Divlja Gradnja (Countries of Former Yugoslavia)

Bespravna Gradnja / Črna Gradnja / Divlja Gradnja / Ndërtim i paligjshëm 🇲🇪 🇭🇷 🇧🇦 🇲🇰 🇷🇸 🇽🇰 🇸🇮
Location: Former Yugoslavia
Definition: Buildings constructed or modified without legal permits
Keywords: Slovenia – Croatia – Serbia – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Kosovo – North Macedonia – Montenegro – Western Balkans – Yugoslavia – Europe – Housing estate – Informal settlement
Clusters: Informal dwelling – Market
Author: Fynn-Morten Heckert
Affiliation: Alumnus, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK and Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz, Austria.

By Fynn-Morten Heckert, Alumnus, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK and Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz, Austria.

‘Wild’, ‘black’, or illegal construction (bosn./hr./mtn./srb.: divlja or bespravna gradnja, slo: črna gradnja, al. ndërtim i paligjshëm, in the following: divlja gradnja) can be defined as construction of buildings, both residential and commercial, without the prior acquisition of a construction permit, or by modifying a building in a way, that it exceeds the originally issued licence. It can also refer to the unlawful change of purpose of a building (Zegarac, 1999: 365). Divlja gradnja is widespread in the countries which comprised the former Yugoslavia and takes place in relation to nearly all types of buildings, including tourist accommodation, religious buildings (Xharra, 2012) and other business-related buildings like shopping malls.

Divlja gradnja can be traced back to the beginning of the twentieth century, as a reaction to the restrictive ownership rules in Belgrade, which put working class families in a situation, in which acquiring property in a legal manner was hardly possible (Grubović, 2006: 72 f.). Divlja gradnja however gained momentum as a countrywide phenomenon from the 1960s onwards, with not only individual houses, but entire settlements built informally (Archer, 2018: 143 f.). This development can be explained with the urbanisation policy pursued by the Communist regime, as rural populations were incentivised to migrate to urban centres to seek employment at socially owned enterprises, which provided access to certain benefits, such as to health services, and free education. This led to a massive influx of rural migrants to the cities (for Belgrade see: Grubović, 2006: 87; for Sarajevo: Kriegl, 2011: 163; for Skopje: UNECE and FIG, 2015: 89 f; for Zagreb: Zlatar, 2014: 150).

The shortage of housing was exacerbated by natural disasters, such as the earthquake of 1962, which destroyed much of the city of Skopje and left about 80,000 people homeless (UNECE and FIG, 2015: 89 f.). The socialist city authorities were unable to provide enough housing units and thus, many of those, who became homeless resorted to ‘self-help’ by constructing homes without acquiring a construction licence (Grubović, 2006: 101 f; UNECE and FIG, 2015: 89 f.).

Informal settlement (Malo Brdo) in the heart of Podgorica, Montenegro. Source: Fynn-Morten Heckert. © Fynn-Morten Heckert.

But besides the actual shortage, the authorities were also unable to accommodate the wish of many dwellers for individual housing in suburban areas. As collective housing was favoured by urban authorities, individual housing projects were pushed into illegality (Grubović, 2006: 96 f, 101; Zegarac, 1999: 366). Moreover, following the Skopje earthquake and flooding in the 1960s, the state reconstruction project was focused on the production of collective housing. As many Skopje residents were not willing to leave their local communities and to resettle in the newly built apartment blocks, residents engaged in an informal (re-)construction of property on the parcels, they had lived on before (UNECE and FIG, 2015: 89 f.).

The wars of the 1990s triggered large migration flows, causing the steep increase of illegal constructions (Grubović, 2006: 114; Aquilue and Roca, 2016: 155). In Belgrade alone, the number of illegal buildings reached 200,000 by 1996 (Grubović, 2006: 131). This led to problems both for the environment and the heath of dwellers, as settlements often lacked basic infrastructure (Bajić et al., 2016: 3f), or were built on unsuitable lands, such as in areas prone to landslides (Martin-Diaz et al., 2015: 380; Grubović, 2006: 223 f).

On the other side of the spectre there is the informal construction of luxury objects. A notorious example is the Dedinje neighbourhood of Belgrade, where Slobodan Milošević moved to in the late 1980s. Throughout the 1990s, the elite of Serbia, including the political elite and nouveau riches followed his example with the intention to elevate their social status. It was estimated that half of the buildings in the Savski Venac area, to which Dedinje belongs, were built bypassing the official regulations (Grubović, 2006: 176-179). Illegal construction of luxurious residential buildings also took place on the Adriatic coast. For example, an informally constructed villa at the coastal line in Dalmatia has gained significant media attention in 2019 (Klaić Saulačić, 2019).

This hotel is an example of "divlja gradnja" in the tourist sector in Montenegro. Source: Lajović (2015). Source: Fynn-Morten Heckert. © Fynn-Morten Heckert.

In post-socialist Belgrade, politicians and administration massively profited from “tolerating” the erection of informal settlements. In the area of Zemun, for instance, the ruling party sold state-owned land, which was not residential according to the urban plans, without providing adequate infrastructure to residents (many of whom were refugees) (Grubović, 2006: 223-225, 253).

Business-related informal constructions became a widespread phenomenon in the last twenty years, ranging from small kiosks to hotels and shopping centres. These commercial developments were realised in defiance of urban plans through informal channels and personal connections (Babić, 2004: 44; Grubović, 2006: 228-233; Pobrić and Robinson, 2019: 286f.; Verseck, 2019). Tourism sector was especially prone to informal construction (for Bosnia see: Pobrić and Robinson, 2019: 287, for Dalmatia: Klaić Saulačić, 2019; Libero Portal, 2020; for Montenegro: Verseck, 2019; Der Spiegel, 2019; Müller and Lješković, 2008). One of the reasons is a ban on land acquisition for foreigners in Montenegro before 2009, which made interested foreign developers enter informal agreements with landowners to build on their lands. UNECE estimates that about 15% of all informal buildings in Montenegro, mainly in the coastal area, belong to foreigners (UNECE and FIG, 2015: 74). A second category of illegal tourist construction is related to persons having connections to the long-standing Montenegrin president Milo Đukanović. These are characterised by grave violations of construction regulations, such as construction of hotels in especially protected areas (for example at the Bay of Kotor, a UNESCO World Heritage Site) (Verseck, 2019; Der Spiegel, 2019). Nevertheless, in recent years the governments in the region launched initiatives destined to legalise informal buildings (UNECE and FIG, 2015).

References

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