Albania
Ministry of Culture - Republic of Albania
Ms. Ledina Beqiraj
Director General
Telephone: (355 42) 234 412
E-mail:
dda@kultura.gov.al
Sonila.meka@kultura.gov.al
- Once the reservation agreement has been signed, which will place the property on hold, there is usually a period of 4 weeks in which to carry out checks before the investor signs the main 'undertaking' contract. At the same time you will get in touch with our broker to apply for a mortgage allowing you enough time to prepare plus that you can get a Yes or No answer before paying any deposit down.
- After all the necessary details are provided, the contract will be drawn up by the solicitor and will set out timescales, payment terms, prices and the terms and conditions agreed.
- The undertaking contract is signed in front of Notary Public by all parties in which they effectively promise to enter into a final contract to buy and sell the property.
- When the preliminary contract is signed the investor will usually pay a deposit of 30-40% of the price for off plan property (subject to each developer requirements). The remaining balance is then due prior to construction completion and payable in stage payments as set by the developers.
- Once the skeleton of the building has been completed the developers will normally register their property to the ZRPP (Registry office) for a pre-title that allows recognising the building/property and allowing clients to obtain finance for the value of that stage of the building. Otherwise finance can only be given if developer will have bank guarantees so be very careful and thoroughly check with your solicitor all the necessary guarantees are in place as well as get a confirmation from Bank before putting any deposit down.
- The Notary Public plays a major part in the process of buying and selling real estate in Albania. The notary is a public officer who is there to witness the signing of the contracts. Once the property has been completed the final purchase contract is signed transferring the right of ownership to the buyer. At this point it can be put on the public record which will show the official transfer of title to the buyer. Without notary stamp documents are not valid therefore is not legally recognised.
- The costs for the property title transfer by law should be paid by the developer.
- Once the final sales contracts are completed / exchanged, the buyer will transfer the remainder of the funds and obtain the title deeds in his/her/their name. At this point the property is legally completed and the buyer becomes the owner!
- Lawyer / Legal fees are around 800 Euro which include Notary fees, taxes and transfer fees.
- Albania has gone through three waves of land reform since the end of World War II
- In 1946, the land in estates and large farms was expropriated by the communist government and redistributed among small peasants;
- In the 1950s, the land was reorganized into large-scale collective farms;
- After 1991, the land was again redistributed among private smallholders.
- Background
- At the end of World War II, the farm structure in Albania was characterized by high concentration of land in large farms. In 1945, farms larger than 10 hectares (25 acres), representing numerically a mere 3% of all farms in the country, managed 27% of agricultural land and just seven large estates (out of 155,000 farms) controlled 4% of agricultural land, averaging more than 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres) each, compared to the average farm size of 2.5 hectares (6.2 acres) at that time.
- Land-to-the-tiller reform
- The first post-war constitution of independent Albania (March 1946) declared that land belonged to the tiller and that large estates under no circumstances could be owned by private individuals (article 10). The post-war land reform of 1946 redistributed 155,000 hectares (40% of the land stock) from 19,355 relatively large farms (typically larger than 5 hectares) to 70,211 small farms and landless households.[1] As a result, the share of large farms with more than 10 hectares declined from 27% of agricultural land in 1945 to 3% in 1954. By 1954, more than 90% of land was held in small and mid-sized farms of between 1 hectare and 10 hectares.
- Collectivization reform
- The distributive effects of the post-war land reform were eliminated by the collectivization drive of the late 1950s-early 1960s, and by 1962 less than 18% of agricultural land had remained in family farms and household plots, while the rest had shifted to Soviet-style collective and state farms).[1] By 1971, independent family farms had virtually disappeared and individual farming survived only in household plots cultivated part-time by cooperative members (approximately 6% of agricultural land).
- Privatization reform
- The post-communist land reform begun in 1991 as part of the transition to the market was in effect a replay of the 1946 land reform, and the arable land held in cooperatives and state farms was equally distributed among all rural households without regard to pre-communist ownership rights.
- Contrary to other transition countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Albania adopted a distributive land reform (like the CIS) and did not restitute land to former owners. The post-communist land reform of the 1990s was accompanied by special land privatization legislation, as Albania was the only country outside the former Soviet Union that had nationalized all agricultural land (in stages between 1946 and 1976)