New building legislation is expected to speed up construction in Slovakia. (source: Marko Erd)
The first completely new legislation governing construction in Slovakia for almost 50 years came into force at the start of this month.
The new Construction Act, effective as of April 1, 2025, is expected to bring a simplification and shortening of construction permission processes, address problems around illegal constructions, and usher in the digitalisation of the entire permitting process.
“Among the more obvious changes that might be experienced by both small builders and larger developers, will undoubtedly be the change from the existing two-component procedure to a single administrative procedure for the construction plan, the fact that it will no longer be possible to issue additional building permits, and the introduction of the ‘fiction’ of the issuance of a binding opinion of the relevant authorities,” Katarína Kováčová, partner at the Ružička and Partners law firm, told The Slovak Spectator.
Meanwhile, the law will see the list of parties to any proceedings narrowed so that only people who can objectively be directly affected by any decision on construction, such as owners of neighbouring land, should be allowed to intervene in proceedings.
“Only practice will show whether the touted benefits [of the new legislation] will in fact be to the benefit or detriment of residents,” said Kováčová. “That is to say, whether it will speed up and simplify their home-building activities, or if the changes will, on the contrary, make it more difficult or even impossible for people to object to constructions encroaching on their living space, the quality of which may be irreversibly affected.”
Developers see the new legislation positively, arguing that previous laws were outdated and unsuited.
