Where You Can Still Rent Out Short-Term
The current rules cover only certain central districts in Athens and Thessaloniki. They do not apply to the rest of the country, where short-term rentals remain widely available. Other areas may have their own local rules, so it is worth checking the position for a specific property before you go ahead, to make a fully informed decision.
Where Exactly the New Rules Apply
The restrictions concentrate on the most crowded urban regions. In Athens, new short-term rental registrations are already paused across the first three municipal districts, covering the historic centre and neighbourhoods such as Plaka, Monastiraki, Koukaki, Kolonaki, Pangrati and Metaxourgeio. Thessaloniki now follows a similar path. Under a new bill from the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, the same pause is due to apply to the city's first municipal community from 1 July to the end of 2026. That area covers the historic and commercial heart of the city: Aristotelous Square, the Egnatia and Tsimiski axes, Ladadika and the port, Rotonda, Kamara, parts of Ano Poli, and the seafront up to the White Tower. The pause runs to the end of 2026, and it may be extended.
How the Rules Treat a Change of Ownership
In these central zones, a short-term rental registration no longer travels with the property. It stays with the owner who holds it. So if a registered home is sold, gifted, or passed from parent to child, the registration is removed, and the new owner cannot use it for short-term letting while the freeze is in place. Long-term letting and living in the home yourself both remain open. How inherited homes are treated is still being finalised, so if you inherit a property in one of these zones, it is worth checking where the rules stand before making plans around it.
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