New Urban Development and Spatial Planning Code “Nikolaos Tagaras”: Law 5306/2026
On 8 June 2026, Law 5306/2026 was published in the Government Gazette (ΦΕΚ Α' 88/8.6.2026), enacting the new Spatial Planning and Urban Development Code, named in honour of the late Deputy Minister Nikolaos Tagaras. After more than six years in preparation, the Code consolidates 181 separate legislative instruments — 122 laws, 29 presidential decrees, 15 legislative decrees, 4 royal decrees, 3 emergency laws, 7 ministerial decisions and 1 act of legislative content, some dating back to a 1923 decree — into a single text of 477 articles.
For anyone who acquires, develops, finances, leases or litigates real estate in Greece, this is a significant piece of legislation. We set out below what matters, and what to do about it.
1. What the Code Is — and Is Not
This is a codification, not a reform. The Code reorganises and modernises the language of existing spatial planning, urban planning and building law; it does not, in principle, alter building coefficients, floor-area ratios (FAR), building heights, land-use rules, permit requirements or substantive rights and obligations. The stated purpose is to resolve the fragmentation, overlaps and inconsistencies that had accumulated across more than a century of piecemeal legislation, and to present the law in a single, modern-Greek, publicly accessible text.
That said, codification of this scale is never entirely neutral in practice — renumbering, consolidation and drafting choices can affect how a given provision is read, and the Code itself notes that some included provisions carry unresolved constitutionality questions that have not yet been finally adjudicated. Practitioners should not assume that a familiar provision now bears the same article number, or reads identically, in its codified form.
2. Structure: Nine Parts, One Reference Point
The Code is organised into nine Parts (A–I), covering the full lifecycle of a development project:
Part A — Spatial Planning: strategic, terrestrial and maritime planning; Local and Special Urban Plans (ΤΠΣ/ΕΠΣ); Regulatory Urban Implementation Plans; active urbanisation and land consolidation; and special categories such as pre-1983 settlements, second-home areas and private urban development.
Part B — Urban Regeneration & Planning Mechanisms: urban regeneration, degraded-area restructuring, Integrated Urban Intervention Plans, pre-emption rights, environmental/urban balancing, transfer of floor-area ratio (FAR), and zones of special reinforcement.
Part C — Implementation of Urban Plans: land and monetary contributions, implementation acts (πράξεις εφαρμογής), plot regularisation, and expropriations for plan implementation.
Part D — Building & Land-Use Rules: the Building Code, out-of-plan building (εκτός σχεδίου δόμηση), Residential Control Zones (ΖΟΕ), subdivision prohibitions, land-use categories and coastal building.
Part E — Building Framework: building permits, road-alignment expropriation issues, the Electronic Building Identity, and building-activity supervision.
Part F — Unauthorised Construction & Exceedances: unauthorised construction, fines and regularisation, the reinforced enforcement regime under Law 5106/2024, and building exceedances under Law 3843/2010.
Part G — Dangerous Buildings: assessment, safety orders, demolition and liability.
Part H — Urban Policy & National Strategies: urban resilience, housing-stock management, accessibility and climate adaptation.
Part I — Collective Bodies: spatial and urban planning bodies, Architectural and Accessibility Councils, Unauthorised Building Committees, and certified evaluators.
3. What Falls Outside the Code
Not everything spatial-planning-related has been absorbed. Notably excluded, and remaining in their own dedicated frameworks, are:
Industrial areas (ΒΙ.ΠΕ.) and business/industrial parks;
tourism business legislation (including tourist ports);
ESCHASE/ESCHADA-type special land-use plans; and
individual, locally-specific instruments such as particular city plans, urban studies and administrative circulars, which continue to apply in parallel — both as to their individual elements (building/road-alignment lines) and their regulatory elements (site-specific building terms and land uses).
Practitioners should therefore continue to check the specific instrument governing a given plot or project alongside the Code.
4. Key Practical Takeaways
Immediate effect, no grace period. The Code took effect immediately on publication (8 June 2026). There is no transitional period and no parallel application of the Code alongside the legislation it codifies — codified provisions are repealed as standalone instruments under Article 477 and now exist exclusively within the Code.
Constitutionality is not guaranteed by inclusion. Provisions previously judged unconstitutional have not been re-codified, but some codified provisions carry unresolved constitutionality questions. Litigants and advisors should check the status of any provision they rely on.
New citations, same substance. A chronological correlation table (Annex) maps each codified provision to both its origin and its new article number — essential for locating superseded law and for citing the correct current reference in contracts, opinions and pleadings.
A "living" code, going forward. The Code will be maintained as a continuously updated, freely accessible electronic legal database maintained by the Ministry of Environment and Energy, with future amendments incorporated directly — intended to avoid a repeat of the fragmentation that overtook the 1999 Code of Basic Urban Planning Legislation, which was never kept current.
Action point for pending matters. Due diligence checklists, precedent clauses, permit applications and pending litigation that cite the pre-Code legislation should be cross-checked against the Annex and, where appropriate, updated to cite the corresponding Code articles.
5. Why It Matters for Your Transactions and Disputes
Beyond the administrative tidy-up, the government has been explicit that the codification is intended to reduce what it has termed the "invisible tax" of legal fragmentation on property, investment and productivity — the costs paid not to the state, but through delay, uncertainty, red tape and litigation. For investors and developers, that means (in principle) faster, more predictable navigation of planning and permitting requirements. For owners and practitioners handling legacy files — unauthorised construction regularisations, pending expropriation compensation claims, permit renewals, coastal-zone or out-of-plan building matters — the immediate, no-transition entry into force means the correct citation and article-level accuracy matter now, not at some future date.
We Are Here to Help
Our real estate, construction and administrative law teams are reviewing the Code in detail, cross-referencing our precedent library and open client matters against the new article numbering, and monitoring the Ministry's electronic database for the first wave of amendments. If you have a live transaction, permit application, regularisation file or dispute that touches on spatial planning, urban planning or building law, we would be glad to discuss how Law 5306/2026 affects your specific position.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions at a.fix@kyriazislaw.com.
This briefing is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.