The growth of urban tourism in Greece and the parallel transformation of summer resorts located a short distance from the urban centers of Athens and Thessaloniki into high-intensity tourist areas are the trends revealed by the data on the spatial distribution of short-term rentals. The data was compiled by the country’s independent tax authority, AADE.
The enormous diffusion of short-term rentals such as Airbnb also shows the emergence of new regions, even rural ones, that are significantly different from the classic model of rentals found in the cities.
All properties that are rented out for short periods must be declared to AADE to obtain the real estate registration number (AMA), without which platforms such as Airbnb and Booking cannot accept listings. It should be noted that short-term rental is understood as a booking of up to 59 days at a time, which must be declared in a special register of AADE, while the owner must also submit a declaration, based on which the property is taxed. What do these new figures show?
– In 2025, income from short-term rentals was declared for 117,604 properties: most were in Attica (25,994), Central Macedonia (17,748), South Aegean (16,100), Crete (12,870) and the Ionian Sea (11,664).
