Greece: New Draft Bill to Facilitate Property Transactions

A draft bill submitted expected to be unveiled by the digital governance next month aims to resolve the increasingly acute problem of unattainable real estate transactions due to mismatched property area dimensions.

According to the ministry, provisions in the draft law will allow property owners to unilaterally modify their deeds, provided that the ownership rights of other apartment owners – if referring to a multi-unit building – are not affected.

The streamlined process envisioned in draft law aims to cut ‘red tape’ in real estate transactions, including parental transfers of property to offspring

Additionally, a second provision in the same draft bill is expected to benefit thousands of property owners from a quagmire of “red tape” they currently face when attempting to sell off land which has been classified or reclassified by the state as “forest land”. Often times, the only legal recourse available to private citizens are the courts.

Lengthy backlogs of property transactions due to discrepancies in dimensions, between the actual size and what’s listed on deeds, affects two out of three transaction contracts. This results in numerous transactions being canceled just before signing, causing problems for property owners and sector professionals such as real estate agents, lawyers and notaries.

At the same time, with private citizens’ objections to forest maps nearing 400,000, tens of thousands of owners must go to court to prove they land they claim is not state owned.

Under the new legislation, any owner who has successfully obtained a favorable court ruling will be able to modify a relevant entry with Greece’s cadastre (land registry) office, without further legal proceedings.

Source: tovima.com