Chania: “Chicken Coop Luxury” for rent for 1650 euros

Black humor became the last defense of tenants tired of insane prices and greedy owners. In Chania, an anonymous user published an ad offering remove… chicken coop.

With windows from “latest generation aluminum” And “separate electricity meter” – as it should be, so that everything looks serious.

The text read: “Dogs, cats and mothers-in-law are prohibited. Deer, koalas and kangaroos are allowed. Those interested must bring a tax certificate for 10 years, a criminal record certificate and a medical book. And three more [оплату за три месяца. Прим. редакции] rent in advance.”

The photo was attached – a real chicken coop with a mesh through which the sun breaks through. The Facebook group where this ad appeared is not at all satirical – but the post instantly went viral.

When the joke is closer to reality

Users wrote: “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry… because this is the most honest rental I’ve ever seen.” Under hundreds of comments, people asked to be put on the “waiting list” – because even a chicken coop in Crete today is in short supply.

The satire worked better than any report: it showed how The rental market is out of control. In tourist cities like Chania, housing is disappearing from long-term rentals, going to Airbnb, and prices for the remaining apartments have skyrocketed.

From jokes to fraud

But there are stories without jokes. At the beginning of the school year, two teachers became victims of scammers who posted fake advertisements about rent. The woman transferred payment for 2 months “in advance”, but instead of meeting the owner, she found out that the house did not exist – and the scammer’s page had already been closed. Both cases are being investigated police and the teachers’ union.

Market without brakes

Even these stories are just a symptom. Greece does not have a single mechanism for regulating rental housing, and demand is ten times greater than supply. The owners dictate any conditions – and the more desperate a person is looking for housing, the more vulnerable he is. This is how a market is formed, where one law applies – whoever pays more lives.

Half measures of the state

The government tried to mitigate the situation. The new tax law has three relaxations: for those who rent out apartments to large families; for owners renting out housing to civil servants (teachers, doctors, police officers) with short-term contracts; and for owners who open “sleeping” apartments. But as noted Panhellenic Union for the Defense of Tenants (ΠΑΣΥΠΕ)How is that adhesive plaster for fracture.

Head of the union Angelos Skiadas warns: teachers on the islands will still sign “express contracts” and leave in the middle of the school year, when the tourist season begins. At the same time, the owners are kicking out students and workers to turn their housing into at Airbnb.

In the meantime, tenants are saving themselves with irony – that same “black humor” that has become the latest form of protest against the market, where they demand a palace deposit for the prices of chicken coops.

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