The EU average is 7.7%. And the burden has changed age: those 65 and over are burdened at a rate of 31.8%, against 8.5% in the EU. In 2015 they were the age group with the smallest burden; today they are the one with the largest. No source we found explains why.
It is not only rent. Owners without a mortgage are burdened at a rate of 26.2%, almost seven times more than in the EU (3.8%). According to the IMF, the housing burden in Greece is rooted mainly in income.
For young people the pressure looks different: 56.3% of those aged 25 to 34 live with their parents, against 30.1% in the EU. And while in the 2021 census 34.5% of dwellings in total were vacant, only 7.1% were vacant for rent or sale.
Eurostat's "housing cost overburden" measures all the costs of the home, such as rent or mortgage interest, electricity, heating, water and maintenance, as a percentage of disposable income, after housing allowances are deducted. And in no Greek region does household income per inhabitant reach the EU average.
Sources: Eurostat, ELSTAT (ΕΛΣΤΑΤ, Hellenic Statistical Authority), IMF.
