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Marina and Antonis are a cohabiting couple who live very close to Varnava Square in Pagrati. For almost two years now, they have been the proud parents of little Lydia. This is the pleasant aspect of their Athenian life. The least pleasant one has to do with the almost simultaneous start of radical renovation work on two properties within a radius of a few meters from their own apartment.
“We’ve been living in hell for a few months now,” says Marina Bitzi38, graphic designer, who works mostly from home. “Compressors and sledgehammers start from 7.30 in the morning, without mercy, obviously not caring about our very fragile schedule which largely depends on how the night with the child has gone. Also, Antonis, because he works as a chef in a hotel in the afternoon and early evening hours and is rarely back home before 11, won’t go to bed before 1 or 2 after midnight.”
Two sources of annoyance
Surprisingly, the biggest disturbance is not caused by the “construction site” that has been erected three floors above their heads, but by the counterpart of the neighboring apartment building with which they “border” through the roof. “We approached both owners and received two completely different types of behavior,” says Antonis. “On the one hand, they showed understanding and fundamentally adjusted their schedule so that they don’t start to get bored from 7:30 in the morning, while others almost threw in our faces the leave and the hours of common quiet that they theoretically respect.”
“Listening” to the neighbors – “The instruction to our crews is to ‘squeeze’ the noisiest jobs between 10 – 3 in the afternoon. If you show that you don’t care, then the phone calls to the police and complaints to the planning offices begin. You’re messing up,” says civil engineer Thomas Papapostolou.
“The instruction we give to our crews is to “squeeze” the noisiest work, i.e. drilling, cutting, stripping, in the time period between 10 and 3 in the afternoon, when presumably people will not be disturbed so much by your own work,” emphasizes Thomas Papapostoloucivil engineer and head of a technical office with the exclusive object of residential renovations.
“It is not in our interest to make our enemies the neighbors of the apartments where we work. If you show that you don’t care, then the phone calls to the police and complaints to the planning offices begin. In short, you mess up. And you want to get out of the way as soon as possible.”
It wasn’t always like that. The renovations of houses and especially old apartments in densely populated districts of central Athens (Pagrati, Koukaki, Exarchia, Kypseli, Ampelokipoi, etc.) is recorded as one more collateral “side effect” of the decade of crisis. The architect Yannis Karahaliosco-founder of the Plaini and Karahalios Architects office, which gained a lot of experience (and awards) through renovations, remembers that at that time most people could not afford to buy a new apartment.
“Therefore a serious part of the demand was necessarily directed towards the renovation of an asset that its owners until then did not value very much.” In fact, thanks to the renovations, hundreds of architectural firms and several specialties that had been hit hard by the collapse of the construction industry in those very difficult years got back on their feet. “It would not be an exaggeration to say that we, as an office, withstood the crisis because there were people who came to us to renovate something they had inherited or their grandmother’s closed house in Patisia or Pagrati.”
Investment turn
THE Michalis Belegriscivil engineer and managing partner of belegris + partners | Construction Studio, identifies two main transformations in the take-off of the renovation market: the transformation of the residence into an investment tool with serious financial capital gains and the need to renew a rapidly aging housing stock. “For decades, renovation was considered the solution of those who could not financially support the purchase of a new property. More, that is, a technical need than an investment option. This has changed radically.”
The first reason, according to Mr. Belegri, is that the market began to realize that the value of a property is not solely in its location or size, but in its transformation potential. “The second reason is the change in lifestyle. The experience that a property offers has become more important than ever. The third reason is the internationalization of the real estate market. Athens and Thessaloniki no longer function only as exclusively Greek cities. They are part of a wider network of cities that interact in investment, social and lifestyle terms. The audience they address is not exclusively Greek. The fourth reason is the energy reality. The increase in energy costs made it evident that most Greek buildings were designed at a time when energy conservation was not a priority. Thousands of homes and commercial spaces were built in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and today require an energy, functional and aesthetic upgrade”. It is no coincidence that the impact of corresponding government programs, such as the most recent “Renovate – Rent 2026”, with a total budget of 500 million euros, with a subsidy that can reach up to 95% of the cost of the interventions, with a maximum aid amount of 36,000 euros per residence or 300 euros per square meter.
Today, renovations are considered by many domestic real estate experts as the real engine of construction activity in Greece. “There is not always fully consolidated data that captures the totality of renovations, as much of this is carried out through small-scale, unrecorded works or other, piecemeal authorisations. What we can say with certainty is that in recent years the renovation has evolved into one of the most important pillars of the building activity in the country”, underlines Mr. Belegris.
The limit of 25,000 euros – Many contractors, in consultation with the owners, hide work in order to compress the displayed cost below 25,000 euros and to avoid the obligation for the time-consuming issuance of a normal building permit, explains to “K” – anonymously – a politician
mechanical.
Whatever you say
At the same time, however, it is clear that this boom is accompanied by social unrest, as a significant percentage of them concern apartments in densely populated neighborhoods in the center of cities. For the vast majority (i.e. for works that do not interfere with the appearance of the building or in the common areas) a building permit is not required, but an application with the necessary supporting documents for the so-called Small Scale Construction Work Approval (SEDMK), submitted exclusively electronically by an authorized engineer through the e-Permits information system of the Technical Chamber of Greece. In practice, then, there is no one to check these licenses; it’s more or less “you are what you say”. But if there is a complaint, you have to prove that you are not an elephant. That is, that everything you have submitted electronically corresponds to reality. But this is not always the case.
A civil engineer who, for understandable reasons, wished to remain anonymous tells us that the issuance of this informal permit (of the EEDMK) implies that the budget of your planned works should not exceed 25,000 euros based on a contractual price list that has nothing to do with the reality of the 2026 market. “If you exceed this amount, you automatically have to issue a building permit, which is a very different and complicated story, which can take you a year. Thus, many contractors, in consultation with the owners, hide works in order to compress the displayed costs and avoid the obligation to issue a normal building permit”.
To understand how out of place and out of time is this price list used for the type of licensing that requires interventions of different extent and budget in old houses, the price that the architect Yiannis Karahalios gives us for a good level renovation based on materials and current prices is indicative: close to 1,000 euros per square meter.
Better closed?
“Permits” for small-scale works (which most only “small-scale” are not, as they involve removing masonry, changing floors and frames, etc.) are valid for one year with the possibility of extension. This means that Marina and Antonis do not have many “weapons” in their quiver other than patience. As long as the common quiet hours are observed (3 to 5.30 pm and 11 pm to 7 am, now, during the summer season) and the permits and approvals are real and not virtual, they will have to wait for the work to be completed, which usually takes between three and six months, depending on the apartment.
If, however, a neighbor-tenant notices an obvious disharmony between the permit and the volume or duration of the works (or both at the same time), then he should file a complaint with the town planning office of his municipality. If the local planning department is not understaffed, it should proceed with an autopsy and a permit check. “Obviously, there may be temporary inconvenience for the residents”, notes Mr. Belegris, “especially in the special conditions of the densely populated Greek city, but we should not miss the most important thing: the new users of the properties are now looking for different standards of quality, energy efficiency, aesthetics and functionality. Very often these requirements can be met through the upgrading of the already existing building capital, without resorting to new construction. And here there is a very interesting social dimension. Closed apartments lead to closed buildings. Closed buildings lead to closed neighborhoods. And gated neighborhoods lead to weaker and more problematic social and economic activity.”
