Legislative deadlock for thousands of property owners "off-plan"

Tens of thousands of off-plan property owners remain in limbo, awaiting a temporary ruling (scheduled to come into effect by the end of 2025) from the Ministry of Environment and Energy.

Meanwhile, in the unplanned areas, confusion reigns as some planning authorities continue to issue permits for construction, and others – noresulting in “lucky” and “unlucky” owners.

It is noted that in the recent draft legislation of the Ministry of the Environment, the relevant provisions concerning the temporary regulation of off-plan development were removed almost at the last moment, following a flurry of decisions of the Council of State (CoE) that threatened the constitutionality of the proposed regulation until the completion of local and special urban plans.

There have been leaks from the authorities that they will come back with revised rules after the European elections, but for now the situation remains murky and property owners are still hanging on by a thread.

Legislative vacuum

Owners of urban sites (in cities) who cannot build on the basis of the provisions of the New Building Code, which grant a “bonus” building permit for new high energy class buildings, also remain hostage to the legislative vacuum.

Here the situation is expected to become clearer by the end of the year or early 2025, after the final decision of the State Council plenum in October next year. So in practice there is no certainty in the planning legislation. After all, even in this case (ΝΟΚ) it is the “lucky ones” who build, not the legalists, since here too there are urban planning authorities that issue building permits with ΝΟΚ bonuses and others (mainly in Athens and other municipalities in Attica) that do not…

However, there is also continuity, as building permits issued last year in areas with unplanned areas are left hanging in the air following a decision by the Council of State (decision 176/2023), which created a broad scene of devaluation of unplanned real estate.

In 2016, Greece's Supreme Administrative Council ruled that the minimum area of ​​four acres (0.4 hectares) was not sufficient for a building permit, as it also required a recognised public road.

Meanwhile, according to sources familiar with the matter, in the event of mass appeals, a domino effect is expected – the cancellation of legal building permits in unplanned areas, since the resulting vacuum gives the right to appeal to the court, which will lead to the cancellation of legally issued and already implemented building permits… The whole situation today resembles an unexplored minefield. One mine is exploding, another is about to explode. Thus, in addition to the problems and devaluation of their property that property owners in unplanned areas face, there are also problems with demarcation and expansion of settlement boundaries.

This problem concerns more 10,000 settlements (with a population of less than 2,000 inhabitants) throughout the country following decisions by the Council of State which declared unconstitutional the delimitations and extensions of the boundaries of settlements that had been made by decisions of the prefect, while a presidential decree was required for this. What does this mean? A limitation of the areas of settlements and uncertainty regarding market sales, since the territory currently within the plan may be outside it…

Great tyranny

At the same time, the categorization/recognition of municipal roads, which is necessary for any urban territorial planning, has not been completed, and it is unclear what will happen with the resettlement of unauthorized buildings, which belong to the so-called category 5.

According to what has become known recently from statements by the heads of the Ministry of the Environment, the corresponding regulation for their resettlement will not be restored until the unauthorized buildings that were and will be recognized as subject to demolition are demolished. After that, any settlements will be carried out in accordance with the city balance. However, there is no specific plan here either.

The question arises: why is this happening? Because, according to sources familiar with the matter, the urban planning that was supposed to have been completed half a century ago (since 1975, to be precise) has still not been completed.

Another 100 years…

To date, the state has managed to implement it on less than 30% of the country's territory. And, as the same sources claim, if it were not for the funds of the Recovery and Sustainability Fund and the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEEE), which has undertaken the urban development obligations on the remaining 70% of the country's territory, the competent Ministry of Environment and Energy (MPEE) and the municipalities would need – at the current rate – almost 100 (!) years, including interim revisions, to implement urban development in the entire country…

According to the new plan, which was also presented in EU (and financed by it), studies, local and special city plans must be completed by December 31, 2025 (i.e. three years after the start), and all relevant presidential decrees must be issued by the end of 2026.

What will change in 2026

Once all these urban development studies are completed and the relevant presidential decrees, as well as the existing city plans, etc., are published, the necessary coordinates and specific conditions will appear throughout the country (except for areas outside the planning zone), and restrictions on construction and activity will be indicated (or not indicated) accordingly. This means that both the state and the individual will know what and where it is possible to build, under what conditions. Thus, with the advent of a “digital map” in the emerging new urban landscape, in just 2-3 years every citizen, official, businessman, engineer, etc. will be able to see from their computer for every piece of land throughout Greece what is permitted, what is prohibited, with what conditions and restrictions.

Easy identification

At the same time, with the help of surveillance systems (in real time) prepared by the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Technical Services, it will be possible to monitor and combat unauthorized construction, since satellite images and drones will be used to identify each new building with its electronic geospatial marker, and any unauthorized construction can be easily detected.

The new urban planning, within the framework of the urban planning reform programme “Konstantinos Doxiadis” prepared by the Ministry of Environment, includes 227 local urban plans (covering 730 municipal units), 18 special urban plans (covering 20 more or less extensive areas respectively), one comprehensive study for the definition of building factor zones, 12 independent studies for the delineation of settlements (covering 51 municipal units in addition to those included in the TPD/EAP) and one independent study for the designation of municipal roads (covering a further 149 municipal units).

What state are we in now?

In this set of 259 individual tender projects, TEI has advanced all of them by mid-June. Specifically, 112 TΠΣ/ΕΠΣ studies have already been contracted and are in the process of implementation, 99 are in the pre-contract review stage by the authorities (ministries, the Audit Office, TEE, contractors) before signing the contract, 45 are in the pre-award stage, and four (which mainly concern the first re-announced trial TΠΣ) are in the stage of preparing the tender documentation, which is under review and, according to TEE sources, will be presented in a few weeks. As for the administrative stages of TΑA, supervised by the EU, 3 out of 5 implementation stages have already been reached.

In other words, the ministry's leadership hopes to complete the process of land registration by 2026.

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