Town Plan Expansion, Urban Capacity and Utilization of Available Space in Athens, 1984-2004

This paper presents the results of a systematic recording of the size and geographical distribution of new urban land supply in the greater Athens area during the period 1984-2004, with the aim of assessing the potential impacts on land and housing prices and supply. The recording combines detailed quantitative and cartographic mapping of the new urban plan extensions with estimates of plot areas, average building coefficients, and the urban capacity that was added to the city, as well as estimates of the corresponding figures for the existing urban fabric. It was found that although the expansions were significant in size, they led to only a limited increase in the city's urban capacity, and much of them were implemented in areas outside the main real estate market, in zones designated for secondary housing. As a result, during the period 1995-2004, when the rate of urban expansion significantly decreased compared to the 1985-1994 decade, the demand/supply ratio for land worsened for the real estate market, while the city as a whole approached high levels of residential saturation. Regarding the social differentiation of new land supply, the expansions between 1984-1995 favored low-income zones, in contrast to the following decade. In the second decade, changes in the demand and supply relationship and increases in saturation levels were geographically and socially distributed in a relatively uniform manner.