On July 20, 2018, the Parliament adopted the act on transformation of perpetual usufruct of land built for housing purposes into the ownership right of these lands.
Pursuant to the wording of the Act, as of January 1, 2019, the existing right of perpetual usufruct of land built-up with single-family houses, in which at least half of dwellings constitute residential premises, as well as lands developed with commercial buildings and garages for the use of residential buildings will evolve by the power of the law into property.
Transformation does not take place free of charge, but for a fee incurred by the new owner in favor of the hitherto one. The amount of the fee is equal to the annual fee, which would be binding on the day of transformation and is paid for 20 years from the date of transformation.
In practice, therefore, the law is very beneficial for perpetual usufructs, because instead of the perpetual usufruct fee they will be charged with the same fee for transformation, so the financial burden for them will not increase. At the same time, the fee will be incurred only for 20 years, and therefore usually for a much shorter period than the time remaining until the end of abolished perpetual usufruct.