Elite housing owners to get land title in nature reserve

In a dispute between the owners of housing in the Golden Keys-1 elite residential complex (the “Complex”) and the Moscow City Government, the Supreme Arbitration Court (the “SAC”) has ruled in favour of the former, permitting the residents to register ownership of land in a protected environmental zone.

The newspaper Izvestia has reported that the SAC will allow the residents to obtain title to the land under the Complex’s buildings, which is in opposition to the wishes of the Moscow City Government. The SAC’s ruling is a matter of case law, meaning that the lower courts will be guided by it. Consequently, all the residents will very likely also be permitted to register free of charge ownership of the land plot in the Setun River valley, less than one kilometre from Park Pobedy.

“It sometimes happens that the environmental authorities and the town planning authorities do not coordinate their actions with each other. This may result in a conflict between legislative acts, thereby allowing development zones to fall within the boundaries of specially protected environmental areas”, said Ivan Korolev, an Associate in the Real Estate and Construction Practice Group at ART DE LEX.