The government approves a plan of measures to reduce the administrative burden in the field of real estate development

“The involvement of many partners – both from the state institutions and the private sector – has led to a comprehensive plan to make the real estate development process faster and simpler in all its stages. The implementation of this plan will be an important step in reducing bureaucracy in Latvia, promoting the development of the real estate development and construction industries and attracting investments. Entrepreneurs have long expressed that the slow real estate development process weakens Latvia’s competitiveness compared to our neighboring countries. Now it is important to achieve the adoption of the appropriate legislative amendments as soon as possible, so that the changes foreseen in the plan come into force,” emphasizes Minister of Economy Viktors Valainis.

The plan includes complex measures primarily aimed at implementing a unified and consistent process, in which each subsequent stage is a logical continuation of the previous stage. Also, the plan also includes measures to improve local area development planning, land use, construction process, cadastral survey, environmental impact assessment and deforestation.

In order to create an attractive investment environment in Latvia, as well as to increase Latvia’s competitiveness compared to neighboring countries, it is planned to review the regulation of real estate development processes, ensuring:

• a logical and sequential process, where each subsequent stage results from the results of the previous stage, it is effectively supplemented and detailed;
• the practical implementation of each stage of the process is meaningful and achieves the goals of the regulatory framework;
• the real estate owner gets a clear answer at the earliest possible stage, whether it is allowed to build in the specific area and what exactly to build, while in the following stages, detailed requirements for construction are clarified. These acquired rights must be stable and create legal trust for the private individual;
• reducing the administrative burden cannot impair the guaranteed right of the public to participate in the development processes of the territory, from planning issues to the implementation of the construction plan.

The plan of measures to reduce the administrative burden in the field of real estate development includes approximately 60 measures in areas such as public participation in real estate development processes, effective and meaningful implementation of participation; receiving the opinions and regulations of the competent institutions in real estate development processes; receiving technical regulations for the implementation of the construction plan; implementation of a unified process, starting from the start of construction to recording the building in the land register, improvement of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process, separating the expert conclusion from the political decision; VARAM competence in the territory development planning process; application of new Territorial Planning rules to previously initiated real estate development processes; aspects of the validity of the detailed plan; regulation of implementation of objects of national interest; issues of arranging communication networks; proposals for improving the quality of the EIA process; proposals for improvements to the construction process; deforestation and obtaining permission to cut down trees; aspects of property rights.

Details can be found in the Informative report “On the action plan for reducing the administrative burden in the field of real estate development” On the portal of legal acts.

As you know, at the end of 2023, the Ministry of Economy received the task of the State Administration and Local Government Commission of the Saeima to develop solutions that would ease the administrative burden on entrepreneurs in the field of real estate development, as well as the task of the Prime Minister to prepare proposals for reducing the administrative burden in the field of real estate development, incl. in local level territory development planning, land development, construction, cadastral surveying, environmental impact assessment, deforestation.

Initially, proposals for process improvements were prepared by the Ministry of Economy in cooperation with the Council of Foreign Investors in Latvia, the Alliance of Real Estate Developers, the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Confederation of Latvian Employers, representatives of construction workers, as well as involving other ministries and cooperation partners. The further discussions took place in the high-level working group led by the State Chancellery and in separate expert groups on territorial planning issues, environmental impact assessment issues, construction issues, as well as property rights issues.

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