Wednesday, September 08, 2004
MORE MEDIA COVERAGE sent to me by an AUN member.
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THE POST.IE
The Sunday Business Post On-Line
Spanish property warning after 'land-grabs'
29/08/04 00:00
By Susan MitchellHomeowners in Valencia in south-east Spain have warned Irish people to think twice about buying property there, as many overseas buyers have fallen victim to what has been dubbed the biggest land-grab in Europe since the Second World War.
The mass seizure of land by property developers is being carried out in the Valencia region, an area which includes the Costa Blanca and the Mediterranean east coast. The area is home to hundreds of thousands of foreign sun-seekers, including many Irish people.Homeowners in other regions, including Andalucia, have also been affected by the land grabs, which arise from the enforcement of a property law passed ten years ago. The law stops speculators blocking urban development by sitting on land near coastal towns.
To get around the law, local councils have approved urbanisation plans without the consent or knowledge of the affected property owners. The law decrees that if a rural area is rezoned for building, the authorities can demand up to 70 per cent of the land free or, in some cases, pay a small percentage of the market value.The legislation allows property developers owning more than 50 per cent of land in any given area to compel homeowners to sell them the actual land around their flats or houses. The developers can then force those owners to contribute to costs of the ensuing infrastructural development.In the last four years, some developers in conjunction with local councils began taking over privately owned plots at far below the market value.Homeowners have been forced to hand over their land and in some cases pay for the privilege.One British couple who bought a bungalow in the hills overlooking the coastal resort of Moraira, near Alicante, discovered that their neighbour's property had been earmarked for an urbanisation project.Before they could object, bulldozers arrived to cut through their own garden.Since then, developers have lodged new plans to take another 40 per cent of the couple's land.The couple will be charged around €55,000 for the installation of new water and electricity services, roads and other infrastructure.One Irish woman said she was given no warning when local authorities claimed a large piece of her land.``We bought our house close to Marbella in 1974 and had more than 3,000 square yards of land,'' she said. ``I only found out that 1,200 yards had been taken by the local junta when I went to pay my husband's death duties. Developers have been allowed to go wild.''Since the issue came to light,10,000 homeowners have banded together to form an action group, headed by a former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.The European Union issued a report on land law abuses earlier this year, which included detailed case histories exposing alleged bribery, corruption and malpractice.The report said that homeowners ``had their homes and their land expropriated and had to pay for the experience, finding themselves in a surrealistic legal environment without any proper recourse to real justice''.The report is expected to pave the way for legal actions in the European courts next year.
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If you have any newspaper or web articles which we could put on this blog please e.mail them to AUN.
Jan.
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THE POST.IE
The Sunday Business Post On-Line
Spanish property warning after 'land-grabs'
29/08/04 00:00
By Susan MitchellHomeowners in Valencia in south-east Spain have warned Irish people to think twice about buying property there, as many overseas buyers have fallen victim to what has been dubbed the biggest land-grab in Europe since the Second World War.
The mass seizure of land by property developers is being carried out in the Valencia region, an area which includes the Costa Blanca and the Mediterranean east coast. The area is home to hundreds of thousands of foreign sun-seekers, including many Irish people.Homeowners in other regions, including Andalucia, have also been affected by the land grabs, which arise from the enforcement of a property law passed ten years ago. The law stops speculators blocking urban development by sitting on land near coastal towns.
To get around the law, local councils have approved urbanisation plans without the consent or knowledge of the affected property owners. The law decrees that if a rural area is rezoned for building, the authorities can demand up to 70 per cent of the land free or, in some cases, pay a small percentage of the market value.The legislation allows property developers owning more than 50 per cent of land in any given area to compel homeowners to sell them the actual land around their flats or houses. The developers can then force those owners to contribute to costs of the ensuing infrastructural development.In the last four years, some developers in conjunction with local councils began taking over privately owned plots at far below the market value.Homeowners have been forced to hand over their land and in some cases pay for the privilege.One British couple who bought a bungalow in the hills overlooking the coastal resort of Moraira, near Alicante, discovered that their neighbour's property had been earmarked for an urbanisation project.Before they could object, bulldozers arrived to cut through their own garden.Since then, developers have lodged new plans to take another 40 per cent of the couple's land.The couple will be charged around €55,000 for the installation of new water and electricity services, roads and other infrastructure.One Irish woman said she was given no warning when local authorities claimed a large piece of her land.``We bought our house close to Marbella in 1974 and had more than 3,000 square yards of land,'' she said. ``I only found out that 1,200 yards had been taken by the local junta when I went to pay my husband's death duties. Developers have been allowed to go wild.''Since the issue came to light,10,000 homeowners have banded together to form an action group, headed by a former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.The European Union issued a report on land law abuses earlier this year, which included detailed case histories exposing alleged bribery, corruption and malpractice.The report said that homeowners ``had their homes and their land expropriated and had to pay for the experience, finding themselves in a surrealistic legal environment without any proper recourse to real justice''.The report is expected to pave the way for legal actions in the European courts next year.
------
If you have any newspaper or web articles which we could put on this blog please e.mail them to AUN.
Jan.
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