The Macedonian Government offers a new possibility to the citizens to legalize unlawfully built homes. At the last session it prepared amendments to the Law proposing the deadline for completing the submitted papers to be postponed, as well as a new deadline for submitting requests for legalizing unlawfully built homes.

Transport and Communications Minister Vlado Misajlovski and Cadastre Agency director Slavce Trpevski said that citizens could submit requests until 31 March 2016, and those who have initiated incomplete requests, could submit the remaining documents by 31 December 2016. All this is provided that the home, apartment or building they want legalized was built before 3 March 2011.

"We are postponing the deadline in order to allow the citizens to complete their requests and also to alleviate the work of the geodetic companies, which were overwhelmed with requests", Minister Misajlovski said.

Misajlovski introduced additional changes to the law which will now allow legalization of homes built on privately owned land, if it was owned by the state at the time of construction. "In these instances, the owners of the land are entitled to request compensation for the land, according to the fair market price", Minister Misajlovski added. The changes to the law will also relax rules for legalizing homes built on state-owned land.

According to director Trpevski, a total of 360.000 requests for legalization have been received so far, and 135.500 of these requests have already been approved. Due to dominantly state-owned land, left over as a legacy from the Communist days, and the arcane construction rules, Macedonia has a large percentage of unlawfully built homes, which normally were sold way below the market price for similar legally built homes, and were always in danger of being demolished. The process of legalization is meant to give the owners peace of mind and to allow them to use the homes commercially, sell them, use them when obtaining credit, and in other transactions.