Spiti mou III: Greece's first-home loans would rise to €230,000 for buyers aged up to 55, but the terms are announced, not law

Greece plans a third round of «Σπίτι μου» ("My Home"), its scheme of state-backed loans for first homes, under the name «Σπίτι μου ΙΙΙ» (Spiti mou III).¹² Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced it at the 90th Thessaloniki International Fair (ΔΕΘ, DETH) on 5 September 2026 and put its size at €2bn.³⁴ The terms set out since then are announcements, not law. As of 11 October 2026 we found no joint ministerial decision (κοινή υπουργική απόφαση, ΚΥΑ), bill, Government Gazette (ΦΕΚ) entry, act on Diavgeia (the state's online register of decisions) or call for applications for Spiti mou III. That matters because Spiti mou II's terms changed after launch: its income limits were widened in November 2025, for example.¹⁵

What has the government officially announced?

Spiti mou III will run through the Hellenic Development Bank (Ελληνική Αναπτυξιακή Τράπεζα, ΕΑΤ / Elliniki Anaptyxiaki Trapeza), which also handled Spiti mou II.¹⁴¹³ According to ΕΑΤ, the Prime Minister announced that implementation will start in early January 2027.¹ Nikos Papathanasis, Alternate Minister of National Economy and Finance (Αναπληρωτής Υπουργός Εθνικής Οικονομίας και Οικονομικών, Anaplirotis Ypourgos), said on 9 September 2026 that the scheme would start "around the end of December" (in our translation).⁵

ΕΑΤ, an ERTnews report of 8 September 2026 from the public broadcaster ERT («ΕΡΤ», Ελληνική Ραδιοφωνία Τηλεόραση, Elliniki Radiofonia Tileorasi) and Papathanasis set out these changes from Spiti mou II:¹²⁵

• The upper age limit rises from 50 to 55.¹²⁵
• The maximum loan rises from €190,000 to €230,000.¹²
• The maximum market value («εμπορική αξία») of an eligible home rises from €250,000 to €300,000.¹²⁵
• The income limit for a couple is €35,000, plus €7,000 for each child instead of €5,000.¹²⁹

ERTnews and enikos.gr report that the loan can still cover up to 90% of the property's value, as under Spiti mou II.²⁹¹⁶ ERTnews says the floor-area cap rises for «πολύτεκνες» families, the legal category of large families, usually those with four or more children.² ERTnews, enikos.gr and Ta Nea report that these families get 10 m² more on the 150 m² cap for each child beyond the fourth.²⁹⁸

By our calculation, a couple with two children would qualify with income of up to €49,000 under Spiti mou III (€35,000 plus 2 × €7,000), against €45,000 under Spiti mou II (under the limits in force from November 2025).²¹⁵

People approved under Spiti mou II who did not complete the process by signing a loan contract will be able to apply to Spiti mou III, Papathanasis said on 9 September 2026.⁵ epixeiro.gr reported on 1 October 2026 that they will need to submit a new application.²⁴ Spiti mou II's approved loans had to be signed by 2 June 2026 with Recovery Fund money, or by 31 August 2026 with ΕΑΤ money.²⁵

Which income limits are actually new?

Several Greek outlets reported on 11 October 2026 that Spiti mou III raises the income limits to €25,000 for single people, €35,000 for couples and €39,000 for single parents, up from €20,000, €28,000 and €31,000.^10111226 Those higher limits are not new. Greece 2.0 (Ελλάδα 2.0, Ellada 2.0), the government's Recovery Fund portal, announced them for Spiti mou II on 21 November 2025, with a per-child top-up of €5,000.¹⁵ The only income change in ΕΑΤ's announcement is the per-child top-up of €7,000, against €5,000 under Spiti mou II.¹¹⁵⁹ ERT's 8 September 2026 report also describes the €35,000 couple limit as a rise («αυξάνονται»), though it already applied.²

What is reported but not confirmed?

Naftemporiki and enikos.gr report that the €2bn splits into €500m from the EU Recovery Fund, €500m from ΕΑΤ's own reserves and €1bn from commercial banks.⁷⁹ ΕΑΤ and ERTnews give only the €2bn total.¹²

Naftemporiki alone reports that each loan would be half interest-free state money and half bank loan.⁷ Under Spiti mou II, 50% of the loan was interest-free, and 75% for families with three or more children.¹⁶ No official statement on Spiti mou III says whether that carries over.¹²

Naftemporiki and Ta Nea give an age range of 25 to 55.⁷⁸ A minimum age of 25 applied under Spiti mou II, but no official statement on Spiti mou III mentions one.¹⁷¹²

How many households will Spiti mou III reach?

The figures differ. In the Prime Minister's quoted words, 25,000 people had already bought homes with subsidised loans, and the aim is "to complete 40,000 cases of young couples who will acquire a first home" (in our translation; the published text repeats «νέων», which can mean "young" or "new").³ΕΛ⁴ CNN Greece's headline turned this into "40,000 young couples" (in our translation).³ By our reading, «συμπληρώσουμε» means bringing the total to 40,000, which would be about 15,000 new households (40,000 minus 25,000, by our calculation).³ The doubled «νέων νέων» could also be read as "new young couples", which would point to 40,000 new households; the transcript on the Prime Minister's site was not accessible to us.³ Papathanasis put Spiti mou III's beneficiaries at 15,000 on 9 September 2026 and at about 15,000 families on 23 September 2026.⁵⁶ Ta Nea, ProtoThema and liberal.gr give about 20,000, without an official source.¹⁰¹¹¹² Their 11 October 2026 articles are near-identical, so we count them as one report.

What happened to the tax-relief idea?

The draft National Strategy for Housing Policy 2026–2035 went to public consultation from 18 June to 3 July 2026.²¹ It floated a different, permanent model: tax relief for banks that lend to eligible buyers at reduced rates.¹⁹²⁰ The version announced at ΔΕΘ instead runs through ΕΑΤ with a fixed budget, as Spiti mou II did.¹¹⁶ We found no official word on what happened to the tax-relief idea.

Can Greeks abroad or EU citizens apply?

We do not know. No official statement on Spiti mou III says who may apply in terms of citizenship, residence or tax residence. Spiti mou II's ministry page speaks only of «φυσικά πρόσωπα», natural persons, that is, individuals.¹⁷ A separate ΔΕΘ announcement is clearer: the government announced that transfer tax on homes bought by citizens of countries outside the EU («τρίτες χώρες», third countries) will rise from 3% to 15% from July 2027, with «ομογενείς» (people of Greek descent abroad) and long-term residents exempt.²³⁴ We found no law on the transfer-tax change yet.

How did Spiti mou I and II do?

Spiti mou I opened in April 2023 through ΔΥΠΑ (Δημόσια Υπηρεσία Απασχόλησης, Dimosia Ypiresia Apascholisis), the public employment service, with a budget of €500m.¹⁸ The Labour Ministry said 75% of the capital provided by ΔΥΠΑ was interest-free, and the whole loan for families with three or more children.¹⁸ Spiti mou II was designed in September 2024 as a €2bn scheme for about 20,000 beneficiaries.¹⁶

The final figures for Spiti mou II, in a joint statement by the finance and social cohesion ministries published by ΕΑΤ on 31 August 2026, show 15,097 loans approved, worth €1.82bn, or 94.5% of the budget.¹³ Of those, 14,114 contracts worth €1.54bn were signed, and public support totalled €943.2m.¹³

By 10 June 2026 the two schemes together had approved 24,095 loans and signed 20,080.¹⁴ By our calculation, Spiti mou I accounts for about 7,814 signed loans (20,080 minus the 12,266 Spiti mou II contracts at that date); ot.gr gives the same figure.¹⁴²⁶

Spiti mou III's announced loan cap is €230,000, for homes worth up to €300,000.¹²

What are home prices doing?

Apartment prices in Greece rose 5.5% year on year in the second quarter of 2026, according to Bank of Greece (Τράπεζα της Ελλάδος, Trapeza tis Ellados) figures reported by insider.gr and efsyn.²²²³ New apartments rose 6.2% and older ones 5.0%.²²²³ Prices grew by an average of 8.3% in 2025 and 9.1% in 2024.²²²³