Greece to utilize 150 university properties for housing and research

The Greek government has launched a plan to utilize approximately 150 real estate properties owned by the country's 23 higher education institutions. The initiative aims to transform long-dormant or underutilized assets—accumulated over decades through donations and legacies—into active social and developmental resources, including student housing, research facilities, and educational spaces.

The project, which has a budget of 3 million euros, was approved by the Government Committee for Strategic Importance Contracts. It establishes a unified, institutionalized, and fully funded mechanism to handle the complex legal, urban planning, technical, and environmental processes required to prepare these properties for use. The goal is to complete the utilization process by the first quarter of 2029.

To facilitate this, the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations (Superfund) has developed a digital platform to map and record university property. This data will allow the Ministry of Education to identify which buildings are suitable for student accommodation versus those better suited for research or high-investment sustainability. Education Minister Sofia Zacharaki noted that this represents the first time a systematic mechanism has been created to manage university real estate rather than addressing cases sporadically.