Types of land ownership
The land plot under an apartment building can be in state, municipal (city) or private ownership. The managers of plots in state and municipal ownership are city or district councils.
If the land plot is in private ownership, its owner is a legal or natural person.
What happens to the land before construction begins on it?
In order to start construction of a residential complex on legal grounds, the developer company must purchase or lease a land plot with the designated purpose “for construction and maintenance of an apartment building”. This fact can be checked independently on the Public Cadastre Map of Ukraine. Sometimes, however, land plots intended for construction may have a different designated purpose. In such case, the premises in this building may have non-residential status.
More details about this in our article Apartments - are they apartments or not? What's the difference?
Most often, the developer leases the land plot from the owner for a period of 3 to 5 years. In this case, a lease agreement or superficiary is formed. A superficiary is a special type of contract whereby the developer is granted the right to build on a land plot that does not belong to them.
Land after the building is handed over
After the residential complex is successfully commissioned and owners of more than 50% of the apartments have entered into ownership rights, the Law “On the peculiarities of exercising property rights in an apartment building” comes into force. For the maintenance of the building, residents may join a service cooperative, create an OSMD, or hire a management company.
According to Article 42 of the Land Code of Ukraine land plots in state and municipal ownership on which apartment buildings are located are transferred to the perpetual use of the co-owners of the apartment building, for example, an OSMD. Today they can also be privatized through the general procedure, as a special procedure had not yet been developed by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine as of August 2019. This action does not provide any significant advantages, therefore OSMDs usually do not register the land under apartment buildings. The rent paid to local authorities for such land plots may not exceed 3% of their normative monetary valuation (NMV).
If we are talking about land plots owned by a legal or natural person, according to Article 7 of the Law “On Land Lease”, the person to whom the ownership right over the residential house located on the leased land plot has passed also acquires the right to lease that land plot.
At the same time, the legislation deprives the landlord of the possibility to sell or carry out any legal actions with the land plot if a building belonging to other subjects is erected on it.
Size of the land tax
In addition to the rent, the Land Code of Ukraine imposes on everyone who owns land ownership rights the obligation to pay land tax annually to the local treasury. As
