When will the Spanish stop demolishing and start building?

Although thousands of unoccupied properties blight the Spanish landscape and mournful ghost towns like dejected sirens, fail to lure new life to their empty streets, the Spanish government remains impervious, perversely appearing hell bent on making the problem much worse.

British expats, Helen and Len Prior, are still awaiting compensation for their demolished home

Just before the start of the Christmas festivities a retired couple from Yorkshire living in Albox in Andalucia were told that an appeal against having their £120,000 home demolished, had been rejected. Despite originally having been issued with a full planning licence by the town hall, Spain’s highest court decreed that their property had been built illegally on non-urban land and would have to be pulled down.

The couple had bought their home in good faith but were betrayed by lawless practices at the height of the Spanish building boom that saw rogue developers, corrupt lawyers and town hall officials issuing illegal planning licences to trusting expats and Spanish nationals. Back in 2008 retirees Len and Helen Prior were the first British victims of such unscrupulous dealings and watched as their dream home was destroyed before their eyes. They were forced to live in a garage – the only part of their property remaining- and have still not been compensated for their loss.

And of course the biting irony in all this is that the Spanish government is desperate to sell the estimated two million vacant properties clogging up the country, and last year even had the audacity to conduct housing road shows in the UK to persuade Britons to buy in Spain. Meanwhile in Andalucia they’re busy wheeling out the wrecking ball to demolish yet another expat home! With 12,000 illegal properties in the Almanzora Valley and up to 300,000 in Andalucia alone there’s never been a better time to take up demolition as a career in Spain.

Fortunately for the distressed couple in Albox, campaigning groups AUAN and SOHA.ES which represent more than 1000 homeowners in Almanzora Valley, have come to the rescue. Between their members they have managed to raise enough funds to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). With any luck the couple’s home might receive a stay of execution. Maura Hillen, the tireless chairman of AUAN, wants to see the right to property guaranteed and upfront compensation given to those whose homes are threatened with demolition.

Surely it would be in the Spanish government’s interests to find an urgent solution to the ‘illegal’ property issue and thus restore faith in a flawed system. It’s time for Spain to start attracting new buyers based on transparency and good practice and to start rebuilding confidence. Until that happens, and until the country acknowledges the wrongs dealt against innocent pawns, it can forget bringing any more glitzy housing road shows to the UK for the foreseeable future.

Article; Anna Nicholas
Source; The Telegraph