New construction law will harmonise Serbia’s legislation with EU, says minister

The Law on Planning and Construction is in line with the principles of the EU and is beneficial for Serbia to harmonise its legislation with the EU, said Construction, Transport, and Infrastructure Minister Goran Vesić.

As he stated in an interview for EURACTIV, this law has introduced numerous innovations by European rules, with the most important being transparency and streamlining of procedures.

“For us, the most important aspect of this law is that it enables greater transparency and expedites the procedures for issuing construction permits because we in Europe are facing problems in the construction industry due to the situation in Ukraine. Simply, money is becoming scarcer, obtaining loans is increasingly difficult, which hinders financing of construction and property purchases, and more or less all European Union countries are experiencing a decrease in construction industry activity. That’s why it was crucial to expedite the procedures to enable faster and easier construction,” Vesić said.

The minister also highlighted that one of the crucial solutions is related to the green agenda. These include obligations to build by green building certificates, the introduction of energy passports for all new properties, e-space, gas stations, and parking with the requirement to have electric vehicle chargers.

The change that has attracted the most attention is eliminating fees for converting land use rights into ownership rights on construction land, which, as Vesić told EURACTIV, should unlock 5,000 new locations or 15 million square meters.

“We have had revenue of €31 million since 2010, which means that Serbia has earned this much in 12 years, and 94% of conversions were done free of charge because, under the current law, there was no fee for land under buildings and land for regular use,” he explained.

With this law, he stated, the state can earn more on a single location. “We are talking about 5,000 locations where an average of 2,000 square meters can be built, which means we are talking about 15 million square meters we couldn’t use due to conversions. The GDP lost at least €10.5 billion,” our interviewee said.

According to him, the effects of this law are already visible, as the mere announcement has boosted the construction industry.

“If you already had an increase in the number of issued construction permits in July, it means that the announcement of the law encouraged investors to invest more. So, from that perspective, that’s the first consequence. We will, of course, see the real effects next year.”

(Jelena Jevtic/EURACTIV.rs)