Is BIM mandatory in Latvia? What Regulation No. 529 requires

What does the regulation say?

Cabinet Regulation No. 529 “Ēku būvnoteikumi” (the building regulations for buildings) gained two points through Regulation No. 548 of 26 September 2023:

Point 74.¹. In the new construction of a third-group building financed by a public-law legal person, the architecture, structural and necessary engineering-systems parts of the design each include a building information model of that part. The regulation describes the model as a digital 3D representation with information on the building's physical and technical properties and functions. It is added to BIS in an open file format, with BIS's own function for this.
Point 236. Point 74.¹ applies to construction intentions initiated from 1 January 2025.

That is the whole rule. It sets no contract value threshold, no level of detail and no IFC version. What triggers it is the building's group and who pays.

Who and what does it cover?

Question	Answer
Who pays	A public-law legal person under the State Administration Structure Law, such as a state institution, a municipality or another public body
Which buildings	New third-group buildings (what counts as third group)
Which parts of the design	Architecture, structures and the engineering systems the building needs, with a model for each part
Format	An open file format; the annotation names IFC as the example
Where it goes	BIS, with its model upload function
At which stage	With the final design submitted for approval, not with the application that opens the case
From when	Construction intentions filed from 1 January 2025
EU or other foreign funding	Covered only when a public-law legal person co-finances the building

The examples of who counts, the stage and the rule on EU funding come from the annotation to the amendment, the government's own explanation of it.

What does it leave out?

Reconstruction, renovation and restoration. Point 74.¹ speaks only of new construction.
First and second-group buildings, whatever their funding.
Engineering structures such as roads, bridges and railways. The point is about buildings.
Private money. A building with no public-law funding is outside the rule, and so is one paid only from EU or foreign funds with no public co-financing.
Older projects. A construction intention filed before 1 January 2025 can continue without a model.

One question stays open: companies owned by the state or a municipality. The annotation speaks of public-law legal persons under the State Administration Structure Law, such as state institutions and municipalities, and does not say how a company's own funds are treated. If your client is such a company, go by the tender documents, and ask the client where they are silent.

Can a client ask for more?

Yes, and public clients do. The regulation sets a floor, and the annotation says outright that it does not stop anyone using BIM on other types and groups of buildings. VNĪ's 2020 tender for the Great Guild at Amatu iela 6, a restoration and reconstruction, asked for the design in BIM and gave sample models 30 of 100 points, years before this rule applied.

BIM also reaches tenders through the Public Procurement Law. Since 2023 design contracts and design-and-build contracts cannot be awarded on price alone, and the use of BIM is one of the law's examples of what else a client can score (section 51). So a project's real requirements are in its tender documents, not in Regulation No. 529. How sample models are scored shows what that looks like.

How good should the model be?

The regulation does not say. The annotation gives the government's view: the client has to define minimum quality requirements, at the least:

models at LOD 300 or equivalent;
every element of the design part in the model, unless client and designer agree to leave some out;
a federated model and clash checks;
work in a common data environment;
elements modelled with suitable tools;
2D documentation produced from the models.

An annotation explains a regulation rather than adding to it, so look for these in the tender documents. As guidance it names VNĪ's BIM requirements. Since May 2026 there is also a Latvian standard built on them, LVS 1095:2026.

The annotation also mentions the cost: design documentation costs more because a 3D model comes on top of the drawings, while finding clashes during design can lower construction costs.

Who looks at the model?

The model goes into BIS with the final design (how to add it). It is not among the documents that open the construction case.

Approval still rests on the drawings. Under the annotation, the authority primarily assesses what is fixed in the drawings, while the model is the basis for them and helps reviewers understand the technical solutions. We found no published procedure from a building authority or the Building Control Office (BVKB) for checking the model itself.

Regulation No. 529 does not ask for a construction-stage or as-built model either. Anything beyond the design model comes from the client's own requirements.

How Digitalyse can help

We prepare the BIM part of tender bids in Latvia, provide a BIM specialist for key personnel, and carry on with BIM management and coordination after the award. See BIM in Latvian public tenders.

Sources

Checked on 4 November 2026.

Author

Madars Siksna

Lead BIM specialist, Digitalyse

11 years in construction, from modelling for fabrication and structural design to BIM management and coordination on Rail Baltica. 2022–2023: BIM Project Manager at VAS “Valsts nekustamie īpašumi” (State Real Estate), with BIM requirements (EIR, BEP) for the state property portfolio and client-side BIM management on the New Riga Theatre and Riga Castle.

Is BIM mandatory in Latvia?