25,000 Illegal Homes In Andalucia Given Hope Under New Legislation
Spain News
Published: 26 September 2014 12:03 CET
Updated: 20 December 2019 13:03 CET
New hope is on the horizon for thousands of expats in Spain who own properties that have been previously built on "non-urbanised" land or "suelo no urbanizable".
There are currently thought to be up to 300,000 "illegal" properties in the autonomous region of Andalucia that have been built on land that was not classified for construction purposes. Around 50,000 of these properties are thought to be located in the Malága province alone.
In a recent state of the region debate, the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Susana Díaz, said that her government plans to apply changes to Article 185 of Andalucía's planning laws, or LOUA, which could potentially regularise up to 3,000 or 6% of illegal properties in Malága.
She said, "We are going to respond to the situation that affects thousands of families and that cannot be ignored by the Administration".
"My Government is going to propose to Parliament a change to article 185 of the Planning Law of Andalucía which will make it possible to regularize thousands and thousands of houses in Andalucía", she added.
The legalisation of the properties would mean that they would be included in the 02/2012 Decree, which would allow the right to basic services such as water and electricity. This is not currently the case for homes that have been illegally built.
Unfortunately, only around 25,000 of the illegal properties within the whole of the Andalucia region may be legalised with the changes only affecting small plots of land that have been subdivided into two or more parcels.
Homes that have been built on floodplains, protected land or houses which have been erected on single plots of land will not be regularised under the new proposals.
The AUAN or Abusos Urbanisticos Almanzora No, who campaign for the legalisation of homes in Andalucia and 12,697 illegally built homes in the Almanzora Valley, feel that demolition of the properties is not the solution.
Maura Hillen, AUAN President, said: "Finally there seems to be political as well as social consensus regarding illegal houses in Andalucía."
She added: "It is not acceptable to ignore these houses pretending that they do not exist because there are thousands of houses that may be affecting the environment that are currently not being recognised and regulated."
