Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis has awarded a contract worth at least 10 million euros to record and audit thousands of unmapped state-owned properties.
The ministry launched a public tender two and a half years ago to select a private contractor to catalog its extensive real estate portfolio onto a single digital platform.
Greek asset management firm Qualco Real Estate won the competitive tender to map, inspect, and regularize the property portfolio over a projected timeframe of two to three years.
Unmapped patient legacies
The Ministry of Health holds an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 real estate properties worth millions of euros, though neither current officials nor former ministers know their exact count, market value, or revenue potential.
Most of these properties stem from legacies and bequests left by patients to Greek public hospitals over several decades. In Greece, public hospitals frequently receive property donations from former patients, but these holdings have historically remained decentralized.
Georgiadis said the Greek state is losing substantial revenue by failing to utilize these assets. The portfolio encompasses a wide variety of real estate, ranging from commercial stores on Ermou Street in central Athens to apartment buildings surrounding the United States Embassy in the capital's Ilisia district.
He cited an extreme bequest in which a patient left a shipping pier located in a United States port to the Greek Ministry of Health. Greek authorities currently do not know who manages the American pier or what activity takes place there.
Long-term leasing strategy
Georgiadis emphasized that the government does not intend to sell off the ministry's real estate assets.
Instead, the Ministry of Health plans to generate revenue by bringing the properties into productive use through long-term leases and other management arrangements recommended by experts or decided by ministry leadership.
The creation of a comprehensive digital platform is designed to provide a permanent record for future health ministers, enabling successive administrations to manage the assets for the financial benefit of citizens and the public health system.
Complex legal and technical audits
Qualco Real Estate Chief Executive Officer Orestis Tsakalotos reported that the total cost of recording, regularizing, and preparing the properties for commercial use will reach at least 10 million euros.
Tsakalotos described the auditing process as particularly complex. Many of the properties involve decades-old bequests requiring technical inspections and extensive legal procedures to resolve title disputes and clear property rights before leasing can begin.
He added that Qualco, an Athens-based financial technology and asset management group, possesses extensive experience in large-scale asset mapping and identification operations and expressed confidence that the company will successfully complete the assignment.
The Ministry of Health will retain exclusive ownership and final decision-making power regarding how all real estate assets are managed and deployed, with Qualco acting in an operational and advisory capacity throughout the contract.
