What is a “reasonable compensation” for the depreciation of land? Choromidis, 54932/08

Businessmen Efklidis Choromidis and Spyros Choromidis claimed that after a partial expropriation of their land for the purpose of constructing a railway, the remaining part of their land lost value of between 50 and 90 %, but the Greek Courts fixed the compensation for depreciation at 3 % (§ 58).

The ECtHR justified this policy, since, according to the judges:

• Anyway it was an industrial area with low esthetic value (§ 65);
• Certain areas of their land anyway had not been constructible even before the construction of the railway (§ 67);
• 3 % corresponds to € 88 068.87, which a priori does not sound unreasonable (§ 68).