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Victoria Mindova

While the government reduces salaries, pensions and unemployment exceeds one million people, the price of parking in Athens has remained consistently high despite the crisis. A study of GRReporter indicates that parking lots in the central areas of Athens have remained unaffected by the financial woes of the country. The prices in a parking lot in the heart of the city, which is three minutes away from Syntagma Square range between 9-10 euro for the first hour and each hour thereafter costs one extra euro. If you want to park your car in a safe place for eight hours the price ranges between 16-18 euro, depending on the parking policy.

Despite the high prices, paid parking lots and garages remain quite popular and their clientele is quite loyal. "I leave my van in a garage because there aren’t enough free parking spaces in the centre, and I do not want to risk getting a fine for illegal parking or my car being stolen," says a young entrepreneur who is works in the field of renting sound equipment. His business requires him to travel daily with his vehicle, which must always be parked near the office of the company for easy loading and unloading. "The company offices have no garages, making it imperative to use the services of paid parking lots in the vicinity." For regular customers Athenian garages give discounts and prices on a monthly basis range between 130-200 euro.

The president of the Association of Real estate dealers, Ioannis Revitis, explained for GRReporter the paradox of the high parking prices despite the continuously declining purchasing power of the Greeks. "Athens has no free parking spaces, but traffic levels are high. Demand for parking spaces or property suitable for the establishment of paid parking lots is much greater than the supply. Therefore, the prices of such properties remain relatively high as well as their revenues", said Revitis.

The regular customers, who keep alive the businesses with hired parking spaces, are still the residents of the suburbs of Athens, working in the city centre. Most of them use their personal vehicle to get to the desired destination, which burdens further the city traffic. Although after 2004 the transport infrastructure of Athens and public transport were significantly improved, they are insufficient to smoothly serve the flow of citizens and tourists pouring into the city centre. The most dissatisfied with the overcrowded Athens centre remain its older residents, who insist that the municipality should further restrict the entry of cars into the heart of the city. Currently in Athens the even-odd number system is applied. According to this system on an even date only cars whose licence plate number ends in an even number can enter the centre. The same rule applies to the odd-numbered dates. In addition to this measure, the government plans to give incentives for the purchase of cars with low emission of harmful gases in the atmosphere granting them easier access to the city centre than the older models.