Why “legalization” now has a chance
The adopted Bill on Special Conditions for Recording, Registration of Rights to Real Estate introduces a digitalized and simplified procedure that enables the registration of ownership rights for around 4.8 million illegal buildings in Serbia, representing one of NALED’s key recommendations for more than a decade.
“This ‘legalization’ is essentially not legalization, but rather the registration of ownership rights to real estate, while urban planning issues will be addressed at a later stage. The goal is to align ownership records with the factual situation, so that de facto owners can dispose of their properties and use them as collateral to obtain more favorable loan terms, connect to utility systems, and obtain permits to legally reconstruct or upgrade buildings,” explains Dušan Vasiljević, Director of the Competitiveness and Investment Department at NALED.
For many years, the digitalization and acceleration of the legalization process has been one of the ten priority recommendations in NALED’s Grey Book, and the registration of ownership rights introduced by the adopted Bill provides the basis for identifying owners and ensuring accountability for how properties are used and maintained. By registering de facto owners in property records, the conditions are created for a complete and accurate so-called tax cadastre, contributing to the financing of local infrastructure through property tax.
From 8 December 2025 to 5 February 2026, citizens can submit applications for the registration of ownership rights to real estate, while local governments will provide professional assistance and technical support throughout the process. The website svojnasvome.gov.rs offers the latest information, guidelines, and answers to frequently asked questions.
The implementation of the procedure has been entrusted to the Agency for Spatial Planning and Urbanism, in coordination with the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, the Republic Geodetic Authority, and local self-governments.
In its 2023 recommendations for a comprehensive resolution of property rights issues, NALED proposed so-called validation as part of a special mechanism for aligning the Real Estate Cadastre with the factual situation. In this way, citizens would be able to register ownership rights to real estate in cases where this is currently not possible under existing regulations.
“The issue of recording and registering illegal buildings is a major, but not the only, part of the unresolved property rights backlog that hampers our economic development and undermines legal certainty for citizens. I believe that validation will prove to be an important part of the solution for hundreds of thousands of properties that have been in a legal vacuum for years, as they are not and cannot be registered to their de facto owners due to the lack of a legal basis,” Vasiljević noted.
NALED’s recommendations also address fairer property taxation, more efficient management of state-owned assets, optimization of agricultural land consolidation procedures, and more rational implementation of expropriation. All of these recommendations concern real estate whose value is measured in hundreds of millions or billions of euros, which is why the development potential of resolving their legal status is enormous.
Alongside the removal of administrative barriers to construction, it is also necessary to strengthen the effectiveness of efforts to curb illegal construction. Regular aerial surveys could help detect and prove illegal building activities, as well as have a preventive effect.
“Every illegal building is a scar on the face of our cities and municipalities. If the state implements this Bill as announced, it will be an important step toward legal certainty and a well-regulated real estate market,” Vasiljević concluded.
