Roughly 50,000 teachers, doctors, and nurses who work in the regions and rent housing away from their permanent residence have a double round of rent refunds coming this fall.
The first payments are expected by the end of September and will cover back pay for rent paid in 2024, with a second round following at the end of November for rent paid in 2025. Depending on whether recipients already received one rent refund back in November 2025, the total benefit could amount to as much as 3 or 4 monthly rent payments out of the 24 they paid over 2024 and 2025.
The new measure, which takes effect this fall, applies retroactively from 2025 and provides for the refund of 2 rent payments per year, with no income limits, for these categories of workers who serve “away from their home base” and rent a primary residence in the region where they work, outside the Region of Attica (excluding the Regional Unit of the Islands) and outside the Regional (Metropolitan) Unit of Thessaloniki.
Who Gets Paid First
The first September payments cover 2025 back pay, with recipients split into two groups:
- Those who already received a rent refund in November 2025 for rent paid in 2024, because they met the income criteria at the time, will receive an additional amount equal to 1/12 of their total 2024 rent expenses.
- Those who didn’t receive the refund in November 2025, because they didn’t meet the income limits, will receive back pay equal to 2/12 of the rent they paid in 2024. For these specific public employees, the rent refund is granted regardless of income.
After that, by the end of November 2026, the payment for 2025 rent will follow. As a rule, this comes to 2/12 of the total annual rent. However, when a recipient is also getting the refund for a primary residence, this additional benefit is capped at 1/12, so that the total reaches two months’ rent.
Who Qualifies
Eligible recipients include:
- Teachers, both permanent and substitute, as well as members of Special Educational Staff and Special Support Staff who served for any period during the reference year at public primary and secondary schools in areas covered by the measure.
- Medical, nursing, and other health staff. Specifically: NHS doctors and dentists, resident and auxiliary doctors, permanent rural doctors, personal physicians at public hospitals (whether required to serve or not, and those on fixed terms), staff at public Primary Health Care units and Mental Health units within the National Mental Health Services Network, and doctors serving Local Health Teams (TOMY). Also included are regular and auxiliary nursing staff, support health staff under the nursing service, paramedical staff, and EKAB ambulance drivers and crews.
Primary or Secondary Residence
The benefit isn’t limited to cases where the rented property is declared as a primary residence.
It also covers employees renting a secondary residence in the area where they work. From 2025 onward, the financial support each year equals 2/12 of the total rent paid the previous year. If a recipient changed residence within the same year, rent paid for all eligible residences is combined. For those who also qualify for the existing single rent refund, the additional benefit is capped at 1/12 of the annual rent.
The total benefit cannot exceed €1,600 per year for each year of rent payments.
That cap increases by €100 for each dependent child of the recipient and their spouse. In case of separation, the increase applies to each parent individually, with a similar provision for civil partnership couples.
The benefit is calculated automatically, without an application, based on the tenant’s annual income tax return for the relevant previous tax year, as filed by the last business day of September of the payment year.
To qualify, recipients must:
a) have filed, on time or late, the relevant property lease information declaration with the tax authority (AADE) by July 15 of the payment year, and
b) have that declaration number included in their income tax return for the prior year.
For the measure’s first application, declarations covering active leases in 2024 are taken into account as long as they were filed by July 15, 2025.
