After decades where off-plan building has marched on in a state of ambiguity, the state is attempting to bring order. A massive road identification and mapping exercise, which will tread on the rural grid, is in full swing in every corner of the country to determine which plots are eligible to be built on and which are not.

The stakes are high: by the end of 2026, it is estimated that Greece will be able to have a clear and uniform roadmap for off-plan building for the first time, at least as far as the island area is concerned (Ionian Sea and Aegean Sea), for which studies have been received, followed by the continent along with Crete and Euboea.

The road identification studies are the first and most critical step in shaping a new, clear building framework. Their goal is to map and document existing roads located in unplanned and unincorporated areas to determine which of them can be designated as public roads – i.e. legally recognized roads that give building rights to the lots along the way.

By 2026, the Presidential Decree defining the criteria for the designation of the country’s public roads is expected to be approved, according to Nikos Tagaras, the Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy, responsible for Spatial Planning, who told THEMA. This project, which is in full swing, “will be the main tool for regulating off-plan building after a century of ambiguity and fragmentary regulations.”

“We’re stepping on the rural grid”

As Tagaras explains, the designation process will be based on the existing rural road network, from which the roads that will be recognized as public roads will be derived.

“The roads offered for recognition are the so-called rural roads. From this package we will proceed with the designation. However, those that meet certain parameters and serve a single, functional shared network will be selected,” he stresses.

Blind streets, i.e. those that start and end in nowhere, will not be designated. Only those that connect to the rest of the network and end in public spaces – such as a beach, a church or an archaeological site – can be part of the shared network.

The planners have mapped the entire road network based on aerial photographs from 1977 and later, examining each road in terms of specific technical and legal characteristics – such as length, width, slope, function in the road network of the area, in combination with data from the Land Registry, the Local and Special Urban Plans (LSP and LSPS) and the General Urban Plans (GIS).

Today, national roads, provincial roads, and municipal roads (e.g. those connecting two communities) are recognized, published in the Official Gazette and recorded as records on the map.

The use of 1977 as the reference year replaces the outdated 1923 boundary that was in place until today, creating a more realistic and modern framework for urban planning.

The deputy minister points out that islandspresent different characteristics: “The island area has a distinct identity – fewer streets, narrower, with traditional elements such as stone walls and steep slopes. These data will be taken into account in the final evaluation, because each island has specific characteristics that cannot be ignored.”

With the road designation, the issue of facial proof for off-plan building is finally resolved. Each plot will now be able to prove legal person on a public road, a prerequisite for the issuance of building permits.

New approach

“It’s not a matter of building everywhere. Roads come to complement the overall design. Those that are designated will be subject to the 25-metre face, sparsity (4, 8, 12 or 16 acres, depending on the area) and permitted uses, as determined by the Local Development Plans.” This new approach will be combined with wider urban planning.

At the Ministry of Environment they stress that there is no need for a transitional provision for off-plan building (ie: an interim arrangement until a final solution is found) as some stakeholders are calling for, as the solution being promoted is final and complete.

“The identification of the shared road network is key. After 103 years, we have no reason to go for a new, transitional arrangement,” the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources said. However, it is something that the political leadership avoids addressing directly as it is a government decision that will be weighed in the coming period. Especially if there is a big time gap in the recognition of the shared network which could increase public pressure.

According to the ministry’s plan, the Presidential Decree with the criteria will be ready by the end of 2025. It will be submitted to the State Council expecting approval around the first half of 2026.

The first road designations will start on the islands, followed by mainland Greece, Crete and Evia. “Now we have experience and can run faster. All this has never been done before in our country. The goal is to have the first institutionalized shared road network in 2026,” the deputy minister said.

With the completion of the project, the country will for the first time have a single database of shared roads, which will bind all urban planning authorities and provide a clear answer to the “person on the street”.

But what is the current picture of the country’s road network? According to the data on the table of the technical and service staffs, only 8%-9% of the roads are considered “recognized” by a state authority, which is a condition set by the Council of State.

The same sources say that the percentage of recognized main municipal roads and roads within the boundaries of city plans (outside the boundaries of settlements and approved plans) is even lower, amounting to only 1.2% of the total road network. Similarly, recognised pre-1923 roads account for only 0.2%. Adding the recognised national, provincial and municipal-community network, the total percentage of recognised roads outside the plan does not exceed 7.5%. Based on the case law of the Council of State, building is only allowed when the land has a face to a recognized road.

What will be built on off-plan land

According to some early estimates by planners, if the roads already recorded in the new studies – such as those from 1977 and newer – are recognized, the percentage that can be built on the off-plan area could increase to as much as 25%-30%, up from about 5% today. The Ministry of Environment argues, however, that this percentage cannot be stated with certainty at this stage of the studies.

Another parameter that is being put on the table by technical sources is that currently, about 40% of planning offices across the country are still issuing building permits off-plan, regardless of whether the plots face a public road. This practice is due to the fact that each municipality is implementing its own policy line, as the ministry has so far (not coincidentally) not issued a single, binding directive to the MDAs on how off-plan properties should be treated.

This situation is expected to change radically. With the transition of urban planning authorities from the municipalities under the umbrella of the Hellenic Cadastre, policy will now be drawn up centrally and in a uniform manner, with a clear and unambiguous system for off-plan building.

The new framework aspires to end a regime of legal uncertainty and unequal treatment. To date, planning authorities across the country have interpreted the same provisions differently

The completion of the studies and the enactment of the P.D. is considered crucial. Only then can there be a stable and reliable framework for those who own properties outside the plan, and for planning departments handling applications for building permits.

In the past, the government had attempted to bring transitional provisions for off-plan building to the vote, but without finalizing and formally presenting them. This is the reason why building in many areas of the country remains in a grey zone, with the CoE imposing strict adherence to case law and the Ministry of Environment trying to balance between the need to protect the environment and the justified anxiety of citizens who are asking for a clear framework to use their property.

The stability, however, that urban planning and the recognition of the shared road network intends to bring is not only about off-plan building. At the same time, the environment ministry is promoting a New Building Regulation (NOC), which aims to drastically simplify procedures, reduce bureaucracy and establish uniform rules for all.

As Thymios Bakoyannis Bakoyannis, the Secretary General of Spatial Planning, Thymios Bakoyannis, recently stated at the conference of the Sustainable Buildings Council of Greece “SBC Greece”, the New Building Regulation is in its final stage of formulation and will consist of just 20 articles, aiming to end the complexity and interpretative contradictions that create delays and corruption.

The new regulation will focus on three key parameters: building contours, side setbacks and volume factor. According to the Ministry of Environment, this option drastically simplifies the institutional framework, replacing dozens of complicated provisions for lofts, attics, overhangs and staircases, which until now have been a field of different interpretations from one planning authority to another.

The emphasis on volume

The new NOC introduces a new approach to urban planning, emphasizing volume rather than just building square footage. In this way, it is thought that architects will have more flexibility in building form, avoiding box buildings, while maintaining control over basic urban sizes.

The new framework provides for an overhaul of building incentives, which will now be integrated into urban planning rather than in a piecemeal fashion as in the past. Additional building bonuses provided for in the 2012 NOC will be eliminated, as they are now considered outdated. As stated in the Ministry of Environment, no one will now buy a new house unless it is energy class A, so energy incentives under the old NOC will no longer be of any value.

Bakoyannis admitted that the previous regulations for energy upgrades and “green” buildings were introduced “in a violent way” into the institutional framework, as the country did not have sufficient urban planning tools or funding at the time.

The new building regulation ends decades of contradictions and interpretations that have plagued engineers, agencies and investors. “No more questions like ‘does the loft count?” “What is an overhang?” or ‘how far is the attic from the underlying space?’,” the Ministry of Environment and Energy said.

The philosophy is to provide clear, objective criteria, limiting the scope for arbitrary interpretations and thus “limiting corruption,” they stress.