In an article in *Kathimerini*, Minister of State Akis Skertsos writes about the “quiet reform of spatial planning, land use, and the relevant government agencies.”
As he notes in his introduction, “The recent dismantling by the Police Internal Affairs Service of a ring of corrupt officials in Attica who were extorting private citizens in exchange for building permits has understandably raised questions and caused outrage: ‘What is finally happening with the local urban planning authorities?’
The details of the case brought to mind the chronic problems that have long plagued the relationship between citizens and urban planning agencies: delays, lack of transparency, personal connections, “bribes,” and backroom deals that flourish when procedures are slow, legislation is convoluted, and accountability is diffuse.”
However, he continues, three examples “from the past 12 months alone demonstrate that in recent years the government has been methodically implementing a quiet reform in the organization of space, land use, and the relevant government agencies—a reform that has not been highlighted or communicated to the extent that it should have been.”
These are:
“June 2025: The Ministry of the Interior announces the results of the first digital survey evaluating public services by citizens themselves. This confirms something we already knew from experience. 65,000 citizens rate municipal building services below the minimum standard due to delays, bureaucracy, corruption, and understaffing.
September 2025: The prime minister announces a landmark reform for 2026 from the podium at the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair. The integration of the decentralized and unregulated municipal building departments into the new Digital Cadastre Agency. The goal—following the model of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) in the management of tax matters—is to verticalize, simplify, digitize, and accelerate the building permitting process on a supra-local scale.
May 2026: The Hellenic Cadastre announces that, for the first time in nearly 200 years of the Greek state’s existence, the cadastral survey of Greek territory has been completed to 99%. “This is a reform aimed at development and transparency that has already been linked, as a contractual obligation of the country since 2021, to the European Recovery and Resilience Facility.”
But why, given that the country’s land registry has been under discussion since the time of Kapodistrias, did it take nearly 200 years to move forward? he asks, and answers with an explanation:
“Because this is perhaps the most difficult administrative reform the Greek state has ever undertaken. Greece did not have the advantage enjoyed by many European countries, which already had organized land registries dating back to the 19th century. Instead, it inherited fragmented smallholdings, incomplete title deeds, adverse possession, inheritances without contracts, hundreds of unconnected land registries, and a system of registration based on individuals rather than properties.
At the same time, there has historically been a fragmentation of responsibilities, political discontinuity, a lack of stable funding, constant legislative changes, and a massive backlog of pending court cases. Simply put, it was not just digital technology that was lacking. What was missing was a unified administrative plan, as well as the legislative and cartographic framework that clearly defines property ownership, land uses, and designated building zones.
Thanks to the quiet spatial planning and urban development reforms of recent years, the country is acquiring, for the first time, a comprehensive land registry, ratified forest maps, a systematic survey of the foreshore and beaches, digital demarcation of watercourses, special spatial plans for tourism, industry, and renewable energy, Local Urban Plans in hundreds of municipal districts, and a Unified Digital Map that aims to bring together all critical spatial information in one place.
“How many people know, for example, that thanks to the Recovery Fund reforms, the country’s 392 land registries were abolished by 2024, and 620 million pages of their records were digitized and have now been transferred to the land registry’s cloud?”
Moreover, he adds, “the reform of the Land Registry is not independent of urban planning reform. The model of centralization, digital traceability, uniform rules, and supra-local management implemented in the Land Registry now serves as the roadmap for the transformation of the building control system as well.
The figures showing the dramatic reduction in pending cases brought about by the centralization and digitization of the Land Registry vividly illustrate why this is the only path forward for urban planning as well. In Athens, the number of pending cases has dropped from 56,000 to approximately 4,500 today. In Thessaloniki, it has fallen from 60,000 to approximately 5,600. The digital tracking of each case speeds up the process and limits administrative arbitrariness.
The significance of these changes goes far beyond their administrative dimension. They concern the very development prospects of the country. And these are not reforms inspired from abroad. They are reforms of Greek origin, implemented by the Greek public administration and by dedicated civil servants.
The Recovery Fund financed these changes, tracked their progress, and, above all, accelerated them. It transformed decades-long goals into projects with specific completion dates.
Perhaps this is why the current period may prove to be historic. For the first time since the founding of the Greek state, the country appears to have a realistic opportunity to simultaneously address the three fundamental questions of spatial organization: who owns the space, what the space is, and what is permitted within the space.
“Our goal is to complete this effort by the end of the decade so that we can speak of an institutional breakthrough that will boost growth, curb corruption, and resolve a national issue that has lingered for nearly two centuries,” he emphasizes.
And, “no economy can grow sustainably until it has resolved these outstanding issues. The uncertainty surrounding this area acts as a disincentive to investment, increases transaction costs, and undermines legal certainty.
Corruption works in the same way. It thrives on bureaucracy and lack of transparency and constitutes an invisible tax that burdens citizens and businesses. The more opaque the procedures are, and the more they depend on personal connections and local networks of influence, the greater the scope for arbitrary practices.
That is why the answer cannot simply be repression and arrests. The real answer is to change the system. And this is precisely the silent reform that has been underway in recent years: less personal discretion, more digitization, more transparency, and stronger central control,” concludes the Minister of State.