RABO and MOREANU Law Study results: Success rate and average period of PUZ or PUD approval – conclusions!

During any construction building stages, whether block of apartments, office buildings or even houses, prior to obtaining a building permit, the developer/owner is in certain situations obliged to obtain a Zonal Urban Plan (P.U.Z.) or a Detailed Urban Plan (P.U.D.).

These urbanism documentations are changing/amending/detailing the existing regulations under the General Urban Plan (P.U.G.) which allow the real estate construction to be performed according to the developer’s/owner’s intention.

A general problem prior to preparing, submitting and approving a building permit refers to the success rate and the average approval period of a PUZ or PUD.

In Bucharest, the PUZ’s approval is within the competence of Bucharest Municipality City Hall, and according to the information obtained during the Study whose short summary is presented herein, within a timeframe of 3 years (2015-2017), on average 25 PUZs / year were approved.

In what concerns the PUDs, their approval procedure is regulated at the level of Bucharest Municipality City Hall or District City Halls, as the case may be. By virtue of example, at the level of 3rd District City Hall, within the above-mentioned timeframe an average number of 20 PUDs / year have been approved and 27 PUDs / year have been rejected, which results in an average approval rate of less than 50%. At 6th District City Hall the conclusions are substantially different; within the same timeframe an average number of 100 PUDs / year have been approved, and only 7 PUDs / year rejected, the approval rate being in this case over 90%.

We therefore conclude that at Bucharest municipality the PUDs approval rate differs substantially from one district to another.

In the rest of the country the situation lies as follows: for instance, in Iasi there is in average a number of 90 PUZs / year approved and 15 PUZs / year rejected, thus resulting in an approval rate of 85%, while with respect to the PUDs for an average number of 12 PUDs / year the approval rate exceeds 98%.

In Timisoara the average number of approved PUZs is 18 PUZs / year, and the approval rate is 100%. The same approval rate is maintained in regards to the PUDs, their average number being of only 5 PUDs / year. The approved PUZs number is similar in Brasov, Cluj-Napoca or Sibiu.

Therefore, before starting the procedure for approving a building permit, in so far as the drafting of a PUZ or a PUD is requested through the urbanism certificate, knowledge of the potential approval rate might prove to be of essential nature.

In what regards the approval duration, such varies based upon the complexity, timeframe of obtaining the required endorsements and service factor of local authority, while in certain cases intermediary periods are regulated by local council decisions.

These are some of the main conclusion of a complex study performed during 2018-2019 on the publicly available sources and by addressing information requests to the main cities in Romania. The detailed conclusions will be presented during a conference to be held in the second part of the year.

 

About RABO: Launched in Brussels in April 2011, Romanian Association of Building Owners (RABO) is the first organization reuniting top leading local and international property investors operating in Romania, and aims to foster a sound, transparent and stable economic and legislative framework, governed by EU-level norms and standards.

RABO was born with the desire to offer Romanian buildings owners a common voice in Brussels, where it is made up of the European Union in the field, and to bring to Romania the solutions and practices used on the other markets. Starting September 2018, Liviu Tudor, CEO of Genesis Property and President of Building Owners in Romania, was elected President of the European Property Federation (EPF) – the European Federation advising all EU institutions in the process of elaboration of public property policies.

 

About MOREANU Law: MOREANU Law is a firm that strives to achieve results that exceed clients’ expectations. The slogan “Legal Thinking for the Future”© describes the essence of work and commitment.

The lawyers of MOREANU Law are involved in major projects and transactions both for international and Romanian clients, handling complex and sophisticated matters, in areas such as: Data Protection, General Corporate, Contracts, Commercial Law, Litigation, Banking Law, Mergers&Acquisitions, Labour Law, Construction&Planning, and Real