INSTITUTIONAL PROPOSAL
Co-ownership Law
The building as a self-contained entity: legal standing for every building under the new Property Code.
- Historical context
- Legislative reform
- Smart infrastructure
- Energy performance
- Smart cities
- Institutional synthesis
THE PROBLEM
Co-ownership of buildings in Greece is still governed by Law 3741/1929. The Ministry of Justice has said publicly that the framework needs a full overhaul, and a new Property Code is being drafted.
In practice a building works as a collective unit with no matching legal standing. The result is opaque shared costs, broken continuity in management, weak representation and little room for a reserve fund. Directive (EU) 2024/1275, whose transposition deadline was 29 May 2026, requires barriers to decision-making in co-owned buildings to be removed. That presumes a decision-making body in every building.
The gap already shows. In the Greek "Smart Buildings Infrastructure Readiness" programme the beneficiary is the apartment block, yet the applicant is always a natural person, because the building itself cannot sign a contract.
THE PROPOSAL
Every building under horizontal or vertical ownership acquires, on registration with the Land Registry, limited legal standing for a functional purpose. It covers management, representation, a bank account and reserve fund, and links to the public digital property registers.
The model already works in Germany, Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Co-owners' liability stays proportional, and the entity survives transfers of units and changes of administrator.
THE REQUEST
A dedicated chapter in the new Property Code. Immediate application to new buildings and a transition period for existing ones, with full compliance by 1 January 2030.
The proposal was submitted on 6 August 2026 to the law-drafting committee as an institutional contribution for evaluation, with a full proposal, a roadmap and a comparative study of four European legal orders. The new Code is still being drafted.
Last updated: 18 October 2026
RELATED ARTICLES
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A building is not just a property
A building is not just a property. It is an institution, an investment, a right and an obligation. It stands where ownership, urban planning, the energy transition, legal certainty and quality of life meet.
LinkedIn · 14 August 2026 READ → ON LINKEDIN ↗
THE SIX-PART SERIES
Six articles on the building as a self-contained entity, first published on LinkedIn. Each article stands on its own. Read in order, they form a single line of thought.
- 01
The building in Greece
Law 3741/1929 solved a technical problem: how ownership of a building is shared among many owners. Almost a century later, the apartment building has become the dominant form of housing, yet the law remains an agreement between individuals, not an institution with a standing of its own.
LinkedIn · 8 August 2026 READ → ON LINKEDIN ↗
- 02
The gap today: 97 years on, the same legal framework
On 2 July 2026 the Ministry of Justice publicly acknowledged that the 1929 framework has reached its limits and set up a committee for a unified Property Code. The planned provisions improve the rules, but none of them makes the building capable of deciding or entering into contracts.
LinkedIn · 11 August 2026 READ → ON LINKEDIN ↗
- 03
The building as a hub of smart infrastructure
Smart electricity, gas and water meters, fibre networks and the new organisation of water services all converge on the building. Yet the apartment building has no legal personality; the gap is not technological, it is institutional.
LinkedIn · 13 August 2026 READ → ON LINKEDIN ↗
- 04
An environmental obligation without a “subject”
The transposition deadline of Directive (EU) 2024/1275 expired on 29 May 2026. Energy performance obligations are addressed to the building as a whole, a recipient that Greek law does not yet equip with the capacity to decide collectively and in time.
LinkedIn · 18 August 2026 READ → ON LINKEDIN ↗
- 05
The smart city model
The European Commission selected six Greek cities for the Mission “100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030”. Yet a city’s climate neutrality is nothing but the sum of the performance of each of its buildings, and the cell of the system, the building, remains legally undefined.
LinkedIn · 20 August 2026 READ → ON LINKEDIN ↗
- 06
One building, one subject, one line of thought
Five fields, one gap. The building has an address, meters in its name and obligations towards the state and Europe, yet it does not exist legally as a unit. TERRE has submitted an institutional proposal for its legal standing, based on a comparative study of four European legal orders.
LinkedIn · 25 August 2026 READ → ON LINKEDIN ↗
Press kit
Material for journalists, partners and investors.
THE PROJECT
TERRE ΙΚΕ proposes that every building acquire legal standing under the new Property Code, so that it can decide, contract and meet the obligations that Greek and European law already place on it.
KEY FACTS
- Type
- Institutional proposal
- Addressed to
- Committee for the new Property Code
- Evidence base
- Comparative study of four European legal orders
- Submitted
- 6 August 2026
- Articles
- Six-part series, August 2026
DOCUMENTS
ABOUT TERRE ΙΚΕ
TERRE ΙΚΕ uses artificial intelligence to turn data into knowledge, and knowledge into a tool that delivers measurable results.
Investment participation and strategic partnerships
Discussions cover the project’s purpose, each party’s contribution and an agreement on implementation.