You open the title deed for a flat and read: "...together with the granted right to build". No share of the land is described. That is not a mistake. It means you own the home, but the land under the building belongs to someone else — the state, the municipality, an earlier owner, or the neighbours in a different proportion. The legal term is the right to build (право на строеж), known in older textbooks as superficies.
Normally, whoever owns the land owns everything built on it. The right to build is the exception: the landowner grants someone else the right to put up a building on the land, and that building becomes the builder's property without the land passing to them.
So the same property has two owners:
A right to build is created by notarial deed (or by administrative act where the land is municipal or state-owned) and registered in the Property Register.
1. The right to construct. Until the building exists, there is only the right to put it up. That right lapses if it is not exercised for 5 years (Art. 67 of the Property Act). According to Supreme Court of Cassation case law, it is enough for construction to have started within that period — the building does not have to be finished.
2. Ownership of what has been built. Once the building is complete, the right to build "turns into" ownership of the building. It no longer lapses through non-use and can be sold, inherited and mortgaged like any property.
New builds on a "compensation" basis. The plot owner grants the developer a right to build in exchange for flats. The developer sells your flat together with an undivided share of the right to build or of the land — depending on the contract. How this works from the landowner's side is covered in land for apartments.
Older blocks on municipal or state land. Some blocks built under state and municipal housing programmes stand on land that was never transferred to the flat owners. They own the flat and a right to build, but not the land.
Garages and structures on municipal land. Many garages between apartment blocks were built under a right to build on municipal land.
Adding storeys. The right to add floors or extend is a form of right to build — see our guide to adding floors to an apartment block.
For an owner's day-to-day life — hardly at all. The flat is sold, inherited and mortgaged normally. There are three situations, though, where the land starts to matter:
Owners of a lawfully built building on municipal land can, as a rule, buy the land — municipal councils approve such sales under Art. 35(3) of the Municipal Property Act, usually at a price set by an independent valuer. For a block, that requires all the owners to organise and a council decision, so in practice it happens rarely.
Granting a right to build is a disposition subject to notary fees and local tax on the tax valuation of the right. If granted by a VAT-registered person, VAT may also arise. When you buy a finished flat with its share of the right to build, you pay the usual purchase costs.
If you are buying a home, a garage or a new build on someone else's land and are not sure exactly what you will own, call us or come into the office — we will go through the documents with you.
This is general information, not legal advice for a specific case. Verified as of October 2026.
