Problem addressed
Greece demonstrates one of the most acute housing crises exacerbated by the fact that it is also the sole EU member state with 0% social housing stock. Greece faces one of the most serious housing affordability crises in Europe. Stagnant incomes, rising ownership changes, and sharp increases in sale and rental prices (65% for rent from 2016–2023; 10% per year for sales over the past decade) have heightened housing insecurity for more people.
The dominant housing interventions to date have been primarily based on market solutions with little investment in creating public social infrastructure to combat housing exclusion (subsidized loans, incentives for property owners without social conditionalities etc.).
In addition, according to research conducted by the SRA, the problem in relation to the brick-and-mortar aspect relates not to the necessity for new construction but the sheer amount of vacancies in Thessaloniki. In the metropolitan area vacant properties which had former residential use are 35,000 and in the central municipality more than 16,500 homes remain empty, with an 8% increase in the last 5 years in the number of vacancies. This phenomenon, in addition to leaving a significant number of homes outside of the residential rental sector also impacts energy efficiency targets since these units dispersed across condominiums create “energy gaps” in the urban fabric.
Innovative solution
The innovation of this project lies at many levels. Social Housing models have appeared in many cities throughout Europe. But few can compete with the labyrinthian trajectory that Housing Thessaloniki had to disentangle. The number of uncommon synergies achieved at multiple levels surpasses imagination. Sharing data between Thessaloniki municipalities, connecting homeless challenges with environmental national obligations, shifting perceptions toward re-using vacant properties, having to pass new regulations to establish necessary legal management bodies and offering a portfolio approach to addressing homelessness, are only some of the tips of the icebergs below!
This project was inspired by the social rental agency models in Belgium, Poland and Hungary, as well as innovative housing modules implemented in Spain (La Borda) and Belgium (CALICO), along with the Housing First approaches used in Ghent.
Key results and benefits
- Renovation and energy upscaling of 40 housing units across the city through a single international tender (economies of scale)
- Linked the housing units with national programmes combating housing exclusion whose major challenge was to find affordable housing units thus supporting optimizing results of other social programmes focusing on housing
- Tested a local governance model for social housing generation and delivery
- Methodology for the assessment and selection of properties
- Matching system
- SOPs for social monitoring and support
- Standardised mechanisms for collab with Municipalities & other actors for property transfer, use and social rental
- Proposals for legal changes for housing generation and delivery (with inputs from the SRA and as a result of the needs that has arisen from the implementation of the pilot project Law No. 5229/2025 of September 2025 has both introduced in legislation the concepts of social rental and social housing providers but also allows for municipalities to rent their properties at a price of their choice when these properties are rented in the framework of social rental)
- Created a replicable model
Potential for mainstreaming
The advocacy efforts on behalf of the SRA and the uptake of lessons learned from the implementation of the pilot project has culminated in the mainstreaming of the SRA model in structural funds (ESF+). For the current programming period funds for the operation of Social Rental Agencies have been earmarked. At the regional level, the SRA Thessaloniki has worked with the ESF+ regional authorities to roll out the program as of beginning 2026 with a budget covering the operational costs of the SRA of 1 MEUR.
