Decree No. 392: From 1 January 2027, executive committees will be able to permit modular buildings without a design project

From 1 January 2027, changes to construction rules take effect in Belarus: local authorities will be able to allow developers to put up modular prefabricated buildings without drawing up design documentation.

Private business will be allowed not just to build individual houses on allocated plots, but to design entire neighbourhoods from scratch. An investor will be able to come to the executive committee with their own concept, propose a development plan for an area and then build it themselves.

The changes are provided for in Decree No. 392, which the head of state signed on 29 October 2026. It amends Decree No. 266 of 2 July 2025 "On granting powers in the sphere of construction". The innovations take effect on 1 January 2027.

The document expands the powers of the regional executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee in setting special rules for the design and construction of facilities of priority importance for socio-economic development. This is how both the decree and the press service of the Ministry of Architecture and Construction describe it. What exactly counts as such facilities does not follow from these descriptions, which means local authorities will decide.

Earlier still, from 1 December, new building codes on placing structures on adjoining land plots take effect. According to experts, they should make development rules less ambiguous, reduce the number of disputes between neighbours and improve the safety of the living environment. No automatic requirement to demolish or relocate structures built before the changes take effect is provided for.

State media describe this as a radical change of approach to developing and planning urban areas through private investment. Non-state publications write that the country intends to develop urban planning by betting on private capital, and that the changes will expand the powers of local authorities and simplify the implementation of a number of projects.