How to buy a land plot in Cherkasy and Cherkasy district: checking the cadastral number, permitted use and restrictions

If you are short of time, go through at least this list. Each point is explained in detail below.

• The plot has a cadastral number, and its position on the public cadastral map matches the land itself.
• The owner in the State Register of Real Property Rights is the seller, with no arrests, mortgage or lease.
• The permitted use allows what you plan to do; for a house, code 02.01 is the simplest.
• The master plan or detailed area plan does not reserve the spot for a road, school or industrial zone.
• No power-line, gas-pipeline or shoreline protection zones that prohibit building.
• There is legal access and a realistic way to connect electricity, water and gas.
• The boundaries are marked on the ground and do not overlap with the neighbours'.

Checking a plot by its cadastral number is the first thing to do, even before a viewing. A plot is considered formed from the moment it is assigned a cadastral number (Land Code, Art. 79-1(4)), and the purchase contract must include that number (Art. 132). With no number, the plot cannot be sold as it is: land management documentation and registration in the State Land Cadastre come first.

Look the number up on the State Geocadastre's public cadastral map (map.land.gov.ua). It shows the boundaries, area, form of ownership, permitted use and some restrictions. Compare the outline on the map with what the seller shows you: the position relative to the road, neighbouring houses and the shoreline. The official document is an extract from the State Land Cadastre about the plot; you can order it through the State Geocadastre's e-services (e.land.gov.ua), at an administrative services centre (TsNAP) or from a notary.

A cadastral number is not ownership. The State Land Cadastre holds the technical data: boundaries, area, use and restrictions. The owner, leases, mortgages, arrests and bans are recorded in the State Register of Real Property Rights, and ownership of a plot arises from registration there (Land Code, Art. 125). You can get information from the Register in Diia or at a TsNAP.

Compare the two sources: the area, cadastral number and address must match, and the owner in the Register must be the seller. If ownership was formalised by a state act before 2013, it is still valid, but before the sale it is entered into the State Register of Rights (Law No. 1952-IV, Art. 3); the notary usually does this as part of the deal. Also check whether the plot is leased: for agricultural land the tenant has a pre-emptive right to buy it (Land Code, Art. 130-1).

As with an apartment, check the seller's family situation: a plot acquired during marriage needs the spouse's notarised consent (Family Code, Art. 65), and if a young child owns or uses a plot with housing on it, guardianship authority permission is required (Art. 177).

The permitted use (tsilove pryznachennia) defines what you may lawfully do on the plot. The cadastre records it as a code under the Classifier of Land Plot Permitted Uses (Annexes 58–60 to the State Land Cadastre Procedure). For a buyer the most important codes are:

The permitted use of a private plot can be changed, but only within the functional zone set by the planning documents (Land Code, Art. 20) and through land management documentation. It takes time and money, and the outcome is not guaranteed. So if you are buying a building plot in Cherkasy district, it is safer to look for land already coded 02.01 than to count on changing its use after the purchase.

• 02.01: construction and maintenance of a residential house, outbuildings and structures (household plot). The standard choice for a private house.
• 01.03: personal farming (OSH). Intended mainly for growing produce; whether a house can be built on it depends on the location and the planning documents, so find out before you buy.
• 01.05: individual gardening. The Land Code allows the necessary houses and outbuildings on gardening plots (Art. 35(3)).
• 01.01 and 01.02: commercial agricultural production and farming. This is land for agribusiness, not for housing.

The permitted use tells you what may be done with the plot now; the planning documents tell you what the community intends for the area. Check the settlement's master plan, the detailed area plan or the community's comprehensive spatial development plan for a planned road, “red lines” or a zone for public or industrial buildings across the plot. These documents are published by the city or village council and the urban planning and architecture department.

To design a house, the plot owner obtains planning conditions and restrictions (MUO), which set the permitted height, setbacks from the boundaries and building coverage. They are issued by the urban planning and architecture authority based on the planning documents (Law on Regulation of Urban Development, Art. 29); for some types of building they are not issued, and the relevant ministry sets that list. Before buying, ask the architecture department which restrictions would apply to the specific plot.

A power-line protection zone is a strip on both sides of the outermost wires: 2 m for lines up to 1 kV, 10 m up to 20 kV, 15 m for 35 kV, 20 m for 110 kV, 25 m for 150–220 kV and more for higher-voltage lines (Power Grid Protection Rules, para. 5). Building and works there are restricted without the grid owner's approval. Similar zones run along gas pipelines, water mains and cable lines, and they should be entered in the cadastre as land-use restrictions.

Waterside plots in Cherkasy and the riverside villages are a special case. Along large rivers and the reservoirs on them, which include the Dnipro and the Kremenchuk Reservoir, the shoreline protection strip is 100 m from the water's edge and doubles where slopes are steeper than three degrees (Land Code, Art. 60). Within settlements its boundaries are set by the master plan. Building any structures there is prohibited, except those the law expressly allows, and the ban covers summer houses, holiday bases and garages (Art. 61). A nice view of the water is not worth a plot you cannot build on.

A plot “with utilities” in a listing can mean a connected line with a meter or a pole two hundred metres away. Ask for specifics and check on site:

• Electricity: is there a contract and a meter on the plot, and what is the permitted capacity? If not, how much will connection cost under the regional grid operator's technical conditions?
• Gas: does a gas main run along the street, and can you realistically get technical conditions from the gas distribution operator?
• Water and sewage: mains water or a well, how deep the neighbours' water is, and where a septic tank could go given the sanitary distances.
• Road: the plot should front a public street or road. If the only access is across someone else's land, you need a registered land easement, or the neighbour can block it.
• Terrain and soil: spring flooding, low ground near the water and slopes all affect the cost of the foundations.

The fence and the cadastral boundary often differ. Before buying, hire a certified land surveyor to set out (restore) the plot's boundaries on the ground: they will locate the cadastral coordinates on site and mark them with boundary markers. This shows you the real area, whether a neighbour's fence or building encroaches on the plot, and whether the plot overlaps others in the cadastre.

If discrepancies appear, agree who will fix them and by when, and put that into the preliminary contract. Buying a plot with an overlap “to sort out later” risks a long dispute with the neighbours.

The moratorium on selling agricultural land was lifted by Law No. 552-IX, which took effect on 1 July 2021. Under the current Article 130 of the Land Code, such land may be acquired by Ukrainian citizens, Ukrainian legal entities whose members are only Ukrainian citizens, the state or territorial communities, and by the communities and the state themselves. A citizen may own no more than 10,000 ha of agricultural land in total. Legal entities have been allowed to buy it since 1 January 2024.

Foreigners and stateless persons cannot buy agricultural land, and any they inherit must be sold within a year. They can buy non-agricultural land within settlements, including plots for a house (Land Code, Art. 81). Under martial law, free transfer of state and municipal land into private ownership is prohibited (Section X, para. 27(5)), but buying a private plot from another owner follows the general rules.

A land purchase contract must be notarised (Civil Code, Art. 657; Land Code, Art. 132). The notary checks the registers and documents, certifies the contract and immediately registers the buyer's ownership. As with an apartment, an earnest deposit is safest in a notarised preliminary contract (Civil Code, Arts. 570 and 635). The main payments are:

Pay by bank transfer: individuals may pay cash under contracts that must be notarised only up to UAH 50,000 inclusive (NBU Regulation No. 148).

• Seller's tax: 0% if it is the first sale in the year, the plot has been owned for more than three years (or inherited) and it does not exceed the free-allocation limits in Land Code Art. 121, e.g. a household plot of up to 0.10 ha in a city, 0.15 ha in a town or 0.25 ha in a village, or up to 2 ha for personal farming. Otherwise 5% or 18% income tax plus 5% military levy (Tax Code, Art. 172).
• State duty of 1% of the contract value if a state notary certifies the deal (Decree No. 7-93, Art. 3(3)(b)); a private notary charges an agreed fee instead.
• The 1% pension levy: the law ties it to buying houses, apartments, garages and other buildings, so it is generally not charged on a bare plot; if there is a house on the plot, it applies. The notary makes the final call.
• Extracts, valuation, and the notary's and surveyor's services, at their own rates; ask for the amounts in advance.

The Svit Nerukhomosti catalogue lists plots for sale in Cherkasy and Cherkasy district, for building, gardening and personal farming. We help you find a plot that fits your plans, check the cadastral data, owner, permitted use and restrictions, and support the deal through to the notary. If you are also considering a ready-built house, see the house catalogue and our article on checking documents when buying a house.

Every buyer who requests a property from the sale section gets a code for a $100 discount on agency services when signing a purchase contract through Svit Nerukhomosti. Phone: +38 (093) 627-96-00.