Albania’s Cadastre appears to be entering one of the darkest phases of scrutiny by the justice system. According to sources, SPAK has expanded its checks on the leadership structures of the State Cadastre Agency in several key cities, including Tirana, Durrës, Elbasan and Vlorë, while the suspicions center on schemes involving overlapping properties, illegal legalizations, and the use of the institution to serve criminal groups and major construction interests.
In this grim picture, one of the names coming under focus is ASHK Director General Lorena Goxhobelli and Martin Kala, director of ASHK’s Tirana Rural Local Directorate 1, one of the Cadastre’s most important branches because of the territory it covers, specifically the rural and suburban areas of Tirana, where in recent years luxury villas and major construction projects have driven up the value of every plot at a staggering rate, Albeu.com reports.
Martin Kala, a former LSI official, was placed at the head of this directorate without a publicly known profile in the property field or a distinguished professional career that would justify leading an institution where a single signature can be worth millions of euros.
Recent reporting on SPAK’s investigation into the Cadastre points to a structural problem, not isolated cases, which also directly places responsibility on ASHK Director General Lorena Goxhobelli.
In Tirana, Durrës, Elbasan and Vlorë, officials at managerial levels and ASHK specialists are suspected of having cooperated with fixers, notaries and representatives of interest groups to facilitate legalizations in violation of the law, overlapping properties and property transfers based on questionable documents.
Within this system, ASHK Rural 1 Tirana carries particular weight. This directorate covers some of the most sought-after areas for construction and development, including territories near TEG, Farka, Lundra and other areas where land prices have multiplied. Where land circulates, money circulates too. And where money circulates, the Cadastre becomes the main gateway for the legalization of wealth.
Sources and information obtained by the newsroom raise suspicions that under Martin Kala’s leadership, Rural Mortgage Office 1 did not function merely as an administrative institution, but as a mechanism where files moved according to interest. Ordinary citizens faced queues, delayed responses, postponements and documents that disappeared through the offices, while people connected to business, construction and politics are suspected of receiving quick solutions.
In the hands of such managers, the Cadastre is no longer a property archive, but a parallel “notary.” Where property boundaries are changed, legalizations are issued with a quick signature and suspicious documentation is given legal value, public and private property risks being transferred quietly, but with major consequences for citizens.
At the center of the suspicions concerning rural Tirana is precisely the role of Martin Kala. He was the man who held the signature, controlled decision-making and had access to the most sensitive property files. For this reason, every decision signed by him concerning properties in high-market-value areas should pass through SPAK’s filter.
The suspicions become even more serious when in some cases properties in areas such as Farka and its surroundings turn out to be linked to people close to director Martin Kala. This raises serious questions about conflicts of interest and the use of public office for the benefit of family circles or trusted individuals. If citizens wait for decades for recognition of their property, how is it possible that people close to Cadastre officials appear in areas where land has become a multimillion-euro asset?
Another link requiring investigation concerns his brother, Admirim Kala, a former LSI parliamentary candidate and owner of the company LACONICS shpk. This company’s scope of activity includes assistance and intermediation in real estate sales and purchases, as well as assistance in the property registration process. In other words, the brother’s company operates precisely in the field where Martin Kala held institutional power.
This connection is far more than an administrative coincidence. One brother was running one of the most important Cadastre offices in Tirana, while the other had a company offering property registration assistance and real estate intermediation. This is a direct bridge of interest that requires in-depth verification by law enforcement bodies.
LACONICS shpk, in addition to funds obtained from startup schemes, is also reported to have received 12 local public contracts with a total value of 34,125,700 lek. These contracts heighten the need to verify not only the source of income, but also institutional links, relations with local government and the possibility of indirect benefit from the relative’s public position in the Cadastre.
Meanwhile, Admirim Kala is also listed as a partner in a holding company registered in Tirana in October 2025, together with two Italian nationals. According to preliminary data, the latter have operated in Italy in the Superbonus market, a sector hit by crisis and investigations by the Guardia di Finanza, with cases of major seizures in areas such as Syracuse and Salerno. This line requires a separate investigation, but it makes scrutiny of the economic network surrounding the Kala family even more important.
SPAK’s investigations into the Cadastre cannot be limited to just one name or one city. Reports speak of a broader scheme, in which Durrës, especially the Lalzi Bay area, has been identified as one of the most problematic points for legalizations and property transfers. Elbasan is also mentioned for suspicions over bribes in legalizations and the use of the Cadastre in the interests of criminal groups.
But Tirana remains the main hub. Because on the outskirts of the capital, property has become the biggest mechanism for money laundering, uncontrolled construction and rapid enrichment. Every square meter transferred suspiciously from one hand to another is not merely a cadastral procedure, but an economic crime with long-term consequences.
During 2025, SPAK has seized real estate assets worth millions of euros, which are suspected of having been registered through forged documents and with the cooperation of ASHK officials. This shows that the problem is no longer administrative, but criminal. We are not dealing only with bureaucracy, but with a system in which property is transferred, legalized and used to launder money.
In this context, Martin Kala cannot be treated as a peripheral head of a local office. He was at the head of a directorate that controls some of the hottest property areas in Tirana. For this reason, SPAK should verify all files signed by him, ownership transfers in the TEG, Farka and Lundra areas, approved legalizations, boundary changes, decisions on overlapping properties and every asset registered in the names of relatives or close associates.
The role of notaries and fixers suspected of serving as intermediary links between citizens, businessmen and the Cadastre should also be investigated. In many cases, property transfer schemes are not carried out with just one official’s signature. They require documents, notarial acts, expert assessments, maps, measurements and decisions that create a new legal reality over a property that may have been taken from someone else.
This is why the ASHK file should be one of SPAK’s most important investigations. Because this story is not only about corruption by officials, but about the theft of Albanian property. About citizens who have waited for years for recognition of their rights, while the powerful and those connected to government have quickly obtained property certificates.
If SPAK truly seeks to strike at the criminal economy, it should start with the Cadastre. Because that is where dirty money is legalized. That is where suspicious property gets documentation. That is where concrete gets moral and financial permission to continue. And there, according to the suspicions, people like Martin Kala have held the key to the gate.
The suspected havoc at ASHK, Tirana Rural Local Directorate 1, cannot remain only at the level of a media denunciation. The files, documents, assets, family ties, affiliated companies and cadastral decisions must be investigated to the end.
In a country where property has been the greatest wound of the transition, every official who turns the Cadastre into a marketplace must be held accountable. And if justice does not intervene now, the gateway to Albanian property will continue to remain in the hands of those who open it only for the powerful, for oligarchs and for dirty money.
The post SPAK “reaches” the Cadastre, Lorena Goxhobelli and Martin Kala at the center of suspicions over property transfers appeared first on Albeu.com.
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