Athens

1. Athens is home to the world's first known theater, the Theatre of Dionysus, which dates back to the 6th century BC. This ancient venue could accommodate thousands of spectators and is considered the birthplace of Western drama. 2. The city has a rich history of street art, with vibrant murals and graffiti found throughout various neighborhoods. This artistic expression often reflects social and political themes and has become a significant part of Athens' contemporary culture. 3. Athens is not just a historical city; it also boasts one of the largest urban parks in Europe, the National Garden of Athens, located right in the heart of the city. This lush green space offers a peaceful retreat with walking paths, ponds, and a small zoo, providing a contrast to the bustling urban environment.

Athens continues to experience a rapidly growing housing market in 2025, with average apartment prices now around €2,480 per square meter for purchase. In the prestigious southern suburbs, prices reach up to €4,000 per square meter, while in northern districts they average €3,222 per square meter. Renting in central, northern, and southern Athens costs over €10 per square meter per month. The gap between renters and homeowners is significant: home ownership in Greece is among the highest in Europe, with about 74% of the population being owner-occupiers, while roughly 26% rent their homes. In Athens specifically, this trend holds, although the proportion of renters is somewhat higher due to urban demographics and substantial tourist-driven rental activity. Publicly owned and social housing play a very minimal role in Athens. Greece has almost no social rental sector; public or social housing estates historically targeted only very specific groups (such as refugees or disaster victims) and were usually allocated for ownership, not rental. Public housing and social housing are, for practical purposes in Athens, the same and are both extremely limited and residual, serving less than 1% of the housing market. New large-scale public or social rental initiatives are virtually absent, with housing assistance mainly provided through short-term, targeted programs rather than a continuous public housing stock. The lack of affordable rental options is a major contributor to Athens’s housing pressures.

Athens faces a mounting housing crisis characterized by persistently rising prices and a shortage of affordable homes for both purchase and rent. Property prices in the city have consistently increased for over six consecutive years, with a 7.6% year-on-year rise in early 2025 following even sharper increases in previous years. Demand for homes substantially exceeds supply, as annual demand is estimated at 35,000 units, but construction output lags far behind. Many properties in central Athens now sell within two months, indicating tight competition and limited inventory. Rents in Athens have also surged, with the average monthly rent in Greece reaching €440 by April 2025 and rental costs in Athens’s key districts exceeding €10 per square meter each month. Soaring rents have outpaced wage growth, pushing many households to their financial limits. The crisis is exacerbated by owners shifting long-term rentals to more lucrative short-term tourist lets, as well as by slow construction and investment-focused housing purchases. The main groups affected include lower- and middle-income renters, younger people unable to afford down payments or mortgages, and long-term residents forced out by gentrification and tourist demand. There is a growing trend away from home ownership, with more residents—especially in urban centers like Athens—relying on rental housing, often facing insecurity and unaffordable prices. Vulnerable groups, such as students, the elderly, and single-parent families, are particularly exposed to these pressures. Social or public housing remains virtually absent, leaving most at-risk groups without a safety net.

The Athens city administration has recently started taking a more active, though still limited, role in addressing affordable and sustainable housing. Mayor Haris Doukas and the Municipality have initiated several small-scale programs targeting the most pressing needs. Key recent actions and stated targets include: converting a city-owned building near Omonia into seven affordable apartments for low-income families through a public-private partnership; implementing a rent subsidy scheme for 257 young adults (aged 25–39) earning minimum wage; and funding the renovation of 70 properties for vulnerable households. These are supported by European Union and Greek ministry funds. The city is also auditing its real estate for further housing potential and plans to establish a Social Housing Office and a Housing Observatory to coordinate strategy and monitor progress. Doukas has called for legal reforms to accelerate redevelopment of over 2,000 derelict properties. To stem the loss of permanent rentals to tourism, a one-year ban on new short-term rental registrations in high-demand areas was implemented in 2025. The administration has also increased inspections to enforce zoning and rental law compliance. Despite these new efforts, the scale remains modest compared to the need, as large-scale public or social housing programs are still absent. The administration’s focus is primarily on small pilots, targeted subsidies, property audits, and legal changes to enable future expansion of affordable and sustainable housing.

Housing cooperatives have a marginal presence in Athens and play an exceptionally limited role in the city’s housing landscape. Unlike other European capitals, there is no significant cooperative housing sector in Athens; such projects are mainly experimental or exist as isolated pilot initiatives like CoHab Athens. There is no comprehensive legal or policy support for their growth, and available estimates put their share at well below 1% of the housing stock—effectively negligible and not statistically captured. Historically, cooperatives in Greece aimed to facilitate access to land and private ownership rather than provide sustainable, collectively managed rental housing. Interest in alternative, collaborative housing models has grown somewhat in response to affordability challenges. However, most relevant activity remains research-based or limited to small advocacy groups. National policy recently launched a Cooperative Housing Initiative offering moderate legal and financial support for new projects, but significant regulatory, financial, and institutional barriers persist, hindering scaling up. In Athens, there are currently no specific municipal programs designed to actively and systematically promote cooperative housing. Municipal interventions focus on targeted social housing pilots, rental subsidies, and renovation of existing stock for vulnerable groups—none of which specifically champion the cooperative model. Thus, cooperative housing’s dimension remains experimental, with no measurable impact on overall housing provision or affordability in the city.