Land Is State-Owned, the Benefit Is Private: How Land Schemes Work and How They Can Be Stopped

Hromadske

In Ukraine, schemes are operating that allow private developers to build residential buildings, retail, and office centers on land belonging to the state or a community — without open competition. And often without even paying tax for the use of this land. There are also "toilet schemes," under which owners of small buildings receive hectares of land without an auction, supposedly to service those buildings. The state or community not only loses the ability to manage its own land, but also incurs losses. All of this is possible because of loopholes in legislation that have existed for decades.

To stop the use of state land outside competitive procedures and close these loopholes, Draft Laws No. 14038 and No. 14039 have been registered in the Verkhovna Rada. If parliamentarians pass them, the two most common schemes for diverting state and communal land into shadow circulation should disappear. hromadske, together with experts, explains exactly what will change.