Greece is preparing a major overhaul of the legal framework governing apartment buildings, co-owned properties and short-term rental arrangements, almost a century after the adoption of Law 3741/1929 on horizontal property ownership.

The initiative was presented by Justice Minister Giorgos Floridis, who said a 13-member committee will draft the new bill by autumn, with the aim of creating Greece’s first unified Property Code by the end of the year.

Law 3741/1929, which has been in force for 97 years, recognises ownership divided by floors or parts of the same building — the legal basis for apartment buildings and other co-owned properties. Since then, according to the Justice Ministry, more than 1,100 separate legislative amendments and interventions have been introduced, creating a fragmented framework that has often left courts, including the Supreme Court, to resolve disputes through case law.

The new legislation is intended to modernise the rules governing relationships between co-owners, reduce disputes, make better use of tied-up property and adapt apartment-building regulations to current housing and real estate needs.

One of the most significant proposed changes concerns the division or merger of apartments. Under the new framework, owners would be able to split or combine flats even where existing apartment-building regulations prohibit it. This would allow, for example, the owner of a large or multi-level apartment to divide it, live in one section and rent out the other, with the aim of making better use of urban housing stock.

The bill is also expected to address one of the most common sources of tension in apartment buildings: unpaid common-area fees. A special collection procedure will be introduced, including the possibility of issuing payment orders against owners who fail to pay their share of shared expenses. The creation of a reserve fund will also become mandatory, as will insurance for apartment buildings.

Apartment-building managers are expected to receive expanded powers, along with increased responsibilities, in order to ensure that common expenses, repairs and other shared obligations are handled more effectively.

The new framework will also make it easier for co-owners to approve necessary repair works, maintenance and energy upgrades. Required voting thresholds at owners’ meetings will be reduced, with the percentage depending on the urgency and nature of the work.

Horizontal ownership refers to co-ownership of a building in which each owner has exclusive use of a specific apartment or space, while also sharing ownership of common areas such as the roof, stairwell, lift and corridors. Vertical ownership, by contrast, concerns the division of a plot into separate buildings or shares, where each owner has exclusive ownership of an autonomous structure while common areas such as courtyards or access roads remain jointly owned.

Floridis said the reform aims to remove long-standing restrictions and unlock the value of thousands of properties whose legal status has remained unresolved.

“Almost a hundred years after the basic law on horizontal property, we have decided to take a comprehensive initiative covering all outstanding issues relating to ownership and, in particular, co-ownership,” he said.

He added that the first step would be the codification of scattered legislation, followed by the creation of a modern legal framework that would allow citizens to make full use of their property.

The committee drafting the bill is chaired by Supreme Court judge Konstantia Emmanouilidou, who specialises in property law, land registry law and real estate matters.

Deputy Justice Minister Ioannis Bougas said the new framework will fully respect constitutional and European protections of property rights. He outlined the key pillars of the reform, including the consolidation of provisions scattered across dozens of laws, closer links with the National Land Registry, cooperation with the Technical Chamber of Greece, faster partition lawsuits, easier amendment of apartment-building bylaws and the issuance of title deeds in thousands of pending cases.

The reform will also seek to simplify procedures for rebuilding shared plots, adding floors to existing buildings and transferring properties whose legal status has long remained unresolved.