market, considering that they will constitute an important source of supply reinforcement.

The issue was discussed last May 29th  among others, by Minister of National Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis and Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras, in a meeting at the central bank, while in the afternoon a meeting was held on the same issue at the Ministry of National Economy, under Pierrakakis, with the participation of the servicers and Bank of Greece Deputy Governor Christina Papaconstantinou.

The goal is to regulate the loans corresponding to these properties, so that they can be put back on the market not be auctioned off. A systemic solution is being sought in this direction, a source has told Kathimerini. However, the same source acknowledged that the solution will not be easy, given that it is a problem that has accumulated over the years.

In any case, the government has put housing at the center of its policy, as this has emerged as a top problem. To this end, it is attempting to bring as many as possible of the approximately 800,000 closed properties onto the market, according to the calculations of representatives of the real estate market.

For individuals who keep their properties closed, the government will move with a carrot-and-stick logic, providing incentives for owners to open their closed properties and establishing disincentives for those who insist on keeping them closed.

At their meeting, Pierrakakis and Stournaras agreed that the Savings and Investment Union, which is promoted by the European Commission, is positive and they support it.

Pierrakakis added that the barriers between European economies must be removed. “As Mario Draghi has mentioned,” the minister explained, “the barriers that exist in the service sector are equivalent to corresponding tariffs of around 110%.”

Original Story: Ekathimerini | Author: Eirini Chrysolora
Edition: Prime Yield
Image by Thomas G. from Pixabay

With a front-loaded “haircut” and new financing, the first mortgage loans that had been sold to funds are gradually returning to the banking system and are now being serviced normally.

These are loans worth some 2 billion euros, which today, after three years of consistente repayment, have “greened up” and can return to the credit system that is thirsty for new mortgages.

These loans have been regulated by the management companies with a significant debt “haircut”, which, however, will not kick in until the end of their repayment, in order to ensure that the borrower will adhere to the arrangement.

With the return of these loans to the banks, it is planned that the “haircut” will be front-loaded to the benefit of the borrowers, who will receive new financing from the bank to which they will now owe his debt. This way, they will repay their dues to the fund to which the loan has been sold, while earning the amount of te write-off that has been agreeded upon for the end of the loan repayment.

This initiative is being taken by doValue in collaboration wiith National Bank and Eurobank, as well as smaller banks, such as Attica and Optima.

Original Story: Ekathimerini | Author: Evgenia Tzortzi
Edition: Prime Yield

Following an announcement on 27 February 2025, National Bank of Greece (NBG) announced the completion of the Frontier III transaction. This involved the securitisation of a portfolio of non-performing exposures (NPEs) with a total gross book value of around €0.7 billion. This was made possible by the receipt of a State guarantee on the senior notes under the Hellenic Asset Protection Scheme (HAPS).

As part of the agreement, NBG retains 100% of the senior notes and 5% of the mezzanine and junior notes, while selling 95% of the mezzanine and junior notes to funds managed by Bracebridge LLC. Morgan Stanley & Co. International Plc acted as the financial advisor and arranger of the transaction. Clifford Chance LLP and Karatzas & Partners Law Firm provided international and local external legal counsel to NBG, respectively.

Original Story: NBG PR
Edition and translation: Prime Yield

Greece’s four systemic banking groups can now turn to defaulted loans that have been successfully regulated and are regularly repaid to increase their asset and loan portfolios.

Since the supervisory authority (SSM) has not yet given the green light for banks to directly buy back loans they have sold or securitised themselves, the secondary market is open to them in two other ways.

The first is to refinance the loans individually. In this case, the bank grants the borrower, whose debt is in a fund, a new loan to repay the original one. In this indirect way, the loan returns within the banking system, which the banks have received official information about from the authorities. The second way is to buy packages of loans that have been sold or securitised by other banks in the past. The current ban on the repurchase of restructured exposures applies only to loans originated by the bank itself, and not to loans originated by third parties.

NPL management companies have already begun preparations, categorising well-performing exposures to facilitate the creation of packages that can be returned to the banking sector. Analysts estimate that, although banks have not announced any immediate moves, we are likely to see the first transactions in this category later this year, acting as a “test” for the market. These changes will also depend on the course of general credit expansion.

According to official data from the Bank of Greece for the first quarter of 2025, credit expansion rates remained strong. The annual rate in the private sector was above 10 per cent, while corporate credit balances grew by 16 per cent per year. For households, the change in credit stabilised at -0.5%, with the prospect of turning positive. The contraction in mortgage lending was significantly limited in March to -2.4 per cent, the smallest decline in many years, thanks to an increase in new mortgage disbursements (+30 per cent in the two-month period from January to February 2025 compared to 2024).

Although banks now have new ways of bringing defaulted loans back into their portfolios, the use of the secondary market will probably depend on whether the current rate of credit expansion is sufficient to meet banks’ targets this year, although the first quarter data show a positive trend.

Original Story: Money and Life
Edition and translation: Prime Yield

The economic crisis that the country went through in the past decade casts a heavy shadow on the decisions of households over whether to resort to bank loans to buy a house. Combined with the upward trend in interest rates, it prevents a large number of potential borrowers from crossing the threshold of banks to apply for a loan.

This is confirmed by an Alpha Bank study on the housing issue in the country, according to which high interest rates and the fear of risk are the main deterrent factors for those who state that they do not intend to finance the purchase of a house with a mortgage.

Specifically, one in two respondents cites high interest rates and, as Alpha observes, “the stricter financing conditions that lead to higher debt servicing costs are the main deterrent factor for potential borrowers.”

Furthermore, 41% of respondents in this sample consider fear of risk to be a key factor in not applying for a mortgage. Fear of risk is linked to uncertainty about possible adverse events, such as future job losses or an unexpected increase in interest rates, negatively affecting households’ ability to service their debt in the future. 

As Alpha Bank observes, “it seems reasonable to assume that these concerns have increased significantly since the global financial crisis of 2008, especially in countries such as Greece, where the effects were particularly severe. This is largely due to the fact that the majority of people have experienced such events at some point in their lives. As a result, fear of risk has become embedded in the collective memory.”

These findings coincide with the banks’ findings from the course of applications for the “My Home” program, which show massive interest, with the main attraction being the cost of the loan based on a 50% interest rate subsidy. It should be noted that the final interest rate applicable to “My Home II” is determined based on Euribor and the margin applied by the bank. This margin ranges between 1.5% to 1.7% – depending on each lender’s policy. 

Original Story: Ekathimerini | Author: Evgenia Tzortzi
Edition: Prime Yield

doValue Greece has been awarded a new servicing mandate by funds managed by Fortress Investment Group, adding approximately €500 million in GBV.

“This mandate reflects the high level of costumer satisfaction achieved by doValue Greece, as well as the continued strategic value of doValue’s partnership woth Fortress”, says the statement released by the servicer group.

Additionally, this mandate marks further progress in the positive path since the start of the year, as the group reaches €7 billion GBV from new business compared to a target of €8 billion for the entire 2025 as outlined in the 2024-2026 business plan.

Original Story: doValue
Edition: Prime Yield

Despite efforts to tackle Greece’s mounting private debt – now totaling €89 billion – millions of borrowers remain off the radar, making regulation and recovery more difficult, industry leaders warned at the 10th Delphi Economic Forum.

Tasos Panousis, CEO of loan servicer doValue, revealed that while the company manages 1 million clients, it only has complete data on half of them. Without visibility, it’s harder to regulate and recover debts, he noted.

The issue spans the broader industry. Thodoris Athanasopoulos, CEO of Cepal Greece and President of the Association of Loan and Credit Claims Management Companies (EEDADP), said that out of 2.7 million debtors managed by servicers, only 57,000 have signed up on online platforms designed to give them access to their debt and credit information.

Of these 2.7 million debtors, around 600,000 are tied to a state-supported securitization scheme. Another 1.5 million are borrowers whose non-performing loans have been sold off to funds, while the remainder still have non-performing loans held directly by banks.

Panousis expressed confidence in the state-backed securitization program, noting that five out of seven loan bundles managed by doValue are exceeding expectations. The two underperforming portfolios involve around 100,000 borrowers whose settled loans were supposed to return to banks – a step that has not happened yet.

This return would boost bank revenues and help borrowers regain access to credit, he explained, urging quick action on viable debt settlements to prevent the cost from falling on taxpayers.

Currently, an estimated 700,000 properties are linked to non-performing loans. Only 13,000 of these have so far come into the ownership of loan management funds. Panousis emphasized the importance of avoiding property auctions, calling them “costly and time-consuming,” and urging instead for consensual solutions to be reached directly with borrowers.

Original Story: Ekathimerini | Author: Evgenia Tzortzi
Edition: Prime Yield
Photo: David Tip / Unsplashed

Italian bad loan manager doValue has reached 80% of its targeted increase in gross loan portfolio for the current year, and it may be able to surpass it, CEO Manuela Franchi said.

The Milan-listed company, whose shareholders include U.S. funds Elliott Investment Management, Fortress and Bain Capital Credit, announced it had secured a new contract in Cyprus to recover impaired loans worth around 350 million euros secured against nearly 1,000 properties.

The deal, which follows a 700 million euro with the National Bank of Greece, brings to 6.5 billion euros the new business the company has secured so far this year, helped by its expansion into other southern European markets, including Spain.

“We fully confirm our 2025 target of 8 billion euros in additional gross book value,” Franchi said in comments to Reuters. “If the current trend continues, we don’t rule out even surpassing it in the first part of the year.”

By shedding some 290 billion euros in soured loans since 2016 Italian banks turned the country into Europe’s biggest market for these assets. However, new flows have dried up in recent years as lenders completed their clean-up and tightened lending.

“We believe our geographical diversification will allow us to keep signing new contracts on a regular basis,” Franchi said.

The group has weathered the market slowdown thanks to selective acquisitions and a decision not to invest directly in loan portfolios, but to focus solely on managing them, she said.

Europe’s biggest loan collector Intrum, pushed to the brink by debt costs as interest rates spiked, last year filed for U.S. creditor protection as it sought to restructure its debt.

Unlike doValue, Intrum bought part of the loans it managed.

Seeking to buttress profits as the industry reorganises after the boom years, doValue last year struck a cash-and-share deal to buy Elliott-backed Gardant, a smaller domestic rival.

Cost savings through tie-ups and revenue diversification are seen as a way for the sector to shield profits.

“We look with interest at continental Europe, an area where we are not present but which may offer growth opportunities given the slowing economy and our strong track record,” Franchi said.

Original Story: Reuters
Edition: Prime Yield