ARiadni Real Estate Blog

What changes in building permits, building factor, land uses

27 November, 2020

The Ministry of Environment, among others, is abolishing all derogations and reducing by 10% the building factors in the off-plan areas through the bill for the modernization of the spatial and urban planning legislation that was submitted to the Parliament the day before yesterday. With the aforementioned bill, the construction scene in the off-plan areas is completely changed, while new data are created for the issuance of building permits, the transfer of building factor and for a number of other sectors. At the same time new settings are included for the arbitrary.

It is reasonable to ask questions to both property owners and professionals (engineers, lawyers, notaries). The Ministry of Environment, in an effort to unravel the landscape, provides answers to a series of questions posed - and - during the consultation.

Out of plan

The main question is why there is a restriction on off-plan construction. The Environment claims that this is done because the off-plan construction is a Greek peculiarity, it does not exist anywhere in Europe and that now a class is entering.

As they say, the bill reduces the building factors for the out-of-plan areas by 10% and eliminates the deviations of perfection. That is, the derogations concerning plots outside the plan of less than four acres.

These derogations did not exist before in Greece and were first introduced in 1962, theoretically for a transitional period. "However, we do not want to surprise anyone. "Those owners who want to build based on the existing regime have at least 6 years to do it", the ministry points out characteristically.

For properties over four acres, they make it clear that nothing changes until the adoption of local urban plans. However, the reduction of anarchic construction is combined with the strengthening of planning and organized siting.

This reduces, for example, the building factor for individual industrial activities, by as much as 33%. On the other hand, both in business parks for industry and in organized receptions related to other activities (logistics, etc.) the building factors increase significantly.

Structure factor

The bill makes special reference to the process of transferring the building factor. This begs the question: What is this transfer and who benefits from it?

As explained by the Environment, today we have on the one hand owners of listed buildings who can not build using the building factor which they would be entitled to under other conditions. "On the other hand, we have areas where, based on environmental criteria, one can build using a higher rate than one has today. Essentially, then, we transfer the "surplus" building factor from areas and buildings in which it can not be utilized - e.g. preservable - in areas where there is a deficit. And this is achieved with the Digital Earth Bank, the location of the Reception Zones ".

The innovations include, among others, the "withdrawal" of buildings and the expropriation of floors, but also the highest building factor in energy buildings.

Expropriations

Another question that concerns many owners is what happens to those whose properties have been expropriated by the municipalities. The Environment responds that "the system of road expropriations is being streamlined in order to protect the property of the citizens".

In addition, land uses are being reduced to make the system more flexible and the National Land Nomenclature is being introduced to be applied to all types of land use plans in a uniform manner.

There are also regulations in the bill for the arbitrary. In particular, arbitrary open balconies or parts of them that extend beyond the common area of ​​the city (road line), arbitrary constructions on properties that have a building permit, are permanently excluded from the demolition, regardless of the rate of do not exceed 50 sq.m. in overall construction.

Sanctions for arbitrary constructions and changes of use of category 5 for properties located in areas that were declared within the year 2020 in a state of civil protection emergency are also suspended.

Newspaper Ta Nea