Decree Law 19/2026: greater certainty in building procedures and property value

In the real estate market, value depends not only on what is built, but on when—and under what conditions—a project can become reality.

The new Decree Law 19/2026 addresses one of the most delicate aspects of this dynamic: the relationship between building projects, public administration, and decision-making timelines.

By acting on building permits, tacit consent (silenzio assenso), and the Conference of Services, the decree does not merely simplify procedures—it impacts the very substance of the processes that make a development feasible and a property valuable. At the core is not just speed, but certainty of operating conditions.

Tacit consent: from exception to operational rule

Tacit consent has been part of the Italian administrative system for over thirty years: broadly speaking, when a Public Administration fails to respond to a private application within a set timeframe, the request may be deemed approved.

In the construction sector, however, this mechanism has long been applied in an uncertain and inconsistent way.

Building permits or retrospective approvals (sanatoria) obtained “by lapse of time,” without formal administrative confirmation, have remained difficult to use securely in transactions, mortgages, and notarial deeds—contexts in which full clarity of building titles is essential.

As a result, tacit consent has effectively become a procedural gray area: a condition that has slowed down operations, delayed decisions, and, in many cases, frozen property value while awaiting clarity that never arrived.

With Decree Law 19/2026, the legislator clarifies that once the prescribed deadline has passed without a formal response, the Administration must issue an automatic certificate confirming that tacit consent has been formed.

If the Administration fails to issue this certification, it may be validly replaced by a sworn statement from a qualified professional, certifying that the deadline has expired and that the application must be considered approved.

In this way, administrative inertia no longer blocks the circulation of building titles, and the procedure reaches a formally recognizable conclusion.

Time as a value criterion

In contemporary real estate, time is not a neutral variable. It affects project feasibility, bankability, and the ability to transfer and enhance a property.

Every suspended phase, unresolved permit, uncertain title, or prolonged procedure translates into delay, caution, and immobilized value.

With Decree Law 19/2026, time finally enters the sphere of decision-making. This changes how projects are designed, transformed, and financed: it restores predictability to building processes and allows for more secure planning of development, regeneration, and transaction activities.

In a market that rewards informed decisions and defined timelines, procedural certainty becomes a concrete driver of value.

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