On Tuesday, 16 December, the government approved the necessary amendments to regulatory enactments to enable the introduction of a unified process in the construction sector throughout Latvia from 6 January 2026 – covering the entire cycle from the initiation of a construction project to the registration of the structure in the Land Register.
This means that an application for construction will also serve as an application for the subsequent registration of the structure in the State Real Estate Cadastre Information System and, thereafter, for its entry in the Land Register.
The new reform introduces a “one-stop-shop” principle by combining the initiation of construction, data registration in the State Real Estate Cadastre Information System (the Cadastre), and the registration of ownership rights in the Land Register into a single application submitted via the Construction Information System (BIS). Another significant change is that, within the unified process, a cadastral surveying file for the structure or an on-site inspection carried out by the State Land Service prior to commissioning will no longer be mandatory. Instead, the initiator of the construction project will be required to upload photographs of the building and digital files of floor plans to BIS.
“This is the most significant reform in construction in recent years! To make the unified process possible, extensive interoperability of information systems and data exchange between institutions has been implemented, resulting in fully digital document circulation from the new year. Data will be transferred between systems automatically and sequentially, reducing the administrative burden for residents, entrepreneurs, and public authorities alike. As a result, both the time required for document processing and related costs will be significantly reduced,” notes Minister for Economics Viktors Valainis.
The unified process will apply to construction projects where a landowner builds a new building or engineering structure on their own land, or reconstructs or renovates an existing building, provided that the owner of the structure is also the landowner. From 6 January 2026, the unified process may also be applied to construction projects that have already been initiated, subject to certain additional conditions, in cases where the owner is building on their own land and an application for the completion of construction works has not yet been submitted.
“It is important to remember that the first stage of the unified process, which will begin at the start of 2026, will be followed by further stages. From 1 April 2026, the unified process will also apply to unfinished new buildings, and later it will be gradually extended to other construction cases as well,” says Baiba Vītoliņa, Director of the State Construction Control Bureau (SCCB).
To introduce the unified structure registration process, several regulatory enactments promoted by both the Ministry of Economics (MoE) and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) were amended. One of the key laws providing for the introduction of the process is the Construction Law, the amendments to which were adopted by the Saeima on 13 November this year. Amendments were also adopted to the Land Register Law and the Law on the Registration of Immovable Property in the Land Register.
At the government meeting on 16 December, amendments were approved to several Cabinet of Ministers (CM) regulations under the responsibility of the MoE related to the unified process. These included amendments to the “Building Regulations,” “Regulations on the Construction of Certain Engineering Structures,” “Road and Street Construction Regulations,” “Hydrotechnical and Land Reclamation Structure Construction Regulations,” “Electronic Communications Engineering Structure Construction Regulations,” “Construction Regulations for Structures Related to Radiation Safety,” “Construction Regulations for Structures in the Internal Marine Waters, Territorial Sea and Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Latvia,” and the Latvian Construction Standard LBN 202-18 “Preparation of Construction Project Documentation.”
The government had previously approved amendments related to the unified process promoted by the MoJ, including amendments to the CM regulations “Regulations on the Registration of Cadastre Objects and Updating of Cadastre Data,” “Price List and Payment Procedure for Paid Services of the State Land Service,” and “Regulations on High-Detail Topographic Information and Its Central Database.”
“Thanks to these amendments, the time required for registering structures in the Cadastre will be reduced by nearly three times, while in certain cases registration costs in the Cadastre will decrease severalfold. Overall, this means a significant acceleration of the structure registration process and a reduction in costs for both residents and entrepreneurs,” emphasizes Minister for Justice Inese Lībiņa-Egnere.
With the introduction of the unified process, it will be possible to track the digital progress of one’s application. Payment of fees for registration in the Cadastre and the Land Register will also be possible in one place – via BIS.
To facilitate the implementation of the unified process, the BIS administrator, the SCCB, will have prepared several explanatory informational materials by 6 January 2026, which will be available to all interested parties in the “Unified Process” section of the BIS portal. The SCCB also invites interested parties to join an informational webinar on the Unified Process, which will take place on 9 January 2026. Within the framework of the unified process, BIS users will also be supported by the BIS support service via telephone at 62004010. Meanwhile, the State Land Service has offered a customer support phone line at 67038800 since 1 July 2024.