Translated using ChatGPT service.
At the Cabinet meeting on April 2 of this year, the government, after reviewing the Informative Report on the action plan for reducing the administrative burden in the real estate development sector, approved an action plan comprising nearly 60 measures. The plan aims to balance the rights of property owners and the public by reviewing and improving the process without diminishing the scope of rights and safety requirements.
The involvement of many partners – from both state institutions and the private sector – has led to a comprehensive plan to make the real estate development process faster and simpler at all stages. Implementing this plan will be a significant step in reducing bureaucracy in Latvia, promoting the development of the real estate and construction sectors, and attracting investment. Entrepreneurs have long expressed that the slow real estate development process reduces Latvia's competitiveness compared to neighboring countries. It is now important to achieve the prompt adoption of the necessary regulatory amendments to bring the planned changes into effect,” emphasizes the Minister of Economics, Viktors Valainis.
The plan includes complex measures primarily aimed at introducing a unified and consistent process, where each subsequent stage is a logical continuation of the previous one. The plan also includes measures to improve local-level territorial development planning, land management, the construction process, cadastral surveying, environmental impact assessment, and deforestation.
To create an attractive investment environment in Latvia and increase Latvia's competitiveness compared to neighboring countries, it is planned to review the regulatory framework for the real estate development process, ensuring:
- A logical and sequential process where each subsequent stage follows the results of the previous stage, effectively complementing and detailing it.
- Meaningful and practical implementation of each process stage that achieves the regulatory goals.
- Property owners obtaining clear answers as early as possible on whether construction is allowed in a specific area and what exactly can be built, with detailed construction requirements clarified in subsequent stages. These acquired rights should be stable and create legal certainty for individuals.
- The reduction of the administrative burden should not worsen the public's guaranteed rights to participate in territorial development processes from planning to the implementation of construction projects.
The action plan for reducing the administrative burden in the real estate development sector includes approximately 60 measures in areas such as public participation in real estate development processes, effective and meaningful implementation of participation, obtaining opinions and regulations from competent institutions in real estate development processes, obtaining technical regulations for implementing construction projects, introducing a unified process from the start of construction to recording the building in the land register, improving the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process by separating expert opinions from political decisions, the competence of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (VARAM) in territorial development planning processes, applying new territorial planning rules to previously started real estate development processes, aspects of the validity of detailed plans, regulations for the implementation of national interest objects, issues related to the organization of communication networks, proposals for improving the quality of the EIA process, proposals for improving the construction process, deforestation and obtaining tree cutting permits, and property rights aspects.
Detailed information on the Informative Report "On the Action Plan for Reducing the Administrative Burden in the Real Estate Development Sector" can be found on the Legal Acts Portal.
As known, at the end of 2023, the Ministry of Economics received a task from the Saeima's Public Administration and Local Government Committee to develop solutions to ease the administrative burden on entrepreneurs in the real estate development sector, as well as a task from the Prime Minister to prepare proposals for reducing the administrative burden in the real estate development sector, including local-level territorial development planning, land management, construction, cadastral surveying, environmental impact assessment, and deforestation.
Initially, the proposals for process improvements were prepared by the Ministry of Economics in collaboration with the Foreign Investors' Council in Latvia, the Real Estate Developers' Alliance, the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Employers' Confederation of Latvia, representatives of construction workers, as well as other ministries and cooperation partners. Further discussions took place in a high-level working group led by the State Chancellery and in separate expert groups on territorial planning, environmental impact assessment, construction, and property rights issues.