The Environment Ministry included a clause in the multi-bill tabled in Parliament on Tuesday for the creation of a new public entity named “Hellenic Cadaster” (instead of the original proposal, “National Cadaster Corporation”) at a time when building activity in Greece mostly comprises fencing around plots rather than any actual construction.
The new entity will absorb the National Cadaster and Mapping Agency and the land registers. Its structure will consist of a central agency, 17 regional offices and 75 branches across the country, and the transition from the current system is forecast to take place within two years.
The draft clause to that effect was put up for consultation in mid-December, and reached Greek Parliament yesterday. The country’s creditors have been demanding the creation of the new entity for the last two years, ahead of the completion of the land register and the forest maps by 2020.
The new corporation will be monitored by the Environment Ministry and will be the heir to the National Cadaster and Mapping Agency both in cadastral surveying and the recording and maintenance of ownership rights throughout the country.
The absorption of the country’s 357 land register offices will occur gradually: The first 60 will be abolished this year and the rest by the end of 2019.
The Hellenic Cadaster will be managed by a seven-member governing board (with three members appointed by the justice minister) and will be self-financed.
This comes at a time when Greeks appear eager to fence around their plots instead of building on them. The 8.6 percent annual increase in building permits in the first nine months of 2017 is not so much the result of new construction but rather due to people fencing around plots – which also qualifies as construction activity – as the president of the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE), Giorgos Stasinos, recently explained.
The reason behind Greeks’ apparent enthusiasm for fencing off their properties is the publication of the forest maps.
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Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Christaras A License: CC-BY-SA
Source: ekathimerini.com
