Costal Property Repossessions Continue in Spain

by: Amy Morgan
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Word Count: 528

Spain is the second most popular destination for tourists after France and is the most popular location for second home ownership by Northern Europeans. It is thought that there are over 1,000,000 UK residents in Spain with most of them living on the Spanish costa.

Approximately forty per cent of the Spanish coastline is built on, with many of the buildings built without the correct planning permission. The Spanish Environment Ministry has now launched an operation to protect the coast and clear buildings from over 400 miles of coast.

The move sees the government using the Ley de Costas law, enacted over twenty years ago, to reclaim the first 550 meters of the coast. The plans apply equally to buildings constructed without planning permission and those legally built. The plans seem also likely to apply to hotels, bars and restaurants erected along the seafront.

The decision of the government to apply the 1988 Ley de Costas law has been widely condemned and protest groups have been set up to oppose the government. The move first announced in November of 2007 has resulted in a number of property owners being notified that their property is targeted by the scheme.
Some owners have already had the ownership of their property {{{removed|taken away}}, but have been permitted to stay on the premises on the agreement that the property cannot be sold or inherited.

A pressure group formed in Madrid now has over 20,000 members many of them non-Spanish citizens. The head of the action group Jose Ortega said "This is the single biggest assault on private property we have seen in the recent history of Spain" and he added "The state is destroying property without any concern for the law or human rights".

It is also alleged, that by applying the 1988 law retrospectively to property built in the 1970’s, that the government is acting unlawfully in an unlawful manner.

The Spanish property market has always had a reputation for political corruption, with local town hall officials accused of taking bribes in exchange for planning permission. With this move the central government has shown it will no longer tolerate construction on the coast no matter how good developers’ connections with local officials are.

So far 1300 buildings built without planning permission have been pulled down since the government come to power, with many more owners being issued with 60 year licences allowing occupation of the property for that period without the right to sell to individuals (they may however sell to the government). The multi billion euro scheme to improve the Spanish coast will no doubt add to the beauty of an already stunning area but the cost to the residential tourist economy will no doubt be high.

These moves come at a time when the once well performing Spanish investment property market has cooled considerably, largely due to rising prices and the development of Eastern Europe as a property hotspot. When once, Spain afforded the prospect of cheap property and a comparatively cheap standard of living to northern Europeans, now investors are inclined to look further afield for good deals. The governments’ move is likely to have a highly detrimental effect on an already struggling property market.

About the Author

Amy Morgan is a freelance journalist writing on Spanish property for The Big Property Guide

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