ILLEGAL CONSTRUCTIONS IN THE POST-MEMORANDUM GREECE Changes and constants in a chronic phenomenon

Nikolaos YOYAS

Architect NTUA, Msc Environmental Design, Urban Planning PHD Candidate

01@yio.gr

Abstract

The ¨stirring¨ of the problem of illegal constructions in Greece, during the last decade, that followed the issue of five consecutive laws regarding their integration in the country΄s official urban planning in the period 2009-2017, has led to a short-lived race of declaring and legitimizing illegal, constructions on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of popular owners. This institutional reform becomes, increasingly, significant in combination with the contemporary fiscal reform and the relevant tax burdening of realty owners. The timeless popular investment shelter of building ownership, for the first time after WWII, loses its immunity and becomes an unbearable tax weight, transforming popular illegal constructions into the national tool for transforming the country΄s real-estate map. Our ability to translate the outcome of this ¨crisis¨, through our route through all the past time, will define the quality of life in our new urban environment, but most important, our own standard of living and our future.

Keywords: Illegal constructions, urban planning, economic crisis

JEL classification: R0, R5
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