Greece promised a law moving building permits to the land registry by March 2026. We found no bill

Greece's government wants to take building permits away from municipalities and give them to the land registry.¹² In November 2025 it promised a law by the end of March 2026.¹ As of 15 October 2026 we found no draft bill in public consultation and no bill in Parliament.¹²¹³ On 14 October 2026 a deputy minister described the idea again, in more tentative words than the original plan.¹²³⁴

What did the government announce in November 2025?

On 27 November 2025 the Cabinet was presented with a legislative initiative of the Υπουργείο Περιβάλλοντος και Ενέργειας (ΥΠΕΝ, Ypourgeio Perivallontos kai Energeias, the Ministry of Environment and Energy), the Υπουργείο Ψηφιακής Διακυβέρνησης (Ypourgeio Psifiakis Diakyvernisis, the Ministry of Digital Governance) and the Υπουργείο Εσωτερικών (Ypourgeio Esoterikon, the Ministry of the Interior).¹ At its centre is a new body, the Εθνικός Οργανισμός Κτηματολογίου και Ελέγχου Δόμησης (ΕΟΚΕΔ, Ethnikos Organismos Ktimatologiou kai Elenchou Domisis, National Organisation for the Cadastre and Building Control).¹

ΕΟΚΕΔ would join the Ελληνικό Κτηματολόγιο (Elliniko Ktimatologio, the Hellenic Cadastre), Greece's land registry, with part of the work now done by municipal building services, the Υπηρεσίες Δόμησης (ΥΔΟΜ, Ypiresies Domisis).¹ The ministry's release says the new body would take over the recording and guarantee of ownership, building permits and related acts such as building-terms certificates and pre-approvals, construction inspections and the enforcement of planning law.¹ΕΛ The ΥΔΟΜ would be abolished as stand-alone municipal services, and their staff would move with their employment continuity guaranteed.¹⁵

Municipalities would keep local urban planning: plan studies, town-plan extensions and regeneration, shared public spaces and street-plan applications.¹

How would the new body work?

The release describes one governor (διοικητής) and two deputy governors, one for the Cadastre and one for building.¹ Services would run through 20 Regional Building Centres and 77 Local Building Centres, housed in today's Cadastre offices.¹ Services would be fully digital, "without a locality requirement" (χωρίς υποχρέωση εντοπιότητας), in our translation, meaning an application would not have to go to the office covering the property's area.¹

Checks would change too. A register of independent building inspectors would be set up, and inspectors would be assigned by lot to a mandatory check of every permit before works begin.¹ Separately, "about 30% of permits will be checked, but not at random", in our translation, with an artificial intelligence system analysing data and proposing which cases are "high risk", the release says.¹⁵

Under the November 2025 plan, a national body would issue Greek building permits from 20 regional and 77 local centres in Cadastre offices.¹

Why does the government want this?

The ministry cites a 2025 ruling of the Συμβούλιο της Επικρατείας (ΣτΕ, Symvoulio tis Epikrateias, the Council of State, Greece's supreme administrative court), decision 1728/2025, as saying that issuing building permits is a competence of central government.¹

It also points to gaps in the current system. Only 185 of Greece's 332 municipalities have a building service, which leaves 147 without one, by our calculation.¹ About 35% of building services run with two engineers or fewer.¹ In 23% of them the average time to issue a building permit is more than three months.¹ An interior ministry assessment of May 2025 gave the services an average score of 3.4 out of 10.¹

What has slipped from the timetable?

The November 2025 plan set three dates: a law by the end of the first quarter of 2026, initial operation in three regional centres in June 2026, and full operation in early 2027.¹ΕΛ¹ΕΛ¹ΕΛ The first two dates have passed. We found no bill, and no report that the pilots have started.¹²¹³

In July 2026 the trade site ecopress.gr reported that the timetable had been "neither met nor updated", in our translation.⁶ It quoted officials of ΚΕΔΕ (Κεντρική Ένωση Δήμων Ελλάδας, Kentriki Enosi Dimon Elladas, the Central Union of Municipalities) as saying in May 2026 that the matter was "in deep freeze", in our translation.⁶ Its headline said a corruption case in planning offices was now "unfreezing" the transfer, in our translation.⁶ Around the same time, dimokratiki.gr, citing unnamed sources, reported that the environment ministry would bring a bill "very soon", with the first three pilot offices opening "within the current year" and full operation estimated for "after 2027", in our translation.⁷

Preparation money has been allocated. According to the trade outlets B2Green and ecopress, a ministerial decision put a €6.2 million project to integrate the building services into the Cadastre into the environment ministry's development programme for 2026–2030.⁹¹⁰ They report that €6,169,000 goes to Growthfund, the state holding company, known in Greek as the Υπερταμείο (Ypertameio; officially Ελληνική Εταιρεία Συμμετοχών και Περιουσίας, ΕΕΣΥΠ, Elliniki Etaireia Symmetochon kai Periousias), for technical and financial advisory services and technical assistance, and €31,000 to the General Secretariat for Spatial Planning.⁹¹⁰ The project is reported to run from 18 March 2026 to 31 December 2027.⁹¹⁰ B2Green reports that it does not include building the digital platform.⁹

What did the deputy minister say on 14 October 2026?

Marilena Soukouli-Viliali, deputy minister for the environment and energy, spoke at the Prodexpo 2026 property conference in Athens on 14 October 2026.²³ "Together with the Ministry of Digital Governance, we have begun the process of looking at the creation of a new body in which both the cadastre and planning will come to fit together," she said, in our translation.²ΕΛ She gave no name and no date.²³⁴ She added that digitisation must come with real simplification of procedures.⁴

On 13 October 2026, the day before the speech, the ministry and ΚΕΔΕ agreed to set up two working groups, according to ecopress.⁸ The one on planning, led by Soukouli-Viliali, covers the transfer of the building services to the Cadastre.⁸ ecopress reports that ΚΕΔΕ has not withdrawn its objections.⁸

What does this mean for property owners today?

Nothing changes yet: we found no law.¹³ Building permits are still handled by municipal building services through e-Άδειες, the online permit platform, which has issued more than 1.5 million permits, the deputy minister said at the conference.²³ The Cadastre works as before.¹³

A lawyer at the same conference, Maria Deli of LCI Law, listed Cadastre problems that owners already face, including encumbrances and claims recorded on the original properties that were not carried over to the new Cadastre property codes (ΚΑΕΚ) and entries recorded as "unknown owner".²¹⁴ Those problems exist whatever happens to ΕΟΚΕΔ. Our guide to the Cadastre correction deadline explains how to check your entries, and our explainer on the Cadastre code in the E9 covers a link between the Cadastre and the tax authority that is already live.