The Armed Forces are drawing up new plans to put some of the 2,000 properties they manage across the country to use, bringing prime sites in central Athens into focus.
The properties managed by the Armed Forces through the Ministry of National Defence and its supervised bodies include two significant buildings, one in Klafthmonos Square and the other in Plaka.
They are the building housing the Navy Logistics Command (ΔΔΜΝ), at the junction of Ioannou Paparrigopoulou 2 and Paleon Patron Germanou streets, and the TEΘA Building in Plaka.
The first is an iconic, listed six-storey neoclassical building of particular historical significance. The second is at 10 Thalou and Pittakou streets in Plaka. It belongs to the National Defence Fund (ΤΕΘΑ) and has officially been included on the list of Armed Forces properties earmarked for development.
The two properties may be put to commercial use because of their location, while other Armed Forces assets are being channelled into social housing and efforts to tackle the housing crisis.
Another Armed Forces property where all options are being considered, and developments may emerge in the coming period, is the former 409th General Military Hospital of Patras, in the Profitis Ilias area, sources add.
Three military camps for the social housing scheme
Panagiotis Kiskiras, director of the Armed Forces Real Estate Utilisation Service, focused on the programme to develop Armed Forces property by building homes both to meet the housing needs of military personnel and to offer homes at low rents.
Speaking at the Green Deal conference the day before yesterday, he said that three military camps in Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras had been made available under the social housing scheme. The plans for these sites include 1,900 homes to be offered for rent at low rates, as well as 600 homes for military personnel.
In total, the property development programme includes 10,454 new homes for Armed Forces personnel across the country, as well as the renovation of 7,030 existing homes. In addition, 15% of the homes being built are made available to doctors and teachers serving in remote border regions.
“The programme is funded 85% by the ministry and 15% by the Public Investment Programme,” Mr Kiskiras said. On progress with the scheme, he noted that the first homes had already been handed over in Evros and on the remote border islands, with the programme due to be completed by 2030.