Building land inspection: what you need to check before buying or selling

You bought building land, but you cannot build.

No electricity.
No legal access road.

It sounds absurd, but in practice, it happens more often than you might think. Just because you bought building land does not mean you can build what you had in mind. Sometimes, it does not even mean you can build at all.

The same applies to sellers. Before you set the price and put the land on the market, you need to know what can actually be built on your plot. The difference between a plot where only a family house can be built and a plot where apartments can be built can amount to hundreds of thousands of euros.

Why is land verification important for both buyers and sellers?

For buyers: you protect your capital. The price of building land reflects what can be built on it and how much it will cost to prepare it for construction. Without proper verification, you are buying blind.

For sellers: a serious valuation is not possible without this information. The price depends on:

  • land use and type of construction: family house, multiple apartments, villa with pool
  • building coverage and utilization coefficient
  • permitted height and number of floors
  • condition of infrastructure
  • access road

The same land can be worth twice as much if apartments can be built on it instead of just one family house. That is why we never value building land without first checking what can actually be built on it.

Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes. What the buyer wants to know, what can I build and what infrastructure exists, is exactly what you need to know before entering the market.

Today’s buyers want to know everything before they sign. If you do not have the answers, they will have to look for them themselves. That means weeks of waiting, loss of interest and, most often, a buyer who walks away because “not everything is clear”.

When you have all the information ready before going to market, the buyer has only one job left: to confirm the purchase.

No delays.
No uncertainty.
No extra reason to negotiate the price down.

What should be checked before buying or before valuing building land?

1. Location Information — what the spatial plan says in general

First, let’s clear up a common misunderstanding: the land registry extract, or title deed, never states the actual land use. What you see there — pasture, vineyard, arable land, forest, meadow — is the land culture, not the land use. Buyers often confuse the two.

You find out the actual land use from two documents:

  • Certificate of Land Use
  • Location Information

Location Information gives you a general picture of the land use and the basic building conditions according to the spatial plan.

What Location Information tells you:

  • whether the land is inside a building zone
  • what the land use is: residential, mixed-use, hospitality-tourism…
  • whether it is within the built or unbuilt part of the building zone
  • whether the zone is “developed” or “undeveloped”
  • which spatial plan applies

The single most important word to look for in Location Information is: “developed”.

If your plot is located within the developed part of the building zone, it means that the access road and basic infrastructure are legally resolved. You can move forward.

If it says “undeveloped”, you are waiting for the preparation of a UPU, an Urban Development Plan, and for the municipality to build the road. This can take years. In practice, it sometimes never reaches the agenda because the process is long and expensive for the municipal budget.

I have personally handled several cases where the owners financed the entire infrastructure themselves — road, electricity, water, sewage — because waiting for the municipality had no realistic deadline. One example is land in Peroj, where the total investment in infrastructure development cost around €700,000. See the example here: Attractive 11,721 m² land plot only 800 m from the sea near Fažana.

That is why one word — developed or undeveloped — can sometimes be more important than all the other information in the Location Information.

What Location Information does not explain in enough detail:

  • exactly how many square metres of gross developed area you can build
  • how many floors and what height are allowed
  • the exact conditions for your specific plot: distances from boundaries, parking spaces, green areas
  • the actual condition of infrastructure on site

For more on why Location Information is important, but not sufficient on its own, read the article The Importance of Location Information.

2. Real building potential — architectural verification

To find out what you can actually build, you need an architectural verification that combines:

  • the spatial plan and implementation provisions
  • the actual dimensions and shape of the plot
  • terrain and slope
  • distances from boundaries, utility lines and roads
  • specific restrictions: protected areas, proximity to the sea, cultural heritage

Only after this analysis do you know whether you can build a detached house, a semi-detached house or a multi-unit residential building — and how many square metres.

3. Geodetic survey — where the boundaries really are and how many square metres you actually have

Before any serious purchase, always call a licensed surveyor. A geodetic survey determines exactly where the boundaries of your plot are and how many square metres you really have, with neighbours signing to confirm that they agree with the established boundary.

What a survey most often reveals:

  • the actual surface area of the plot is smaller than the area registered in the land registry
  • a neighbour does not agree with the boundary shown on paper
  • the boundaries on the ground, such as a wall or hedge, do not match the cadastral plan

This is especially important when the municipality prescribes a minimum plot size for construction. If the survey shows that you have fewer square metres than you thought, a plot that looks buildable on paper may in reality fail to meet the conditions for construction. In other words, you have bought a problem you did not see coming.

The cost of a geodetic survey starts from around €1,000 per plot. That cost is always worth paying before the purchase, not after.

4. Infrastructure — the biggest hidden cost

This is where things most often go wrong.

Infrastructure connections can cost more than the plot itself. Without verification, a buyer may find themselves in a situation where:

  • electricity is not available on site and the nearest transformer station is several hundred metres away
  • electricity exists, but there is not enough kilowatt capacity, meaning not enough power
  • the main water pipe for connection is more than 30 m away
  • there is no sewage system, so a septic tank or biological treatment plant must be built
  • the road has not been built or, more commonly, it is not legally resolved
  • there is no registered easement for placing infrastructure in favour of your land

Each of these points can mean tens of thousands of euros in additional costs — or hundreds of thousands, depending on the case.

I also recorded a short educational video where I go through concrete examples of what can go wrong and what you must pay attention to when checking building land: watch the video guide on building land verification.

5. Legal access road

Without legal access, there is no building permit. Full stop.

Many plots in Istria have “access” across someone else’s land without a registered easement, or via an unclassified road that is not recorded in the cadastre. This is a problem that can sometimes be solved, but it takes time, costs money and can depend on the goodwill of neighbours.

We wrote about this in detail in the article Have you checked whether your plot has legal access?

What if you do not want to go through all of this yourself?

I understand. A large part of our buyers come from abroad, do not speak the language, do not know the system and do not want to spend weeks going from one office counter to another.

For them, in cooperation with our architectural partner, I have prepared a building land verification service in three clear levels. Depending on whether you are in the first screening phase before purchase, seriously considering a specific plot, or preparing for project design, you choose the level you actually need.

Three levels of land verification service

Option Price including VAT What you receive Delivery time
BASIC €200 A quick review of the spatial plan and legal conditions for the location. Basic blitz information provided verbally by phone or briefly by email. 3-5 working days
STANDARD €500 A detailed review of the plan, laws, regulations and infrastructure. Preparation of a written legal and technical report. 5-10 working days
FULL €1,000 Everything included in STANDARD + OZP study + submission of requests for construction and connection conditions, for family houses only. You also receive official written responses from utility companies and the municipality regarding potentially problematic issues. 10-15 working days

Example of a legal and technical report, STANDARD level: view sample.

Note: delivery times apply to an individual case. Every municipality, town and location has its own specific conditions, and laws and regulations often change. That is why almost every verification is prepared from scratch. If several plots within the same spatial plan are being checked at the same time, for example several neighbouring cadastral plots, one standard analysis can cover them all. We pass that saving on to you.

How to order the verification

We only need three details:

  • buyer’s name
  • cadastral plot number and name of the cadastral municipality
  • selected service level: BASIC, STANDARD or FULL

Fill out the building land verification questionnaire

Frequently Asked Questions

What does “pasture” or “arable land” mean in my title deed — can I build there?

What appears in the land registry extract, such as pasture, vineyard, arable land, forest or meadow, refers to the land culture, not the land use. To know whether you are allowed to build, you need to check the Certificate of Land Use or Location Information. Only there will it say whether the land is building land and under which conditions.

What does building land mean?

Building land is land that, according to the spatial plan, is located within a building zone and is generally intended for construction. The label itself does not mean that every plot automatically meets the conditions for obtaining a building permit. Land use, shape, infrastructure and access must all be checked.

Is Location Information enough to make a purchase decision?

No. Location Information is a starting point, but it does not answer the key question: how many square metres can I build and under which conditions? For that, an architectural verification is required.

Which verification level should I choose: BASIC, STANDARD or FULL?

BASIC is for the first quick screening phase, when you are reviewing several plots and want to eliminate those that clearly have no potential.

STANDARD is for a plot you are seriously considering buying, or for sellers before going to market. This is our most common recommendation because you receive a written legal and technical report that can also serve as an argument in negotiations.

FULL is for when you already own the land or are immediately before purchase, you are planning a family house and you want official written answers from the municipality and utility companies before starting the design process.

Who pays for the verification — the buyer or the seller?

In principle, the buyer does, because they are protecting their capital. However, every serious seller should cover this cost before going to market. An investment of a few hundred euros can definitely speed up the sale and increase the perceived value of the property. When the buyer arrives and everything is already documented, there is no doubt, no delay and no reason to reduce the price because of risk.

What if I discover a problem after purchase?

Many problems can be solved later, such as access easements or utility connections, but that takes time, costs money and sometimes depends on third parties. Verification before purchase is always several orders of magnitude cheaper than solving problems afterwards.

Do you carry out verification outside Pula?

We work in Pula, Fažana, Vodnjan, Medulin and Ližnjan — in the area where we are active as an agency and where we truly know the terrain, spatial plans and procedures.

Next steps

If you are considering buying or selling building land in Pula and the surrounding area:

Before buying: carry out the verification before signing the pre-contract, not afterwards. The cost of verification is negligible compared to the risk.

Before selling: carry out the verification before setting the price. The right information can significantly increase the value of your plot — or prevent you from undervaluing it.

Have a specific question? Contact us directly.

 

Aljoša Vučetić
Maris Nekretnine, Pula
+385 98 190 0688, WhatsApp, Viber
aljosa@maris.hr
www.maris.hr