Govt gives OK to registration of apartments

TIRANA, Oct. 5 – Th government approved on Wednesday an ordinance paving the way to the registration of thousands of apartments in Tirana. The approval of the ordinance came one week after a joint memorandum was signed by the Municipality of Tirana and the ministries of Transport and Justice. The ordinance will provide apartment owners with exploitation permits from the municipality as a necessary step to obtain the ownership titles from the real estate registration office. Speaking at the government meeting, Prime Minister Sali Berisha said the deal will unfreeze 700-800 million euros of capital which can be used as collateral. Preliminary data show there are at least 400 apartment blocks in Tirana whose owners do not possess ownership titles. These apartments were built starting in the late 90s but had failed to be registered with the real estate registration offices because of deviation from approved projects. One of the main reasons is illegal extensions which made the issue of exploitation permits by the Municipality of Tirana a real barrier to continue with other procedures in the real estate registration offices.