Closing access to real estate registries: a step toward transparency or a gift to corrupt officials?

The Verkhovna Rada adopted draft law No. 11533, which significantly restricts access to data on real estate in Ukraine. During the period of martial law and for one year after its end, citizens, journalists, and public organizations will not be able to see complete information about the location of real estate objects and cadastral numbers of land plots belonging to legal entities.

Officially, this initiative is explained by concern for the security of defense enterprises: allegedly, the publicity of data makes them more vulnerable to Russian attacks. One of the authors of the document, People’s Servant MP Ihor Fris, insisted that open registries allow the enemy to find out the addresses of weapons production facilities or warehouses, which creates additional risks. It was defense enterprises that allegedly requested such restrictions.

But in reality, the law has a much broader effect. As the Anti-Corruption Center points out, the new rules will hit journalists who used the registries to expose corruption in land relations, privatization, and construction. Now it will be almost impossible to check who owns a factory, office building, or hectares of land. This effectively deprives the media of one of the most effective tools in the fight against shadow schemes.

Ordinary citizens will also feel the restrictions. If a person wants to buy an apartment in a new building or a house in the suburbs, it will be difficult to verify whether the property really belongs to the developer. And this is a direct path to a new wave of fraud in the real estate market. At the same time, the situation will become easier for corrupt officials and businessmen with dubious incomes: by transferring property to companies under their control, they will be able to avoid scrutiny.

The situation is further exacerbated by the fact that journalists have found numerous properties registered to companies linked to relatives of Igor Fris himself. This raises obvious questions about the real motives behind the adoption of the law.

A number of state institutions, including the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Anti-Corruption Committee of the Verkhovna Rada, and Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, spoke out against the document. They emphasized that the law restricts access to all data on real estate, not just defense facilities, and that this is a disproportionate step that does not serve the public interest.

Journalist Tetiana Nikolaienko aptly noted: “Under the guise of protecting the defense industry, access for journalists has been curtailed. Closed registries are unlikely to save factories from attacks, but they will certainly help corrupt officials hide their wealth.”

At the same time, MP Iryna Gerashchenko points out that the restrictions apply not only to real estate registries, but also to Prozorro data, court decisions, coordinates of production sites, and other information that may be important for public control.

This bill was registered back in August 2024 and was finally voted on August 21, 2025. To come into force, it must be signed by the president. It is already clear today that the document has sparked serious debate in society and threatens the principle of transparency that Ukraine has been building for years.