Ministry of Interior amendment: Up to three meters the building height bonus – Based on the building factor

Scalable and in function of the building factor will be the bonus to the height of the buildingsbased on of the amendment tabled today in Parliament by the Ministry of Environment and Energy, in the wake of the controversy that has escalated in recent weeks.

Confirming the relevant report of “Kathimerini tis Kyriaki”, based on the new provisions:

• In areas with a building factor of up to 0.8the extra height cannot be more from 2 meters (ie the building gains about one floor more than the others in the area).
• In the areas with a higher coefficient from 0.8 and up to 1.6 the extra height cannot be more than 2.5 meters.
• And finally, in the regions with a building factor greater than 1.6the maximum additional height that a building will be able to gain in relation to the rest in the same area eit is an additional 3 meters.

The regulation will take effect from May 1 until the end of 2025.

See the amendment in detail here

The chronicle of the dispute over the extra floors

The issue of the maximum height a building can reach using the favorable provisions of the building regulation appeared for the first time in 2019, with two decisions of the Council of State for the Makrygianni area. One case involved a building already built (the COCO-MAT hotel, in which the top two floors and the roof were finally declared arbitrary and are due to be demolished at some point) and a building that was to be built (a hotel on Misaraliotou Street).

For the construction of the COCO-MAT hotel, some provisions of the New Building Regulations were used, which gave bonuses of extra square footage and extra height if the building met certain bioclimatic design conditions. Thus, the building reached a height of 33 meters, when the maximum height for the rest of the buildings in the area was 21+3 meters.
The CoE canceled the building permit in the part concerning the extra height of the building, arguing that approval had not been obtained from the Ministry of Culture, which was necessary due to its proximity to the Acropolis. In the decision, however, a clear reference is made to a decree of 1955 (“On building conditions in Athens”), which divides the city into sectors and defines special building conditions in each of them. According to the SC, the decree is still in force and therefore should have been taken into account.

The issue is that until then the building department of the Municipality of Athens had for years “tacitly” abandoned this decree, issuing permits in accordance with the General and later the New Building Regulations (GOK and NOK). A few months later, the first citizens’ appeals against building permits that had been issued under the NOK in various areas of Athens began to be filed in the courts.

In October 2022, the Ministry of the Environment intervened in the case, following a request from the Directorate of Environment and Spatial Planning of Western Greece. The ministry was asked to answer whether in an area in which a maximum number of floors has been set, a new building is allowed to exceed them using the concessional arrangements in question. The Deputy Minister of Land Planning, Nikos Tagaras, in his decision determined that these provisions can be applied everywhere, with the exception of traditional settlements, traditional parts of the city, historical places or areas with exclusive residential use. “Otherwise, the purpose of the environmental incentive of the article would be negated,” it said.

The courts, however, had a different opinion. The Administrative Appeals Court of Athens issued two decisions by which it canceled two building permits in Ampelokipi. In the rationale of the decision, the court made reference to the decision of the Supreme Court. A few days later, a decision of the Municipal Council of Filothei – Psychiko followed, with which it attempted to prohibit the issuance of permits with the disputed regulations (which give additional height) throughout its area. The municipality presented a comprehensive approach and appealed to the Council of State – everything seemed to succeed.

In May 2023, the first intervention of the Central Union of Municipalities on the matter took place, requesting the suspension of NOK’s urban planning incentives, with the Ministry of the Interior not responding. He did a similar intervention (with similar results) again in March 2024.
At the same time, the Municipality of Alimos appealed to the Supreme Court, noting the proliferation of licenses that made use of the combined bonuses and the alteration of the “horizon” of the city. A year later – and while the case began to “boil”, with the municipalities of “3B”, Kifissia, Papagos – Cholargos and Athinaia, having been added to those who request the suspension of the provisions -, the first decisions of the Council of State for Alimos were issued .

The two decisions are not in absolute harmony. The stricter of the two considered unconstitutional, due to their urban development burden, all the NOK bonuses (even the “hidden factor”, i.e. the exclusion of exteriors, balconies, etc. from the counted areas). He also noted that this matter has already been decided by the case of the buildings in Makrygiannis, as the SC ruled that the calculation of the maximum height of the buildings does not apply in areas where there are special decrees with specific building conditions, prior to the New Building Regulation (2012) and that these ordinances were not repealed by either the current or the previous (GOK 1983) building regulations. However, both decisions of the SC referred the case to the Plenary, due to its seriousness.