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The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Susana Díaz, stated in Wednesday’s state of the region debate that her government plans to apply changes to Andalucía’s planning laws, or LOUA, which could regularise up to 3,000 illegal properties in Malaga.

46353 1419145 foto 997489 300x225 - Good news to illegal property owners in AndalucíaThe proposed modification refers to Article 185 of the LOUA which states that subdivided plots of land are subject to urban planning and the necessary regulations. Changes to the existing article would allow buildings on these plots to be included in Decree 2/2012 - not previously permitted - which regularises illegal properties under something called ‘asimilado a fuera de ordenacíon’. This measure, while not permitting full legalisation and the granting of primary occupation licences, does permit property owners to access basic services such as electricity and water.

However the reform will only affect small subdivided plots of land - into two parcels or more - and not those on which whole residential estates have been built. Nor does it affect those plots built on protected land or flood plains.

In spite of this the measure could benefit, in terms of Malaga province, around 3,000 homes or six per cent of the total number (estimated at around 50,000) of illegal properties. The figure rises to 20,000 to 25,000 in the whole of Andalucía.
...continue reading "Good news to illegal property owners in Andalucía"

There is a town in the province of Cádiz (Spain) where nearly half of the nearly 80,000 residents live in illegal homes. Even the city planning councilor lives in one of them.

This town is Chiclana, and it is trapped in a legal limbo that has forced it to return to a planning regulation dating from 1987 because the courts canceled all its later zoning plans and it cannot grant any new first occupancy licenses, a legal requirement in Spain.

46353 942012 foto 1 300x199 - The Illegal Homes of Chiclana, Cadiz, SpainMarisol Ayala, the local chief of city planning, got the post after creating a political party representing residents of these illegal homes. The party's program included a request for amnesty for their homes, fine reductions and a chance to rejoin legality at a minimum cost.

Nobody knows how it all began, or who took the first step. Chiclana progressively grew while authorities turned their eyes away from the fact that walls were going up on rural land, flood zones and protected areas. Within the walls, homes were built. And people came to live in these homes.
...continue reading "The Illegal Homes of Chiclana, Cadiz, Spain"