Property owners angry at new building rules, say their holdings will be devalued

The government’s plan to make it more difficult to build outside zoning areas has property owners up in arms. ‘A very important part of private property is being devalued,’ the property owners’ association said in a statement. A draft bill by the Environment and Energy Ministry would allow building outside zoning areas only in properties larger than 4,000 square meters; currently, someone can build, under certain conditions, on properties as small as 750 square meters. This hurts mostly small property owners, and a two-year transition period will not help, owners say.