Residences: Untapped Inheritances and Institutional Property as a Counterbalance to the Housing Crisis

Increasing supply as a counterbalance to the housing crisis is an initiative pursued by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) with its new draft law presented on March 12, 2025. This law focuses on unresolved inheritances, gifts to public entities, and institutional property. According to MoF officials, bureaucratic processes, legal deficiencies, and decades-old issues have led to significant delays in accepting gifts willingly donated to the public sector or resolving these inheritances, depriving the real estate market of many homes that could help address the housing crisis. The draft law aims to tackle this chaos, as currently there is no effective system for recording gifts to the public. Over the past five years, only 211 gifts have been recorded, despite estimates suggesting far more with significantly higher budgets. Accepting a gift alone requires four bureaucratic procedures and at least four months. Another major issue lies with unresolved inheritances—those in a ‘grey’ ownership status until the state’s inheritance rights are finalized, either because the owner died without heirs or the heirs renounced their inheritance. Currently, around 6,500 inheritances remain unresolved, including 4,500 unresolved and 2,000 under clearance, leaving the state unclear about how many are real estate properties. In the last five years, fewer than 100 properties passed to the public due to difficulties identifying which inheritances are unresolved. The state often learns about such inheritances randomly through utility bills or unpaid common charges in apartment buildings. Not only does the state lack knowledge of which inheritances are unresolved but also their economic value. Moreover, the public cannot utilize these properties for housing policy. The MoF proposes using the Citizens Registry of the Digital Governance Ministry to identify cases where no heirs exist, similar to how pensions are terminated when the recipient dies without heirs. Once resolved, the MoF can proceed with property exploitation. First, recognized appraisers will assess property values before assigning trustees and clearing titles. The clearance process will accelerate based on property value thresholds. Simultaneously, the MoF is preparing a framework to utilize institutional assets, as the €235 million worth of properties held by institutions have remained detached from state housing policies, a situation expected to change with the new draft law.