With amendments to the Law on State Property, which are in the parliamentary procedure, the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property has stipulated that land on which a building has been built without a building permit and which meets the conditions for legalization in accordance with the law regulating the legalization of illegal buildings can be leased, through a direct agreement.
These amendments were discussed, but in the meantime, a New Serbian Democracy MP Velimir Djokovic submitted an amendment to this decision and this amendment proposes deleting the position that provides the possibility of leasing land.
"Given that leasing the land on which an illegal structure is built does not permanently resolve property-legal relations, which would be necessary for legalization, the paragraph that enabled leasing has been deleted. Of course, the Law on Legalization of Illegal Structures allows for the purchase of land in a manner that it is paid for in a maximum of 360 equal monthly installments for illegal structures of primary residence, or in a maximum of 120 equal monthly installments for other illegal structures, and in this specific case, there is no sense in leaving the possibility of leasing it," Đoković stated in the explanation of the amendment.
He added that the paragraph from the Draft Law on State Property stating that the area of land on which an illegal building is built is determined in accordance with the law regulating the legalization of illegal buildings is being deleted, since the same is prescribed in the Law on the Legalization of Illegal Buildings.
The Ministry of Spatial Planning stated in the explanation of the draft law that they "consider it necessary to enable the leasing of land under an illegal building through the proposed exception in this case, especially since, among other things, a condition for issuing a decision on legalization is that property and legal relations on the illegal building and on the land on which the illegal building is built have been resolved."
"Given the need and aspiration to preserve state-owned land as an important resource for future development, as well as increasing efficiency in resolving legalization procedures for illegal structures, we consider it necessary to enable the lease of state-owned land to the owner of an illegal structure who meets the conditions for legalization through the proposed amendment," the ministry stated.
The Law on the Legalization of Illegal Construction came into force on August 14th.
The deadline for legalizing illegally constructed buildings is five years, or until August 14, 2030, but for owners of illegal buildings that are not registered in the cadastre, in whole or in part, the deadline for submitting the registration of the illegal building in the real estate register is February 14, 2026.
The Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property planned to develop a Strategy for the Legalization of Illegal Buildings with an Action Plan for the Period 2026 to 2030, but since spring it has been unsuccessfully searching for a contractor to develop it. Two tenders that have been announced so far, the first on April 9 and the second on September 5 of this year, failed because no bids were submitted, so the development of the document that should regulate one of the most sensitive development issues is still on hold.
The aim of this strategy is to create conditions for the application of European norms and standards in the field of spatial planning and to define long-term and short-term goals for the legalization of illegally constructed buildings and the cessation of further illegal construction.
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