Unlocking the Lock-in of the Amsterdam Office Space Tragedy: towards a new understanding of property development in oversupply circumstances

Local government reforms generate new conditions for planning and decision making in local development. Devolution is consisted primarily by the transfer of competences from central government to local and/or regional governments and by the amalgamation of local government units, as well. This process advances not only the administrative role of local government units, but also the affiliation of local actors in socioeconomic issues. Local actors adopt the right to plan and to implement strategies, in order to promote their interests. In parallel, local administration has the potential to govern in a more clarified framework. The aim of this paper is to study the two recent local government reforms in Greece, namely Kapodistrias Plan and Kallikrates Project (Laws 2539/1997 &3852/2010 respectively). By these statutes the map of Greek local government was transformed considerably, as the two levels of Greek local government experienced unparalleled gentrification. Apart from the crucial decrease of municipalities from 5.725 to 325 and the institutionalization of regions as second level of local government, vital competences were conveyed to local and regional governments. As a sequence, local administrative units of two levels (municipalities and regions), upgrade their role in local and regional planning. The methodology is based on primary research that took place in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, one of the thirteen regions of Greece (NUTS II). Significant findings were observed in fields that concern urban governance and local administration. Results of statistical analysis demonstrate that non institutional actors and members of local associations appreciated more the importance of the two reforms. Even though Kallikrates reform was more complete than Kapodistrias reform, significant improvements in the two levels of local governments are still necessary.