Enclosed Residential Plots – The passage…to building development
The method by which entire parcel zones are designated as residential creates a special parcel formation: the enclosed residential parcels. Blocks which are considered residential, but face very serious problems in terms of their development potential.
As soon as the urban planning department considers a parcel as residential, it is intended for reconstruction. But the most basic thing for this reconstruction is missing: the existence of satisfactory access to the piece. How are you going to rebuild and how are you going to access this lot without the existence of a registered road? The solution comes from the Land Registry and not the Town Planning Authority, with a method created for agricultural plots: the right of way, better known as a passage.
The pass is granted after an application through the Land Registry by the interested Owner. It can be settled between the owners of the affected lots, i.e. those granting passage and the owner of the enclosed lot. It can also be granted compulsorily, through a more time-consuming process. This process, of forced passage, often takes about two years. There is, however, another key issue: the required compensation which the state considers reasonable.
According to the Immovable Property Law, in section 11A, it is expressly stated that any Owner of enclosed property is entitled to obtain a passage on payment of reasonable compensation. Unfortunately, however, what the land register perceives as reasonable compensation for residential plots, but without use or that are exploited as agricultural, is to be compensated as if they were developed plots. Thus, the first Owner who is required to obtain a passage from a plot is required to pay 70% of the residential value of the land required for the passage, as rent for the use of the passage. In practice, the amount corresponds to a purchase of the value of the land and not to a rental, as the passage is legally considered. These amounts reach two to three thousand euros per piece.
The …Disincentive to Development
So, in order to start building on a residential block, it is necessary to pay several thousand euros, just to have a temporary access. The money goes to private individuals, who are practically compensated for an idle land. Watch out, because here comes an issue. If he developed his land, the private individual would not be entitled to compensation. But because he did not develop it, he is entitled to compensation. The whole issue is an unprecedented case of disincentive to development.
The owner who paid the amount will be called upon, at a later stage, to pay sums of money for the supply of electricity and also for the creation of the necessary road network.
The Legally Enclosed Pieces of …Free Zones
The biggest weakness of gated residential blocks is the inability to separate or divide them into separate blocks and separate title deeds. The reason is because the separation process is not done through the Land Registry Offices, since the land register does not deal with residential plots. On the other hand, not even Urban Planning Authorities can proceed with the procedures of urban planning separation of plots, because such a procedure is not foreseen even with the existence of a passage. Thus, the enclosed residential blocks were orphaned by the competent authority and legally trapped.
Developmental Potential Issues
This legal impasse creates many development problems, especially in the case of co-ownership of the parcel, which is the most frequent case. The most typical of these problems are created in the cases of incorrect spatial placements of a development, which limit its future separation and by extension the future development possibilities of the whole lot. In this regard, there is a risk of not properly coordinating the zoning of multiple buildings by different owners and thus not maintaining the correct distances between them. In addition, it is very possible for one of the co-owners to exceed the allowed Building Factor attributed to him, to the detriment of the other co-owners. Thus, the development on an indivisible lot creates other problems in the very legality of the developments as well as unnecessary friction between the co-owners.
The Town Planning Authorities are justifiably unable to proceed with the separation of an enclosed residential building, amidst this legal chaos. There are issues that need to be considered before parcels can be subdivided into smaller sections such as the definition of green space, the size of the intended plots and the design of the road network.
Regarding the latter, urban planning is unable to know from where there will be access to the block, since the passage is considered temporary, while the division of a block is a development that requires the creation of a road network within the block. Who can know the future connection point of the block’s road network with the rest of the road network?
But here is where there is a paradox. If you proceed with the development of a simple house in the enclosed residential area (it is understood that a right of way has been acquired) the town planning will indicate the street line, i.e. the limits of the planned road network that the plot itself should allow. Therefore, there is a general plan for how the road network of the region will be shaped in the future. However, in the case of the application for the separation of the enclosed plot, the urban planning authorities seem more uncertain. They know that the road network that affects the parcel that gives access to the enclosure, is not binding until it is implemented. Therefore, there is a plan for the future road network, but this plan does not bind anyone except the owner who wants to develop. Thus, the urban planning authorities themselves know that they are only guaranteed by the existence of a realized road, for access to the parcel being divided.
Rights but Obligations as well
The problem with the issue of residential lots in general starts from the fact that changing the urban planning zone of a lot from agricultural to residential is not linked to taxation. For example, in the case of changing the zone of a plot from agricultural to residential, it is done without any charge to the owner. Whereas in the opposite case, i.e. the declassification of a plot (for example from residential to agricultural) the owner is entitled to compensation.
To sum it up: The state gives you the ability to own a residential plot, use it as agricultural and be compensated as if it were residential, because someone wants to develop their own plot as residential as… defined in the urban planning zones. As we have seen before, the current legislative framework gives you the incentive to… not develop your property which is adjacent to enclosed plots, as that is the only way you are entitled to compensation. You are therefore given unreasonable rights but no one binds you with obligations, unless you want to develop.
Thus, urban planning seeks to solve the problem as it knows best. With the physical design and physical concession of the future road network. I am referring to urban redevelopment, which will require the overall planning as well as the implementation of road networks in entire enclosed residential areas. This physical design and essentially the requirement for its implementation, is a process that will bind the owners more. Funds will be required, which in one way or another will burden the owners. On the other hand, since only the physical implementation of the road network will bind the owners, objections and complicated procedures before this implementation will not be avoided, while at the same time the legal framework will remain invalid.
Solution Proposal – Binding Design with Flexible Implementation
What will ultimately solve the problem is the legal (or “property”) commitment of a piece of land with the urban planning regulations concerning the granting of a road network or green space. This legal commitment will be made through the Title Deeds. When a parcel is included in a residential zone, this will only be done on the condition that certain town planning requirements are registered on the title deed. Enshrining the requirements of the planning authorities in the title deeds will ensure the needs of both the correct and organized planning of the planning authority and the owner who wishes to develop his property immediately. At the same time, it will offer the appropriate flexibility (in relation to urban redevelopment) in the matter of the temporal implementation of the necessary public infrastructures and in the financial involvement of each owner.
In short, the plan of a basic road network can be legally valid, but without the need to implement it immediately. The enclosed housing blocks as well as those adjacent to the road network (which will be required to grant access to the enclosures) will be characterized as residential blocks under registration. The parcels under registration will be legally bound by the zoning and this commitment will be the condition for them to be developed and also to exist as residential.
For future residential zones it will be the condition to be classified as residential blocks. In the event of a purchase or sale, the new owner will be bound by the town planning requirements, precisely because these requirements are registered in the Title Deed. The piece will have to provide a road and greenery, when and whenever this is In addition, any costs required will be charged to the owner, whenever he develops his plot. On the other hand, if he does not want to develop, he is neither burdened nor does he claim compensation.
Only with the legal enshrining of urban planning on the Title Deeds will it be possible to solve all the problems that arise with the enclosed housing blocks. The phenomenon of trapped buyers is thus limited. The urban planning requirements are vested in the new buyer, since his legal responsibilities are transferred to him through the Title Deed.
Since there will be the design of a basic road network (primary road network) which is binding and gives access to all the enclosed housing blocks, then there will be a clear connection of the block with the existing future network. Thus, the urban planning authorities will be able to accept proposals for future divisions within the enclosed housing estates. These proposals will provide for the secondary road network and the planned green spaces within the enclosed block. This future separation will be legally binding as long as all co-owners sign. In this way, it will be ensured that in the future plots of land and public areas will be created, in accordance with the specifications provided by the urban planning authority. The parcel will be able to be divided with the new titles stating the town planning requirements of the plot under registration. Any buyer will be purchasing, to his knowledge, a plot under registration with approved plans for future development. In case of development, it will implement its part of the separation. An example is attached at the end of the text.
Without the above legal commitment, nothing else can change the fate of the enclosed housing blocks, which are currently an urban conundrum. Certainly, urban redevelopment would be an alternative solution, but it involves direct costs that no one knows if they will be repaid, both for the state and for the owners. On the other hand, I believe that the spirit of urban renewal is consistent only with the freezing of the creation of new residential zones, as the characterization of residential blocks without the creation of a road network leads to the reproduction of new enclosed residential blocks.
Source: ECOSMART PROPERTY DESIGN in Development & Property
