Friday, February 18, 2005
Voting on the Constitution
HOW TO VOTE
Yesterday British Consul Russell Thomson gave a conference inside the British Consulate in Alicante about the rights English nationals who are resident in Spain with regard to casting their votes in the referendums being undertaken for the European Constitution. Whilst Britons in Spain are not allowed to vote in the Spanish referendum, they can easily vote in the UK referendum on the Constitution. This is easily undertaken as those living abroad who have been registered to vote in the UK within the last fifteen years can apply to become overseas voters. An online registration form is also available, which also contains the clear details of how to register as an overseas voter, and the completed registration form should be returned to the electoral registration office for the address where they were last registered to vote in the UK. Angela Salt, the Communications Director for the Electoral Commission stated: “ It is very important that people realise that they need to be on the electoral register in order to be able to vote. If there were to be an election in May, then the cut-off date for registering is March 11, and we are urging British citizens living abroad to act now so that they do not lose their right to vote.” The online registration procedures can be found on: www.aboutmyvote.co.uk
HOW TO VOTE
Yesterday British Consul Russell Thomson gave a conference inside the British Consulate in Alicante about the rights English nationals who are resident in Spain with regard to casting their votes in the referendums being undertaken for the European Constitution. Whilst Britons in Spain are not allowed to vote in the Spanish referendum, they can easily vote in the UK referendum on the Constitution. This is easily undertaken as those living abroad who have been registered to vote in the UK within the last fifteen years can apply to become overseas voters. An online registration form is also available, which also contains the clear details of how to register as an overseas voter, and the completed registration form should be returned to the electoral registration office for the address where they were last registered to vote in the UK. Angela Salt, the Communications Director for the Electoral Commission stated: “ It is very important that people realise that they need to be on the electoral register in order to be able to vote. If there were to be an election in May, then the cut-off date for registering is March 11, and we are urging British citizens living abroad to act now so that they do not lose their right to vote.” The online registration procedures can be found on: www.aboutmyvote.co.uk
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
From Valencia Life 15.2.05
MEETING THE PRESIDENTThe Executive Committee of the AUN collective, as well as the Presidentof the Foreign Property Owners' Association Per Svensson, have had ameeting with Jose Joaquin Ripoll, the President of the Diputacion ofAlicante. During the meeting, which lasted almost an hour, Mr Ripollheard the overview of the list of abuses undertaken under the guise ofthe Land laws of the Valencian Community, better known as LRAU. As themeeting ended representatives of the AUN collective stated that they hadthe impression that Mr Ripoll had been very sympathetic to their cause,and had asked to be kept updated with any further developments.
MEETING THE PRESIDENTThe Executive Committee of the AUN collective, as well as the Presidentof the Foreign Property Owners' Association Per Svensson, have had ameeting with Jose Joaquin Ripoll, the President of the Diputacion ofAlicante. During the meeting, which lasted almost an hour, Mr Ripollheard the overview of the list of abuses undertaken under the guise ofthe Land laws of the Valencian Community, better known as LRAU. As themeeting ended representatives of the AUN collective stated that they hadthe impression that Mr Ripoll had been very sympathetic to their cause,and had asked to be kept updated with any further developments.
The following have been published on websites over the past few months, but I thought them worthy of display here to reiterate the problems being suffered by families due to the Valencian land laws.
Will your Spanish villa become a target?
Every Sunday, ex-RAF squadron leader Mr L and his wife leave their modest holiday bungalow in the Costa Blanca resort of Moraira for a spin in the country. Three miles down the road, on the outskirts of the bustling town of Benissa, they negotiate a new traffic island. The manoeuvre is a deeply emotional experience. The roundabout is where their swimming pool used to be.
On one corner there is now a glitzy bathroom showroom and a bar. That's where their home, a 130-year-old picturesque farmhouse, Casa Torre Luisa, stood before the developers moved in. Two years ago their contented retirement was destroyed when they fell victims to infamous Spanish ' landgrab' laws and were forced out - without compensation.
'We have gone through the pain barrier so many times as we drive past. But it still hurts,' says Mr L , 67. 'We have lost about £200,000.'
Last month, the laws were condemned by a delegation of the European Parliament as a 'serious abuse of the most elementary rights of many thousands of European citizens'. Pressure is now being put on Madrid by the EU to end the laws being used by unscrupulous local authorities and developers to plunder - mainly foreign - homeowners.
Spanish politicians and developers fear that if something is not done they risk slaying the golden goose of the multimillion-pound holiday home industry, which will see one million British homeowners on the Costa del Sol by 2008.
Mr and Mrs L´s experiences stand as a terrible warning of how your dream in the sun can go badly wrong. In 1994, at the same time they bought and converted their farmhouse for £100,000, the Valencian provincial government introduced a new law, the Ley Reguladora de la Actividad Urbanistica (LRAU).
It meant nothing to Mr and Mrs L, but the full impact hit them with a vengeance in 2001 when Benissa town council said it would be taking part of their land and home for a new industrial estate.
'We owned 1,650 sq m. They claimed all but about 500 sq m, including part of our house. We were given a token £4,500 for the inconvenience and about 400 sqm of nearby scrubland, which was of no use,' Mr L says.
'We went away for three weeks. When we got back the end of our home had vanished,' says Mrs L. 'They had demolished our kitchen, a bedroom and bricked up entrances. Then we received a bill for £13,000 they said was our share of the cost of building a new road, sewerage and street lighting for the estate.'
The couple had no choice but to pay up or risk courts and fines. Lawyers told them they didn't have a leg to stand on. They lived in the gutted shell for six months. 'Eventually we managed to sell out for £90,000,' says Mrs sL. 'It was the best deal we could get. We were lucky.'
Unable to afford to return to the UK or buy a substantial house to replace the one they lost, Mr and Mrs L bought a modest holiday bungalow near the coast for £100,000.
Thousands of families - British, German, Dutch and, increasingly, Spanish - who moved to the Costa Blanca to find their own place in the sun are today living under the shadow of a similar fate.
Originally, Valencian legislators introduced the LRAU to thwart speculators who paid very little for huge holdings of scrub countryside and cashed in, selling it off for urban development. The law decreed that if a rural area was rezoned for building, the authorities could demand up to 70 per cent of the land free - or, in some cases, paying only a tiny percentage of the market value.
All any town hall had to do was proclaim the land was needed for 'public or social benefit'. There was no appeal. It worked well, outfoxing speculators who owned land needed for new airports, industrial development, schools or hospitals.
But then it dawned on enterprising developers in cahoots with local councils that the same criteria could be applied to more modest, privately owned plots. About four years ago they began taking over properties at far below normal market value.
Since the scandal first broke, 10,000 home owners - British, Dutch, German and even Spanish - have banded together to form Abusos Urbanisticos - NO! They have a formidable champion in Charles Svoboda, 63, former head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the equivalent of MI5. He is personally involved, fighting demands for his villa and land in Benimaro that will cost him about £700,000 if he loses.
'This law is totally unjust and destroys people's lives,' says Charles, who recently confronted Valencia's Development Minister Rafael Blasco. 'I told him they had turned woolly pieces of legislation into an art form for extracting money and land from hapless property owners. It is dastardly. But I did not get much of a response.'
Valencia's head of urban planning, Manuel Latorre Hernandez accepts that many homeowners have suffered. But, he contends: 'This does not mean the law is bad, even if it turns out on occasion not to have been applied well by some town halls.' Overall, the law has helped improve Valencia's infrastructure, he says.
That's little comfort to homeowners who now face a retirement in penury. They are pinning their hopes on the European Parliament, which, after a mass petition, sent a delegation of MEPs to investigate land law abuses earlier this year. Two weeks ago it issued its damning 160-page report, which includes detailed case histories exposing bribery, corruption and malpractice.
'They have 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 says.
And it condemns some developers as 'unscrupulous beneficiaries of the law's application'. There are also rumours of political corruption and links between developers and local authorities.
'The delegation heard first-hand accounts of attempts at bribery and corruption on local councils,' reads the report. 'Many Spanish citizens expressed their shame at the level of corruption. Others complained of being intimidated by local politicians and several received clear threats. As a result, some were afraid to meet with the delegations to give evidence.'
The report to the European Parliament is causing deep embarrassment in Madrid. In some cases the central government has ordered compensation to be made at fair market value for confiscated land.
The European Commission is likely to order the controversial issues to be thrashed out in the courts, with proceedings beginning in the New Year.
'At last we're getting results,' says Charles. 'The European Parliament's intervention has scared the hell out of some of the mayors who now realise they can no longer slip these contracts to their friends.'
Charles retired to Spain in 1999 with his wife Lisa with enough money for a comfortable retirement. 'But if we lose this place we are in serious trouble. Had we known we were going to hit a problem like this then we would not have moved here.'
Three years after seeing their home wrecked, Mr and Mrs L are less optimistic, though demands for retrospective compensation are being prepared. 'We live in hope, but I think it's too late,' Danny says. 'Maybe it will stop other lives being ruined.'
This story first appeared in Daily Mail. For more great stories, buy this week's Mail on Sunday.
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British ambassador challenges 'abusive' Spanish land-grabBy Peter Upton in Valencia(Filed: 31/10/2004)
Britain's ambassador to Spain is taking part in an unprecedented protest against laws that are forcing homeowners in a tourist region to sell "surplus" land at a fraction of its market value.
In the worst cases, British expatriates and people with second homes in Spain have had to sell their gardens at less than one tenth of their true value and then pay fees of around £200,000 for infrastructure work.
In the first joint protest of its kind, 17 EU ambassadors have written to Jose Luis Zapatero, Spain's prime minister, urging him to put a stop to the "apparent abuse of legality" by the Valencia regional government, which they warn is damaging the country's reputation.
Despite pleas to the Valencian government, the ambassadors - including Stephen Wright, Britain's representative - say: "The law is still in force, with the result that a large number of residents in the Valencia region find themselves under threat of expropriation of their homes, or of exorbitant financial demands from urban developers."
Their protest reflects growing anger among homeowners in a 150-mile stretch of Spain's Costa Blanca coastline, which includes Benidorm and Alicante. A 10-year-old regional law, Ley Reguladora de la Actividad Urbanista (LRAU) - intended to prevent landowners from standing in the way of development - is being exploited by construction companies, with the backing of corrupt local politicians.
In one town after another, they have been granted the right to seize land around foreign-owned homes, pay paltry sums in compensation and demand cash from the sellers to pay for new roads, drainage and other services.
They have used the law to expropriate homes from those unable or unwilling to pay, or simply to bulldoze houses without warning.
Earlier this year, a European Parliament committee investigated the law after receiving an avalanche of complaints. Its report condemned the law and criticised apparent corruption among developers, officials and lawyers, but its call for a halt to the practice was ignored.
Mr Wright said that EU ambassadors first approached the Valencian government over the protection of property rights two years ago, but were rebuffed. "There are human rights interests, and I have been focusing on finding a useful way for the British Embassy and Government to help," he said.
In their letter, sent earlier this month, the ambassadors warn: "The apparent abuse of legality is under scrutiny by members of the European Parliament and the media in numerous member states. This could have negative consequences on the reputation of Spain in general, and of Valencia in particular, as a risk-free place to invest in property."
Neither the prime minister's office nor the Valencian government returned calls from The Telegraph last week, although Mr Zapatero is said to have "taken note" of the ambassadors' concern.
A spokesman for Miguel Angel Moratinos, the foreign minister, to whom the ambassadors also wrote, said he would speak with the Valencian government to seek ways of ensuring that property owners' rights were fully protected.
Charles Svoboda, a former director of Canada's intelligence service who leads a group of 20,000 protesting against the land law, said the Spanish prime minister was not committing himself to anything. "It has got to be a huge embarrassment," he said. "If the Madrid government does not take action then we are ready to take cases to the European Court of Human Rights."
Mr Svoboda's own property at Benimarco is under threat from land-grabbers, who have drawn a new boundary line through his swimming pool.
"The Valencia region is heading for an economic brick wall," he said. "It is deeply in debt and now totally reliant on a construction mono-culture in which almost every town has plans for thousands more dwellings so they can become the new El Dorado - on the backs of some mythical hordes of northern European retirees."
Among the 400 British families represented by Mr Svoboda's action group are the retired engineer Leonard Deacon, 75, and his wife Tessa, 60, who own a villa near Benidorm and are fighting a demand for £200,000 for nearby development costs. Mrs Deacon said: "No one should have to go through what we have been through for the past two years. We have both been made ill by it."
The catalogue of stories has had a sharp impact on the region's economy, with property buyers shunning the area.
Janet Ferrer, an estate agent with Villas Ferrer, one of the oldest companies on the Costa Blanca, said: "Foreigners have stopped buying here. Only the Spaniards are buying, and they only go for apartments where there is no risk from the Valencian land law."
Some case summaries:
taken from the Report by visiting members of the European Parliament
The delegation was inundated with individual case studies and examples of expropriation
during its short visit. Several local associations have formed to better organise the defence of individual cases. The following examples therefore only constitute a sample of a very large number of grievances. Behind every grievance there are real people, many of whom have been traumatised by their experience.
Mrs C. is a widow. In 1974 she and her husband legally bought 2,600 sq.meters of land, the deeds of which were formally registered. Housing permits were obtained, taxes paid and a house built in 1974. In 1997 she learned from neighbours that the area on which her property was situated was to be urbanised. In 1999, she paid all death duties on her husband's estate, including the house and land; he had died several years earlier. In May 1999 she was informed that 40 meters of her land had been given to a neighbour and a roundabout was to be built over the site of her kitchen and garden. With her daughter she tried to fight the case but was obstructed at every move. It was only in July 2002 that she received the legal papers from her husband's estate showing that instead of 2,600 sq. meters she know legally owned 1,505sq. meters. She had never been informed by the land registry, nor the local authority nor anybody else. She has effectively lost 43% of her land to property developers. Mrs K-W bought a 150-year-old farmhouse in 1996 which was equipped with all amenities. All permits and taxes were paid and the deeds registered. She writes: "It is not written in this deed that half of our property would be taken away from us...even part of our terrace will be demolished and the drive to our garage, or that we would have to pay €43,869,89 to the developer...There is foreseen to build a set of private three story houses and a carpark inside our garden...The diggers are already standing in front of our house...I do not have more words to write because we are so sad and defenceless against this LRAU."
In Denia, El Poblets, Mr and Mrs M. had 38% of their property expropriated and paid
€52,000 towards the cost of local infrastructure projects consisting of a new road and sewer. On their expropriated land, which was in fact a large part of their garden, two luxury villas have been built by the 'urbanisator' and sold for more than €300,000 each.
Mr and Mrs B. bought a small bungalow on 2,625 sq. meters of land in Benissa in 2001.
They have now been given an ultimatum by the 'urbanisator' and the town council to cede
1000 sq. meters of land and pay €42,500 to pay for new infrastructure which they do not need but which will benefit a new development adjacent to their property. They were given no information directly concerning the plan itself.
"My husband and I spent all our savings on what we considered to be our home in paradise. We have spent eleven years making an old empty house and overgrown area of land into a home and garden. We could lose it all soon to greedy developers" writes Mrs S, also from Benissa. Writing on behalf of six affected homeowners in the same street she says that they are expected to give up 70% of their land and pay towards the infrastructure costs of the new development. The only notification given for the development was through a web-site about which owners of land learned by chance.
Mr and Mrs D. only bought their home in El Charco Villajoyosa in 2003. They have been
given a choice by the town council and local developer (depending on which plan is finally that they can either demolish their home in favour of a green area and a road, with
minimal compensation, or keep their home and half their land and pay €50,000 to
infrastructure development costs. They have been told they will be informed when a decision is taken.
Mr and Mrs W-S left Germany four years ago to live in a house they had bought on 3000 sq. meters of land on the outskirts of Denia. They invested everything in the property and its improvement. They learned by chance that an urbanisation project to build 18000 dwellings had been agreed , that 60% of their land would be expropriated, a road would be built between their small house and their pool, and a roundabout would be built where the end of their garden now lies, but not on waste land a little further away. To add insult to injury the property developer is claiming €150,000 for infrastructure costs in advance. They fear that instead of being able to live out their retirement they will be obliged to return to Germany and live off social security.
In Mestrets - Borriolenc local people who own modest properties have formed an association to defend their rights having been faced with an urbanisation plan that rides roughshod over all of their homes, and will deprive them with up to 75% of their land, all of which is owned legally. They have been offered only minimal compensation, far below the real value of their properties where they have, for the most part, lived all their lives. They name the beneficiaries of this land-grab who are the same persons as had taken the decision to develop the land in the first place, though they own none of it. Proposals made by the association to change the plan to protect their existing properties was refused.
Ms B. & Mr S. own a property in El Aljibe, near Tibi which they bought in 1996. By chance, they heard in March 2003 that the area in which they lived was the subject of a new development plan although the town hall at that time repeatedly refused to confirm any details. Some time later a consortium, whose membership included the municipality's legal adviser, published a plan. New roads and a 1,696 house estate were proposed which carved up existing properties and destroyed much of the natural environment. No consideration was given directly to water supplies which are already scarce in the region and which would be required by the new development. The mayor was subsequently defeated in the municipal elections, yet two days before the official hand-over of authority he signed two development projects, including the one for El Aljibe. The new mayor suspended the projects and sacked the municipal architect and the lawyer. The developers of the project.
The salt flats 'Las Salinas' at Calpe was visited by the delegation and was also the subject of a previous petition 964/2001 by Mrs S. The European Commission washed its hands of the matter on the basis of a response from the Spanish authorities which must now be considered extremely misleading regarding the environmental impact of what is not just a 'reparcelisation' but a huge urban development project which manifestly will destroy a species of wild birds including the greater flamingo and the black-winged stilt and other fauna and flora, and desecrate an area of some historical interest. The coastal area had been protected by law since 1988, yet it was omitted from the EU Natura 2000 site because of the impending urban development, not because of any objective assessment of its ecological structure. The delegation saw the demolition of several small houses that had been part of the scenery for more than a hundred years and stood in the shadows of the huge residential blocks, already built on the other side of the road. Speaking to local residents we were also informed about the dramatic rise in crime locally as many dwellings, houses and apartments alike, have been burgled while their owners are away. Severe water shortages are common, and once again, no consideration seems to have been given to anything except providing benefits for the property developers at the expense of local citizens and their individual rights.
Mr & Mrs W. bought their land in Teulada in 1993 and established their family home there. However, unknown to them at the time, in 1999 a development plan was submitted and approved. The project, as often happens for public procurement reasons, was divided into two phases and without warning phase one started and a slice of their land was shaved off without notice. No response was received from the town hall for the complaint which was lodged and no compensation even mentioned. The second phase of the project envisages the following: 1.600 sq. meters of their land is designated for a green zone, 600 sq. meters for a new road in front of the house, the remaining land is designated for building and 10% is to be given up for nothing. In addition €225,000 is required by the urbanisator from the land owners for infrastructure costs. The owners were presented with an alternative; that they sell their land for €20 per sq. meter which is less that 10% of the objective market value. The whole area which was visited by the delegation is to become a huge building site where once there were farms and forests and a clear view to the sea. An invalid neighbour had half her house bulldozed and a road now runs ajacent to the rear wall of the building. A road, a pavement and street lights have been built which nobody asked for and nobody needs in such a rural setting.
In El Balco, Oropesa del Mar, residents are opposing a development which, like all the others, will destroy their environment without any environmental impact assessment. Near Benidorm,
Mr L. a retired Belgian, had his land expropriated in 1997 to build an entertainment park by Sociedad Parque Tematico de Alicante SA. He was given less than €3 per sq. meter and the land was then valued at nearly €20 per sq. meter by the property developer who had benefited from the deal. In la Nucia, near Alicante local homeowners have formed an association to fight the impending expropriation of their land under the LRAU.
In San Miguel de Salinas near Alicante, another association protests at expropriation and an unprecedented number of developments. Mr & Mrs C in Javea are having to find an urbanisation fee of €43,000 and give up part of their land to the property developers 'Desarrollo Comercial Cansalades SA'.
The association SOS Moraira has catalogued the planned destruction of the coastal
environment and the expropriation of small landowners near Teulada.There are many many more examples of such systematic abuse of natural justice, not to mention European law and national legislation.
Observations.
What is so striking about all of these examples is that none of the people concerned have
managed to obtain any satisfaction through the courts, or through lawyers because what has happened to them is considered as being quite legal. In practice, the incredible loopholes in the law (which was originally drafted to confront a specific problem of urban development) have enabled unscrupulous politicians and businessmen to obtain huge financial profit on the backs of many vulnerable and unsuspecting persons.
Will your Spanish villa become a target?
Every Sunday, ex-RAF squadron leader Mr L and his wife leave their modest holiday bungalow in the Costa Blanca resort of Moraira for a spin in the country. Three miles down the road, on the outskirts of the bustling town of Benissa, they negotiate a new traffic island. The manoeuvre is a deeply emotional experience. The roundabout is where their swimming pool used to be.
On one corner there is now a glitzy bathroom showroom and a bar. That's where their home, a 130-year-old picturesque farmhouse, Casa Torre Luisa, stood before the developers moved in. Two years ago their contented retirement was destroyed when they fell victims to infamous Spanish ' landgrab' laws and were forced out - without compensation.
'We have gone through the pain barrier so many times as we drive past. But it still hurts,' says Mr L , 67. 'We have lost about £200,000.'
Last month, the laws were condemned by a delegation of the European Parliament as a 'serious abuse of the most elementary rights of many thousands of European citizens'. Pressure is now being put on Madrid by the EU to end the laws being used by unscrupulous local authorities and developers to plunder - mainly foreign - homeowners.
Spanish politicians and developers fear that if something is not done they risk slaying the golden goose of the multimillion-pound holiday home industry, which will see one million British homeowners on the Costa del Sol by 2008.
Mr and Mrs L´s experiences stand as a terrible warning of how your dream in the sun can go badly wrong. In 1994, at the same time they bought and converted their farmhouse for £100,000, the Valencian provincial government introduced a new law, the Ley Reguladora de la Actividad Urbanistica (LRAU).
It meant nothing to Mr and Mrs L, but the full impact hit them with a vengeance in 2001 when Benissa town council said it would be taking part of their land and home for a new industrial estate.
'We owned 1,650 sq m. They claimed all but about 500 sq m, including part of our house. We were given a token £4,500 for the inconvenience and about 400 sqm of nearby scrubland, which was of no use,' Mr L says.
'We went away for three weeks. When we got back the end of our home had vanished,' says Mrs L. 'They had demolished our kitchen, a bedroom and bricked up entrances. Then we received a bill for £13,000 they said was our share of the cost of building a new road, sewerage and street lighting for the estate.'
The couple had no choice but to pay up or risk courts and fines. Lawyers told them they didn't have a leg to stand on. They lived in the gutted shell for six months. 'Eventually we managed to sell out for £90,000,' says Mrs sL. 'It was the best deal we could get. We were lucky.'
Unable to afford to return to the UK or buy a substantial house to replace the one they lost, Mr and Mrs L bought a modest holiday bungalow near the coast for £100,000.
Thousands of families - British, German, Dutch and, increasingly, Spanish - who moved to the Costa Blanca to find their own place in the sun are today living under the shadow of a similar fate.
Originally, Valencian legislators introduced the LRAU to thwart speculators who paid very little for huge holdings of scrub countryside and cashed in, selling it off for urban development. The law decreed that if a rural area was rezoned for building, the authorities could demand up to 70 per cent of the land free - or, in some cases, paying only a tiny percentage of the market value.
All any town hall had to do was proclaim the land was needed for 'public or social benefit'. There was no appeal. It worked well, outfoxing speculators who owned land needed for new airports, industrial development, schools or hospitals.
But then it dawned on enterprising developers in cahoots with local councils that the same criteria could be applied to more modest, privately owned plots. About four years ago they began taking over properties at far below normal market value.
Since the scandal first broke, 10,000 home owners - British, Dutch, German and even Spanish - have banded together to form Abusos Urbanisticos - NO! They have a formidable champion in Charles Svoboda, 63, former head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the equivalent of MI5. He is personally involved, fighting demands for his villa and land in Benimaro that will cost him about £700,000 if he loses.
'This law is totally unjust and destroys people's lives,' says Charles, who recently confronted Valencia's Development Minister Rafael Blasco. 'I told him they had turned woolly pieces of legislation into an art form for extracting money and land from hapless property owners. It is dastardly. But I did not get much of a response.'
Valencia's head of urban planning, Manuel Latorre Hernandez accepts that many homeowners have suffered. But, he contends: 'This does not mean the law is bad, even if it turns out on occasion not to have been applied well by some town halls.' Overall, the law has helped improve Valencia's infrastructure, he says.
That's little comfort to homeowners who now face a retirement in penury. They are pinning their hopes on the European Parliament, which, after a mass petition, sent a delegation of MEPs to investigate land law abuses earlier this year. Two weeks ago it issued its damning 160-page report, which includes detailed case histories exposing bribery, corruption and malpractice.
'They have 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 says.
And it condemns some developers as 'unscrupulous beneficiaries of the law's application'. There are also rumours of political corruption and links between developers and local authorities.
'The delegation heard first-hand accounts of attempts at bribery and corruption on local councils,' reads the report. 'Many Spanish citizens expressed their shame at the level of corruption. Others complained of being intimidated by local politicians and several received clear threats. As a result, some were afraid to meet with the delegations to give evidence.'
The report to the European Parliament is causing deep embarrassment in Madrid. In some cases the central government has ordered compensation to be made at fair market value for confiscated land.
The European Commission is likely to order the controversial issues to be thrashed out in the courts, with proceedings beginning in the New Year.
'At last we're getting results,' says Charles. 'The European Parliament's intervention has scared the hell out of some of the mayors who now realise they can no longer slip these contracts to their friends.'
Charles retired to Spain in 1999 with his wife Lisa with enough money for a comfortable retirement. 'But if we lose this place we are in serious trouble. Had we known we were going to hit a problem like this then we would not have moved here.'
Three years after seeing their home wrecked, Mr and Mrs L are less optimistic, though demands for retrospective compensation are being prepared. 'We live in hope, but I think it's too late,' Danny says. 'Maybe it will stop other lives being ruined.'
This story first appeared in Daily Mail. For more great stories, buy this week's Mail on Sunday.
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British ambassador challenges 'abusive' Spanish land-grabBy Peter Upton in Valencia(Filed: 31/10/2004)
Britain's ambassador to Spain is taking part in an unprecedented protest against laws that are forcing homeowners in a tourist region to sell "surplus" land at a fraction of its market value.
In the worst cases, British expatriates and people with second homes in Spain have had to sell their gardens at less than one tenth of their true value and then pay fees of around £200,000 for infrastructure work.
In the first joint protest of its kind, 17 EU ambassadors have written to Jose Luis Zapatero, Spain's prime minister, urging him to put a stop to the "apparent abuse of legality" by the Valencia regional government, which they warn is damaging the country's reputation.
Despite pleas to the Valencian government, the ambassadors - including Stephen Wright, Britain's representative - say: "The law is still in force, with the result that a large number of residents in the Valencia region find themselves under threat of expropriation of their homes, or of exorbitant financial demands from urban developers."
Their protest reflects growing anger among homeowners in a 150-mile stretch of Spain's Costa Blanca coastline, which includes Benidorm and Alicante. A 10-year-old regional law, Ley Reguladora de la Actividad Urbanista (LRAU) - intended to prevent landowners from standing in the way of development - is being exploited by construction companies, with the backing of corrupt local politicians.
In one town after another, they have been granted the right to seize land around foreign-owned homes, pay paltry sums in compensation and demand cash from the sellers to pay for new roads, drainage and other services.
They have used the law to expropriate homes from those unable or unwilling to pay, or simply to bulldoze houses without warning.
Earlier this year, a European Parliament committee investigated the law after receiving an avalanche of complaints. Its report condemned the law and criticised apparent corruption among developers, officials and lawyers, but its call for a halt to the practice was ignored.
Mr Wright said that EU ambassadors first approached the Valencian government over the protection of property rights two years ago, but were rebuffed. "There are human rights interests, and I have been focusing on finding a useful way for the British Embassy and Government to help," he said.
In their letter, sent earlier this month, the ambassadors warn: "The apparent abuse of legality is under scrutiny by members of the European Parliament and the media in numerous member states. This could have negative consequences on the reputation of Spain in general, and of Valencia in particular, as a risk-free place to invest in property."
Neither the prime minister's office nor the Valencian government returned calls from The Telegraph last week, although Mr Zapatero is said to have "taken note" of the ambassadors' concern.
A spokesman for Miguel Angel Moratinos, the foreign minister, to whom the ambassadors also wrote, said he would speak with the Valencian government to seek ways of ensuring that property owners' rights were fully protected.
Charles Svoboda, a former director of Canada's intelligence service who leads a group of 20,000 protesting against the land law, said the Spanish prime minister was not committing himself to anything. "It has got to be a huge embarrassment," he said. "If the Madrid government does not take action then we are ready to take cases to the European Court of Human Rights."
Mr Svoboda's own property at Benimarco is under threat from land-grabbers, who have drawn a new boundary line through his swimming pool.
"The Valencia region is heading for an economic brick wall," he said. "It is deeply in debt and now totally reliant on a construction mono-culture in which almost every town has plans for thousands more dwellings so they can become the new El Dorado - on the backs of some mythical hordes of northern European retirees."
Among the 400 British families represented by Mr Svoboda's action group are the retired engineer Leonard Deacon, 75, and his wife Tessa, 60, who own a villa near Benidorm and are fighting a demand for £200,000 for nearby development costs. Mrs Deacon said: "No one should have to go through what we have been through for the past two years. We have both been made ill by it."
The catalogue of stories has had a sharp impact on the region's economy, with property buyers shunning the area.
Janet Ferrer, an estate agent with Villas Ferrer, one of the oldest companies on the Costa Blanca, said: "Foreigners have stopped buying here. Only the Spaniards are buying, and they only go for apartments where there is no risk from the Valencian land law."
Some case summaries:
taken from the Report by visiting members of the European Parliament
The delegation was inundated with individual case studies and examples of expropriation
during its short visit. Several local associations have formed to better organise the defence of individual cases. The following examples therefore only constitute a sample of a very large number of grievances. Behind every grievance there are real people, many of whom have been traumatised by their experience.
Mrs C. is a widow. In 1974 she and her husband legally bought 2,600 sq.meters of land, the deeds of which were formally registered. Housing permits were obtained, taxes paid and a house built in 1974. In 1997 she learned from neighbours that the area on which her property was situated was to be urbanised. In 1999, she paid all death duties on her husband's estate, including the house and land; he had died several years earlier. In May 1999 she was informed that 40 meters of her land had been given to a neighbour and a roundabout was to be built over the site of her kitchen and garden. With her daughter she tried to fight the case but was obstructed at every move. It was only in July 2002 that she received the legal papers from her husband's estate showing that instead of 2,600 sq. meters she know legally owned 1,505sq. meters. She had never been informed by the land registry, nor the local authority nor anybody else. She has effectively lost 43% of her land to property developers. Mrs K-W bought a 150-year-old farmhouse in 1996 which was equipped with all amenities. All permits and taxes were paid and the deeds registered. She writes: "It is not written in this deed that half of our property would be taken away from us...even part of our terrace will be demolished and the drive to our garage, or that we would have to pay €43,869,89 to the developer...There is foreseen to build a set of private three story houses and a carpark inside our garden...The diggers are already standing in front of our house...I do not have more words to write because we are so sad and defenceless against this LRAU."
In Denia, El Poblets, Mr and Mrs M. had 38% of their property expropriated and paid
€52,000 towards the cost of local infrastructure projects consisting of a new road and sewer. On their expropriated land, which was in fact a large part of their garden, two luxury villas have been built by the 'urbanisator' and sold for more than €300,000 each.
Mr and Mrs B. bought a small bungalow on 2,625 sq. meters of land in Benissa in 2001.
They have now been given an ultimatum by the 'urbanisator' and the town council to cede
1000 sq. meters of land and pay €42,500 to pay for new infrastructure which they do not need but which will benefit a new development adjacent to their property. They were given no information directly concerning the plan itself.
"My husband and I spent all our savings on what we considered to be our home in paradise. We have spent eleven years making an old empty house and overgrown area of land into a home and garden. We could lose it all soon to greedy developers" writes Mrs S, also from Benissa. Writing on behalf of six affected homeowners in the same street she says that they are expected to give up 70% of their land and pay towards the infrastructure costs of the new development. The only notification given for the development was through a web-site about which owners of land learned by chance.
Mr and Mrs D. only bought their home in El Charco Villajoyosa in 2003. They have been
given a choice by the town council and local developer (depending on which plan is finally that they can either demolish their home in favour of a green area and a road, with
minimal compensation, or keep their home and half their land and pay €50,000 to
infrastructure development costs. They have been told they will be informed when a decision is taken.
Mr and Mrs W-S left Germany four years ago to live in a house they had bought on 3000 sq. meters of land on the outskirts of Denia. They invested everything in the property and its improvement. They learned by chance that an urbanisation project to build 18000 dwellings had been agreed , that 60% of their land would be expropriated, a road would be built between their small house and their pool, and a roundabout would be built where the end of their garden now lies, but not on waste land a little further away. To add insult to injury the property developer is claiming €150,000 for infrastructure costs in advance. They fear that instead of being able to live out their retirement they will be obliged to return to Germany and live off social security.
In Mestrets - Borriolenc local people who own modest properties have formed an association to defend their rights having been faced with an urbanisation plan that rides roughshod over all of their homes, and will deprive them with up to 75% of their land, all of which is owned legally. They have been offered only minimal compensation, far below the real value of their properties where they have, for the most part, lived all their lives. They name the beneficiaries of this land-grab who are the same persons as had taken the decision to develop the land in the first place, though they own none of it. Proposals made by the association to change the plan to protect their existing properties was refused.
Ms B. & Mr S. own a property in El Aljibe, near Tibi which they bought in 1996. By chance, they heard in March 2003 that the area in which they lived was the subject of a new development plan although the town hall at that time repeatedly refused to confirm any details. Some time later a consortium, whose membership included the municipality's legal adviser, published a plan. New roads and a 1,696 house estate were proposed which carved up existing properties and destroyed much of the natural environment. No consideration was given directly to water supplies which are already scarce in the region and which would be required by the new development. The mayor was subsequently defeated in the municipal elections, yet two days before the official hand-over of authority he signed two development projects, including the one for El Aljibe. The new mayor suspended the projects and sacked the municipal architect and the lawyer. The developers of the project.
The salt flats 'Las Salinas' at Calpe was visited by the delegation and was also the subject of a previous petition 964/2001 by Mrs S. The European Commission washed its hands of the matter on the basis of a response from the Spanish authorities which must now be considered extremely misleading regarding the environmental impact of what is not just a 'reparcelisation' but a huge urban development project which manifestly will destroy a species of wild birds including the greater flamingo and the black-winged stilt and other fauna and flora, and desecrate an area of some historical interest. The coastal area had been protected by law since 1988, yet it was omitted from the EU Natura 2000 site because of the impending urban development, not because of any objective assessment of its ecological structure. The delegation saw the demolition of several small houses that had been part of the scenery for more than a hundred years and stood in the shadows of the huge residential blocks, already built on the other side of the road. Speaking to local residents we were also informed about the dramatic rise in crime locally as many dwellings, houses and apartments alike, have been burgled while their owners are away. Severe water shortages are common, and once again, no consideration seems to have been given to anything except providing benefits for the property developers at the expense of local citizens and their individual rights.
Mr & Mrs W. bought their land in Teulada in 1993 and established their family home there. However, unknown to them at the time, in 1999 a development plan was submitted and approved. The project, as often happens for public procurement reasons, was divided into two phases and without warning phase one started and a slice of their land was shaved off without notice. No response was received from the town hall for the complaint which was lodged and no compensation even mentioned. The second phase of the project envisages the following: 1.600 sq. meters of their land is designated for a green zone, 600 sq. meters for a new road in front of the house, the remaining land is designated for building and 10% is to be given up for nothing. In addition €225,000 is required by the urbanisator from the land owners for infrastructure costs. The owners were presented with an alternative; that they sell their land for €20 per sq. meter which is less that 10% of the objective market value. The whole area which was visited by the delegation is to become a huge building site where once there were farms and forests and a clear view to the sea. An invalid neighbour had half her house bulldozed and a road now runs ajacent to the rear wall of the building. A road, a pavement and street lights have been built which nobody asked for and nobody needs in such a rural setting.
In El Balco, Oropesa del Mar, residents are opposing a development which, like all the others, will destroy their environment without any environmental impact assessment. Near Benidorm,
Mr L. a retired Belgian, had his land expropriated in 1997 to build an entertainment park by Sociedad Parque Tematico de Alicante SA. He was given less than €3 per sq. meter and the land was then valued at nearly €20 per sq. meter by the property developer who had benefited from the deal. In la Nucia, near Alicante local homeowners have formed an association to fight the impending expropriation of their land under the LRAU.
In San Miguel de Salinas near Alicante, another association protests at expropriation and an unprecedented number of developments. Mr & Mrs C in Javea are having to find an urbanisation fee of €43,000 and give up part of their land to the property developers 'Desarrollo Comercial Cansalades SA'.
The association SOS Moraira has catalogued the planned destruction of the coastal
environment and the expropriation of small landowners near Teulada.There are many many more examples of such systematic abuse of natural justice, not to mention European law and national legislation.
Observations.
What is so striking about all of these examples is that none of the people concerned have
managed to obtain any satisfaction through the courts, or through lawyers because what has happened to them is considered as being quite legal. In practice, the incredible loopholes in the law (which was originally drafted to confront a specific problem of urban development) have enabled unscrupulous politicians and businessmen to obtain huge financial profit on the backs of many vulnerable and unsuspecting persons.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
OWNERS PROTEST (Valencia Life)The association of property owners in the La Llobella area of Benissa -the only piece of virgin coastline left between Teulada/Moraira andAltea - yesterday had a brief meeting with Benissa Mayor Juan Bautista Rosello, after which Paloma Hoffman, the association President, stated that two meetings would take place with the mayor at the Cultural Centre in Benissa re La Llobella: February 22 at 6 pm for all German speakers and one day later at the same time for English and French speakers. Mrs Hoffmann added that her association is also intent on attending the demonstration against property development and the Valencian Land Laws that is planned to take place in Valencia on March 12.
Friday, February 04, 2005
Future of European settlement
on Spanish coasts and islands
Over the last 50 years 1,5 million foreign families have bought a property on the Mediterranean or Atlantic coasts of Spain, or the Balearic and Canary islands; the great majority coming from the countries of the European Union. Why did they come? There were several reasons:
- Over the first 45 years because property in Spain was comparatively cheap, as well as the costs of living. One could stretch a pension. However, today the costs of buying and owning a property and living in the tourist areas of Spain are at least on level with those of Northern Europe. This reason has gone.
- Some bought a property because they considered it a good investment. For many the investment was sound, if they bought in the start of one of the periodical increases in demand, at the right price and at the right place. But many who bought at the top of a boom, have lost money, as well as those that have become victims of schemes of re-zoning. Today it is obvious that prices have reached a roof and that the property market is heading downward. This reason has gone.
- Others again bought because they were promised a good rental income. Some have had a good interest on their money, but only by not paying taxes on their income. Today the control of the letting market is tightening and due to a high offer of dwellings, prices are slowly falling. This reason is out.
- All the foreign buyers came due to an agreeable lifestyle, and a good climate. The agreeable Spanish lifestyle has partly been replaced by a huge number of Spanish and foreign tourists, and their cars, creating chaos in towns and villages and queues/accidents on the roads. The charming villages have to a great degree been destroyed by high-rises and massive property developments. The concrete is replacing the natural beauty of the coasts. The traditional Spanish hospitality and friendliness is disappearing under the impact of commercialism. Spain has built 500.000 dwellings per yezr over the last 5 years, is producing more cement (38 million tons) than Germany (34 million), France (20 million) and UK (12 million tons).
The climate, the sun, is today the only reason for buying a home in Spain.
Is the sun enough?
Is the good climate enough to sustain the level of foreign property purchase that we have had over the last years, with approximately 100.000 dwellings sold per year to foreigners? Certainly not. From the end of 2003 we have seen the sales slipping and during the first half of 2004 it is obvious that the property sale to foreigners is entering a crisis. This is especially felt by private property owners, waiting in vain for a buyer, or having to lower the price. The professional property developers have seen the writing on the wall and have this year reduced to a great degree the number of new dwelling started up.
It is still too early to see how long the crisis will last and how deep it will be. Much depends on the economical situation in the countries of northern Europe, where the increasing oil prices are slowing down the economical growth and nourishing inflation. Many families are afraid that the public pension system will have problems coping with the increasing number of retirees. They place their available funds in pension plans and renounce on the purchase of a vacation home abroad. One must be aware that more than 80% of the foreign home buyers in Spain stay non-residents, using the property for shorter or longer vacation visits, especially over the winter.
Since the sun also shines in southern France, in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Slovenia, Croatia, Florida and other areas, some of them with lower property prices and living costs than Spain, more and more buyers will be looking for new destinations.
The present owners in Spain
There is among the foreign owners in Spain a general feeling of disappointment and dissatisfaction. Some are hard hit by the increased costs of living in the tourist areas, putting up their coastal homes for sale to go further inland in Spain, or leaving this country. Almost all complain about the increased traffic in their area, the lack of parking, the continuous construction activity often destroying the natural beauty of towns, villages and the coast, as well as increasing noise and last, but not least, a dangerous increase in criminality in the tourist areas. They also feel that they are not appreciated by the politicians and the public administration, getting very little in return for extensive and increasing taxes.
Many owners who bought their properties at an earlier stage, fear to become victims of the property development juggernaut, having their homes destroyed and paying the costs of it in addition. The abuses of some “agentes urbanizadoras” under the LRAU-law of the Valencia region is having a profound, negative, effect on foreign home owners in Spain, as well as many potential buyers abroad.
The foreign property buyers and owners are one of the main pillars in the economy in the coastal municipalities
and provinces, creating many jobs and income, directly and indirectly. If we calculate an average total price of 200.000 Euro
per dwelling, the 100.000 dwellings sold per year over the last period represents total yearly income for Spain of 20.000 million Euro. FIPE estimates that the average annual spending (taxes, costs, furniture, car, travel and living) of a foreign family with a property in Spain is 15.000 Euro. Multiplied with 1,5 million properties this gives an annual injection in the Spanish economy of 22.500 million Euro. A total income of 42.500 million Euro per year!
Some of the foreigners have made efforts to learn the Spanish language, integrate in Spanish society and participate in Spanish social life, voting in local and European elections, even becoming member of political parties and candidates to the municipal councils. But the greater part has not taking part in this integration process. Due to the difficulties in learning a foreign language in advanced age, they have sought refuge in the foreigners colonies existing in many places, where they can live, speaking their own language.
This is not a good situation, the foreign owners and residents should be animated more to learn the Spanish language, to participate and integrate. Also the Spanish administration should consider the problems of the foreigners isolating themselves, and foment the integration.
The Juggernaut
The property promoters themselves explain the high prices of dwellings by pointing to that half of the costs are represented by land prices. If we estimate that the price of an apartment with 80 m2 is 200.000 Euro, a normal benefit (including the commissions of the property agents) would be 25%, or 50.000 Euro, it would mean that the land cost would represent 75.000 Euro per dwelling. Often the apartment blocks have 50 apartments on a total plot of 3.000 m2, or 60 m2 per apartment. That means a plot cost of 1.250 Euro per m2.
What did that land cost as farm land, maybe 5 years before it was approved as building land due to a change in the general planning or by the action of an “agente urbanizadora”? Maybe 5 to 10 Euro (830 to 1.660 of the old pesetas) per m2. In our case it would mean 125 to 250 times the original value. (More examples in here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) It is obvious that such an extraordinary profit over a short period of time will not only attract the persons and companies normally working in the urbanistic field, but also operators and capital from outside the business, in it for the killing. Some of them do not care about the future of the coasts, of tourism to Spain or the promotion or construction business, they would not care for the buyers paying premium prices for products of low quality, for the small landowners that have to be trampled down to clear the field for their promotions. They are in it for a short term, but with enormous profits. In the property boom years from 1985 to 1988 it was calculated that the total value of land in Spain increased from 81,4 billion pesetas to 163,1 billion, not taking into consideration that it was, and still is, a habit to declare officially only a part of the real value in a title deed.
In few cases the town halls are able to harness the Juggernaut. In many cases they have become part of the machine. Often the normal tax income is not sufficient to pay the salaries of the municipal employees, and the town halls have become dependent on the extraordinary income of the urbanistic process to finance their projects. Some municipal leaders have also personally benefited from the approval of urbanistic plans.
The Juggernaut of hard methods, short term investments and extraordinary profits is today changing the Spanish coasts, eating up the few virgin areas and coastal villages remaining, leaving in its wake a sea of concrete, a wall of high rises along the coasts, an enormous amount of row houses and an avalanche of cars.
Example Costa del Sol
The urbanistic Juggernaut has gone wild on Costa del Sol over the last 20 years. The result is that 57% of the coast in the province of Malaga is occupied by urbanizations and buildings, and in two municipalities (Marbella and Fuengirola) the percentage has surpassed 80%. No other province beats Malaga in consume of cement. On 161 kilometers of coastline there are 11 yacht harbors. The number of private vehicles doubled from 1988 to 2001. Avenida Andalucia in Malaga registers more than 95.000 vehicles per day (compared with 84.000 vehicles on Gran Via in Barcelona. The population has increased 50% since 1973, with up to 1000 inhabitants per square kilometer in the coastal municipalities (Belgium 311 inhabitants/km2, Holland 463).
The natural process of the building up of beaches is reduced 75% over the last 30 years, due to the construction of piers, yacht harbors and beach promenades. The sewage plants do not cope with the great amount of human and industrial waste.
The Junta de Andalucia has admitted that the town council of Benalmadena has modified its General Plan on 45 occasions over 4 years. The socialist group in the town hall maintain that the number of modifications actually amounted to 200. The Foro de Benalmadena, an association consisting of 13 urbanisations with approximately 2000 dwellings summed up the situation in an extensive report last year by saying: “Due to the fact that the Junta de Andalucia does not insist on compliance with the law, building activities are out of control, causing massification….The systematic breach of promises and intentions and the continuous changes made in the urbanistic plans, have resulted in absurd planning and unlawful and fraudulent situations, thus leaving the citizens without any protection of their rights.”
Marbella is a special case, where over several years many building projects have been executed on land not foreseen for construction in any legal general plan, and against the protests of the regional government in Sevilla. The only ”town planning” made was by mayor Jesus Gil y Gil, and his closest collaborators.
And example Costa Blanca
80% of the coast of Alicante province is filled with urbanisations and construction. In 60 municipalities is concentrated 46% of all building land (urbana and urbanizable) in the region Valencia. In Alicante province 9,9% of all land has been classified as urbano (building land) or urbanizable (land that may become building land). The corresponding figure for the province of Valencia is 5 and for the province of Castellon 3,9. In the first 500 meters from the coast inland is concentrated 15% of gross interior product of the region.
From 1998 to 2003 Torrevieja had an increase in its registered population of 103,3%, San Fulgencio an increase of 81%, Benijofar 74,6%, Els Poblet 66,2, Benitachell 65,6, Finestrat 65,6, Algorfa 52,6, Calpe 51,5, Rojales 51,5, San Miguel de Salinas 48,4, Altea 35,8, Orihuela 33,9, Denia 31,9, Benidorm 26,1 and the city of Alicante only 12,3% increase. From these figures can be seen that the demographical pressure is now building up also in the municipalities in the second coast line, while the areas of the interior are still losing population.
The ecologist organization “Greenpeace” has denounced that 76% of the coastline of the Valencia region is urbanized. They claim that 90% of the coasts of Spain is deteriorated, but find the case of Valencia especially alarming, and warn against the modifications in the general planning in such municipalities as Almassora, Benissa, Calpe, El Puig, and Castellon, “where one pretends to construct 200.000 dwellings and 100.000 hotelbeds in the next 10 years.”
The authorities warn that 200 of the municipalities in the Valencia region, most of them along the coast are affected by nitrates in the water, caused by the agriculture. The government of the region has also calculated that the construction industry only in the southern part of Costa Blanca is producing 332.800 ton debris per year, without plans for its disposal. In many areas the main sewage pipes still do not reach the urbanizations and settlements, and much raw waste are still going into the earth of out in the Mediterranean. Ecologists have calculated that 21.000 dwellings have been constructed in areas with danger of flooding, and that construction in such areas still continues.
Urbanistic fever
Due to the great demand for dwellings on the Costa Blanca over the last year, both private promoters and local town halls are projecting a continuation of the boom. There are 20 projects for new golf courses in the Valencia region (with urbanizations around). Here are some of the plans proposed or approved:
- The municipality of Daya Nueva (1.300 inhabitants at the moment) has developed a new general plan, with 7.600 new dwellings and a total of 26.000 inhabitants, 20 times the present number.
- The new general plan of Benimantell increases the population 3 times, from 460 to 1.550 inhabitants, in addition to new hotels.
- In Castalla a promotor has proposed a golf course with 36 holes, 12.500 new houses and two luxury hotels.
- A project for a golf course and 3.000 new dwellings in Orcheta would destroy the fruit plantations next to the town center.
- A golf course and 1.500 new dwellings are proposed by the town council in Albatera.
- San Miguel de las Salinas, with 5.800 inhabitants, is proposing to construct 3 golf courses and 40.000 new dwellings.
- Polop is planning the building of 10.000 new dwellings in the area of Ponoch.
- A new general plan for Guadalest, at present with 192 registered inhabitants, foresees construction to house a totality of 2.100.
- Calpe has decided to lift all limitation of height for construction in the areas of Morello and la Fossa.
- Denia has constructed 14.000 new dwellings over the last 4 years, and plans have been presented to permit the construction of 18.000 dwellings more.
- In La Romana promoters have plans to build 1.100 new dwellings.
- Ondarra have plans for a golf course and 1.954 new houses.
- Santa Pola has made a change in the general plan permitting an increase from 950 to 2.200 new dwellings next to the nature area of Clot de Galvany.
- In La Nucia is foreseen a new urbanization in La Serreta, with golf course, luxury hotel with 90 rooms and the construction of 2.000 new houses.
- In Guardamar the town hall has approved the construction of thousands of new dwellings near the lagoon La Mala.
- In Sierra Escalona of Orihuela os projected 2 golf courses and 2.100 new dwellings.
- Pilar de Horadada has also a project for a golf course with thousands of dwellings.
- In Sanet y Negrals (600 inhabitants) has been proposed a golf course, luxury hotel and hundred of new dwellings.
Water, traffic, noise…
With all the new dwellings at present under construction, and the many new developments proposed or under planning, the tourist areas on Costa Blanca (including the municipalities in second line), as well as the other tourist zones along the coasts and on the islands, will face severe problems of infrastructure and contamination. With the cancellation of the national water plan by the government, and no realistic alternative offered, at a time with less rainfall, it is difficult to see how the need for water can be covered. However, we stress that tourism and new settlements are not the main reason for the water problem, neither on Costa Blanca nor in the other tourist areas.
Already the roads in the coastal areas are at their limits, especially during the tourist seasons. The towns and villages are jammed with cars. For instance in the city of Alicante the number of vehicles increased from 134.000 in 1995 to 186.000 in 2002. Funds from the EU have financed 40% of the roads built in Spain over the last………………..years. With Spain soon becoming a contributor instead of a receiver of EU-funds, will there be sufficient financing for the new roads needed? And where shall we find parking in the city-centers in 5 to 10 years time?
The Ombudsmann of the Valencia region pointed in his report to the regional parliament in 2003 to the increasingly high level of acoustic contamination, proposed a plan against excessive noise and that the local administration should ask the opinion of the neighbors before giving licenses for bars and restaurants on open terraces. The Ombudsman questioned the towen planning policy of the region and asked that it be based on environmental sustainability.
The government has recognized that the property business, due to its high volume, great benefits and possibilities of whitewashing black money coming from criminal activities. This has led to an important increase in criminality in the tourist areas. The province of Alicante had an increase in criminality of 32% from 2001 to 2002. Some of the municipalities on the coasts have become “leaders” in crime. The president of the constructors in Alicante has warned that if the criminality is not stopped, the buyers of dwellings will find other destinations. In some municipalities citizens have formed “Neighborhood Watches” to assist the authorities to combat crime.
Warnings and resistance
The warnings against the negative effect of the unfettered construction industry are coming from many directions. The main lobby for the hotel tourism, Exceltur, has placed the blame for the empty beds in the tourist hotels on the excessive construction activity and the saturation of the coast. This warning has been echoed by importing tour-operators abroad, registering a diminishing interest for Costa Blanca. In a study by the Institute for Economical Studies, presented by the main employers organization in the Valencia region, Cierval, laments that the coastal areas of the region are “saturated and over-exploited”. The minister of the environment in the national government has said the same on several occasions.
In several places have been formed local citizens groups, to combat proposed gigantic urbanization plans, the lenient attitude of the administration toward or against the various effects of the saturation and the aggressive methods of the urbanistic Juggernaut. The association “Abusos Urbanisticos NO” has gathered …………signatures on a complaint to the European Parliament.
It is democratically very sound and necessary that the citizens, both Spanish and foreigners living in the tourist areas, take part in the resistance against the overexploitation and saturation of the coasts. For the Spanish, it is their native country. For the Europeans and other foreigners it is their selected country, that they do not want to leave, but to assist. For that reason, we do not shy from taking responsibility and speaking out clearly.
We want to register the excesses and abuses,
present proposal for improvement,
take part in the discussions,
organize ourselves to better be able to work for solutions .
.
on Spanish coasts and islands
Over the last 50 years 1,5 million foreign families have bought a property on the Mediterranean or Atlantic coasts of Spain, or the Balearic and Canary islands; the great majority coming from the countries of the European Union. Why did they come? There were several reasons:
- Over the first 45 years because property in Spain was comparatively cheap, as well as the costs of living. One could stretch a pension. However, today the costs of buying and owning a property and living in the tourist areas of Spain are at least on level with those of Northern Europe. This reason has gone.
- Some bought a property because they considered it a good investment. For many the investment was sound, if they bought in the start of one of the periodical increases in demand, at the right price and at the right place. But many who bought at the top of a boom, have lost money, as well as those that have become victims of schemes of re-zoning. Today it is obvious that prices have reached a roof and that the property market is heading downward. This reason has gone.
- Others again bought because they were promised a good rental income. Some have had a good interest on their money, but only by not paying taxes on their income. Today the control of the letting market is tightening and due to a high offer of dwellings, prices are slowly falling. This reason is out.
- All the foreign buyers came due to an agreeable lifestyle, and a good climate. The agreeable Spanish lifestyle has partly been replaced by a huge number of Spanish and foreign tourists, and their cars, creating chaos in towns and villages and queues/accidents on the roads. The charming villages have to a great degree been destroyed by high-rises and massive property developments. The concrete is replacing the natural beauty of the coasts. The traditional Spanish hospitality and friendliness is disappearing under the impact of commercialism. Spain has built 500.000 dwellings per yezr over the last 5 years, is producing more cement (38 million tons) than Germany (34 million), France (20 million) and UK (12 million tons).
The climate, the sun, is today the only reason for buying a home in Spain.
Is the sun enough?
Is the good climate enough to sustain the level of foreign property purchase that we have had over the last years, with approximately 100.000 dwellings sold per year to foreigners? Certainly not. From the end of 2003 we have seen the sales slipping and during the first half of 2004 it is obvious that the property sale to foreigners is entering a crisis. This is especially felt by private property owners, waiting in vain for a buyer, or having to lower the price. The professional property developers have seen the writing on the wall and have this year reduced to a great degree the number of new dwelling started up.
It is still too early to see how long the crisis will last and how deep it will be. Much depends on the economical situation in the countries of northern Europe, where the increasing oil prices are slowing down the economical growth and nourishing inflation. Many families are afraid that the public pension system will have problems coping with the increasing number of retirees. They place their available funds in pension plans and renounce on the purchase of a vacation home abroad. One must be aware that more than 80% of the foreign home buyers in Spain stay non-residents, using the property for shorter or longer vacation visits, especially over the winter.
Since the sun also shines in southern France, in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Slovenia, Croatia, Florida and other areas, some of them with lower property prices and living costs than Spain, more and more buyers will be looking for new destinations.
The present owners in Spain
There is among the foreign owners in Spain a general feeling of disappointment and dissatisfaction. Some are hard hit by the increased costs of living in the tourist areas, putting up their coastal homes for sale to go further inland in Spain, or leaving this country. Almost all complain about the increased traffic in their area, the lack of parking, the continuous construction activity often destroying the natural beauty of towns, villages and the coast, as well as increasing noise and last, but not least, a dangerous increase in criminality in the tourist areas. They also feel that they are not appreciated by the politicians and the public administration, getting very little in return for extensive and increasing taxes.
Many owners who bought their properties at an earlier stage, fear to become victims of the property development juggernaut, having their homes destroyed and paying the costs of it in addition. The abuses of some “agentes urbanizadoras” under the LRAU-law of the Valencia region is having a profound, negative, effect on foreign home owners in Spain, as well as many potential buyers abroad.
The foreign property buyers and owners are one of the main pillars in the economy in the coastal municipalities
and provinces, creating many jobs and income, directly and indirectly. If we calculate an average total price of 200.000 Euro
per dwelling, the 100.000 dwellings sold per year over the last period represents total yearly income for Spain of 20.000 million Euro. FIPE estimates that the average annual spending (taxes, costs, furniture, car, travel and living) of a foreign family with a property in Spain is 15.000 Euro. Multiplied with 1,5 million properties this gives an annual injection in the Spanish economy of 22.500 million Euro. A total income of 42.500 million Euro per year!
Some of the foreigners have made efforts to learn the Spanish language, integrate in Spanish society and participate in Spanish social life, voting in local and European elections, even becoming member of political parties and candidates to the municipal councils. But the greater part has not taking part in this integration process. Due to the difficulties in learning a foreign language in advanced age, they have sought refuge in the foreigners colonies existing in many places, where they can live, speaking their own language.
This is not a good situation, the foreign owners and residents should be animated more to learn the Spanish language, to participate and integrate. Also the Spanish administration should consider the problems of the foreigners isolating themselves, and foment the integration.
The Juggernaut
The property promoters themselves explain the high prices of dwellings by pointing to that half of the costs are represented by land prices. If we estimate that the price of an apartment with 80 m2 is 200.000 Euro, a normal benefit (including the commissions of the property agents) would be 25%, or 50.000 Euro, it would mean that the land cost would represent 75.000 Euro per dwelling. Often the apartment blocks have 50 apartments on a total plot of 3.000 m2, or 60 m2 per apartment. That means a plot cost of 1.250 Euro per m2.
What did that land cost as farm land, maybe 5 years before it was approved as building land due to a change in the general planning or by the action of an “agente urbanizadora”? Maybe 5 to 10 Euro (830 to 1.660 of the old pesetas) per m2. In our case it would mean 125 to 250 times the original value. (More examples in here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) It is obvious that such an extraordinary profit over a short period of time will not only attract the persons and companies normally working in the urbanistic field, but also operators and capital from outside the business, in it for the killing. Some of them do not care about the future of the coasts, of tourism to Spain or the promotion or construction business, they would not care for the buyers paying premium prices for products of low quality, for the small landowners that have to be trampled down to clear the field for their promotions. They are in it for a short term, but with enormous profits. In the property boom years from 1985 to 1988 it was calculated that the total value of land in Spain increased from 81,4 billion pesetas to 163,1 billion, not taking into consideration that it was, and still is, a habit to declare officially only a part of the real value in a title deed.
In few cases the town halls are able to harness the Juggernaut. In many cases they have become part of the machine. Often the normal tax income is not sufficient to pay the salaries of the municipal employees, and the town halls have become dependent on the extraordinary income of the urbanistic process to finance their projects. Some municipal leaders have also personally benefited from the approval of urbanistic plans.
The Juggernaut of hard methods, short term investments and extraordinary profits is today changing the Spanish coasts, eating up the few virgin areas and coastal villages remaining, leaving in its wake a sea of concrete, a wall of high rises along the coasts, an enormous amount of row houses and an avalanche of cars.
Example Costa del Sol
The urbanistic Juggernaut has gone wild on Costa del Sol over the last 20 years. The result is that 57% of the coast in the province of Malaga is occupied by urbanizations and buildings, and in two municipalities (Marbella and Fuengirola) the percentage has surpassed 80%. No other province beats Malaga in consume of cement. On 161 kilometers of coastline there are 11 yacht harbors. The number of private vehicles doubled from 1988 to 2001. Avenida Andalucia in Malaga registers more than 95.000 vehicles per day (compared with 84.000 vehicles on Gran Via in Barcelona. The population has increased 50% since 1973, with up to 1000 inhabitants per square kilometer in the coastal municipalities (Belgium 311 inhabitants/km2, Holland 463).
The natural process of the building up of beaches is reduced 75% over the last 30 years, due to the construction of piers, yacht harbors and beach promenades. The sewage plants do not cope with the great amount of human and industrial waste.
The Junta de Andalucia has admitted that the town council of Benalmadena has modified its General Plan on 45 occasions over 4 years. The socialist group in the town hall maintain that the number of modifications actually amounted to 200. The Foro de Benalmadena, an association consisting of 13 urbanisations with approximately 2000 dwellings summed up the situation in an extensive report last year by saying: “Due to the fact that the Junta de Andalucia does not insist on compliance with the law, building activities are out of control, causing massification….The systematic breach of promises and intentions and the continuous changes made in the urbanistic plans, have resulted in absurd planning and unlawful and fraudulent situations, thus leaving the citizens without any protection of their rights.”
Marbella is a special case, where over several years many building projects have been executed on land not foreseen for construction in any legal general plan, and against the protests of the regional government in Sevilla. The only ”town planning” made was by mayor Jesus Gil y Gil, and his closest collaborators.
And example Costa Blanca
80% of the coast of Alicante province is filled with urbanisations and construction. In 60 municipalities is concentrated 46% of all building land (urbana and urbanizable) in the region Valencia. In Alicante province 9,9% of all land has been classified as urbano (building land) or urbanizable (land that may become building land). The corresponding figure for the province of Valencia is 5 and for the province of Castellon 3,9. In the first 500 meters from the coast inland is concentrated 15% of gross interior product of the region.
From 1998 to 2003 Torrevieja had an increase in its registered population of 103,3%, San Fulgencio an increase of 81%, Benijofar 74,6%, Els Poblet 66,2, Benitachell 65,6, Finestrat 65,6, Algorfa 52,6, Calpe 51,5, Rojales 51,5, San Miguel de Salinas 48,4, Altea 35,8, Orihuela 33,9, Denia 31,9, Benidorm 26,1 and the city of Alicante only 12,3% increase. From these figures can be seen that the demographical pressure is now building up also in the municipalities in the second coast line, while the areas of the interior are still losing population.
The ecologist organization “Greenpeace” has denounced that 76% of the coastline of the Valencia region is urbanized. They claim that 90% of the coasts of Spain is deteriorated, but find the case of Valencia especially alarming, and warn against the modifications in the general planning in such municipalities as Almassora, Benissa, Calpe, El Puig, and Castellon, “where one pretends to construct 200.000 dwellings and 100.000 hotelbeds in the next 10 years.”
The authorities warn that 200 of the municipalities in the Valencia region, most of them along the coast are affected by nitrates in the water, caused by the agriculture. The government of the region has also calculated that the construction industry only in the southern part of Costa Blanca is producing 332.800 ton debris per year, without plans for its disposal. In many areas the main sewage pipes still do not reach the urbanizations and settlements, and much raw waste are still going into the earth of out in the Mediterranean. Ecologists have calculated that 21.000 dwellings have been constructed in areas with danger of flooding, and that construction in such areas still continues.
Urbanistic fever
Due to the great demand for dwellings on the Costa Blanca over the last year, both private promoters and local town halls are projecting a continuation of the boom. There are 20 projects for new golf courses in the Valencia region (with urbanizations around). Here are some of the plans proposed or approved:
- The municipality of Daya Nueva (1.300 inhabitants at the moment) has developed a new general plan, with 7.600 new dwellings and a total of 26.000 inhabitants, 20 times the present number.
- The new general plan of Benimantell increases the population 3 times, from 460 to 1.550 inhabitants, in addition to new hotels.
- In Castalla a promotor has proposed a golf course with 36 holes, 12.500 new houses and two luxury hotels.
- A project for a golf course and 3.000 new dwellings in Orcheta would destroy the fruit plantations next to the town center.
- A golf course and 1.500 new dwellings are proposed by the town council in Albatera.
- San Miguel de las Salinas, with 5.800 inhabitants, is proposing to construct 3 golf courses and 40.000 new dwellings.
- Polop is planning the building of 10.000 new dwellings in the area of Ponoch.
- A new general plan for Guadalest, at present with 192 registered inhabitants, foresees construction to house a totality of 2.100.
- Calpe has decided to lift all limitation of height for construction in the areas of Morello and la Fossa.
- Denia has constructed 14.000 new dwellings over the last 4 years, and plans have been presented to permit the construction of 18.000 dwellings more.
- In La Romana promoters have plans to build 1.100 new dwellings.
- Ondarra have plans for a golf course and 1.954 new houses.
- Santa Pola has made a change in the general plan permitting an increase from 950 to 2.200 new dwellings next to the nature area of Clot de Galvany.
- In La Nucia is foreseen a new urbanization in La Serreta, with golf course, luxury hotel with 90 rooms and the construction of 2.000 new houses.
- In Guardamar the town hall has approved the construction of thousands of new dwellings near the lagoon La Mala.
- In Sierra Escalona of Orihuela os projected 2 golf courses and 2.100 new dwellings.
- Pilar de Horadada has also a project for a golf course with thousands of dwellings.
- In Sanet y Negrals (600 inhabitants) has been proposed a golf course, luxury hotel and hundred of new dwellings.
Water, traffic, noise…
With all the new dwellings at present under construction, and the many new developments proposed or under planning, the tourist areas on Costa Blanca (including the municipalities in second line), as well as the other tourist zones along the coasts and on the islands, will face severe problems of infrastructure and contamination. With the cancellation of the national water plan by the government, and no realistic alternative offered, at a time with less rainfall, it is difficult to see how the need for water can be covered. However, we stress that tourism and new settlements are not the main reason for the water problem, neither on Costa Blanca nor in the other tourist areas.
Already the roads in the coastal areas are at their limits, especially during the tourist seasons. The towns and villages are jammed with cars. For instance in the city of Alicante the number of vehicles increased from 134.000 in 1995 to 186.000 in 2002. Funds from the EU have financed 40% of the roads built in Spain over the last………………..years. With Spain soon becoming a contributor instead of a receiver of EU-funds, will there be sufficient financing for the new roads needed? And where shall we find parking in the city-centers in 5 to 10 years time?
The Ombudsmann of the Valencia region pointed in his report to the regional parliament in 2003 to the increasingly high level of acoustic contamination, proposed a plan against excessive noise and that the local administration should ask the opinion of the neighbors before giving licenses for bars and restaurants on open terraces. The Ombudsman questioned the towen planning policy of the region and asked that it be based on environmental sustainability.
The government has recognized that the property business, due to its high volume, great benefits and possibilities of whitewashing black money coming from criminal activities. This has led to an important increase in criminality in the tourist areas. The province of Alicante had an increase in criminality of 32% from 2001 to 2002. Some of the municipalities on the coasts have become “leaders” in crime. The president of the constructors in Alicante has warned that if the criminality is not stopped, the buyers of dwellings will find other destinations. In some municipalities citizens have formed “Neighborhood Watches” to assist the authorities to combat crime.
Warnings and resistance
The warnings against the negative effect of the unfettered construction industry are coming from many directions. The main lobby for the hotel tourism, Exceltur, has placed the blame for the empty beds in the tourist hotels on the excessive construction activity and the saturation of the coast. This warning has been echoed by importing tour-operators abroad, registering a diminishing interest for Costa Blanca. In a study by the Institute for Economical Studies, presented by the main employers organization in the Valencia region, Cierval, laments that the coastal areas of the region are “saturated and over-exploited”. The minister of the environment in the national government has said the same on several occasions.
In several places have been formed local citizens groups, to combat proposed gigantic urbanization plans, the lenient attitude of the administration toward or against the various effects of the saturation and the aggressive methods of the urbanistic Juggernaut. The association “Abusos Urbanisticos NO” has gathered …………signatures on a complaint to the European Parliament.
It is democratically very sound and necessary that the citizens, both Spanish and foreigners living in the tourist areas, take part in the resistance against the overexploitation and saturation of the coasts. For the Spanish, it is their native country. For the Europeans and other foreigners it is their selected country, that they do not want to leave, but to assist. For that reason, we do not shy from taking responsibility and speaking out clearly.
We want to register the excesses and abuses,
present proposal for improvement,
take part in the discussions,
organize ourselves to better be able to work for solutions .
.
The foreigners in Spain-
Notes for a discussion
A) The numbers
We are dealing with two groups:
The mostly Europeans coming to buy or having bought a property
The immigrants from the third world.
The tourists do not enter our study.
Group 1: Fipe estimates that there are now 1,5 million properties owned by foreigners in Spain (more than 90% Europeans), with an average of 2 persons per property, or 3 million people with specific situation, problems and interests. Only 80% of the foreign owners are residents. But the non-resident owners have the same problems and interests.
Group 2: The National Office of Statistics reports that there are a total of 2.664.168 people empadronados per 1st of January 2003, or 6,2% of the total population in Spain (up from 1,6% in 1998. 1.032.129 of them comes from Latin America, 587.686 from the European Union, 522.682 from Africa and 348.585 from the rest of Europe.
Summing up: The foreigners in Spain is already an important social group in Spain, rapidly increasing. The foreigners from the third world increasing faster than the Europeans.
B) The situations
The situations of the two groups are very different:
Group 1 is sometimes affected by fraud and lack of information in the purchase and ownership; by a lack of interest and attention from the administration; by abuses under urbanistic laws threatening their properties and economy; the insecurity of the system of notifications, and by being considered a “milking cow” by taxes and charges.
Group 2 is mainly striving to obtain a residence and work permit; find a dwelling and proper work; avoid bureaucratically hassle and mistreatment, and secure the same payment for the same work as the Spanish. As property buyers and owners they have the same problems as the first group.
Summing up: The differences are greater than the joint interest. But since there are no conflicts between the two groups, the possibility of a limited collaboration should be studied.
C) The issues
The main issues where the foreigners in group 1 have joined forces and fought for their interests, are the following:
I. The work against the fraud in the property sale and lack of protection for the foreign buyers in the years from 1982 to 1989, led by the Institute of Foreign Property Owners, first denouncing the situation in the town halls and to the national government, and since no results satisfaction was given, the issue was presented in the European Parliament that appointed MEP Edward MacMillan-Scott as “rapporteur”. As a result of the report came “hearings” in the national parliament and in 1989 Law Decree 515, giving more security for the buyers.
II. The work to get the vote for the Europeans in local elections, a campaign started already in 1983 by the Institute, and continued by the organisation Ciudadanos Europeos, leading to the granting of the vote in local and European elections.
III. The campaign led by Ciudadanos Europeos from 1995 to establish a permanent relation between the organisations of foreigners and the national administration (proposal for a national council for the European Citizenship) and improved information to foreign buyers and owners (resulting in the establishment of the Fundacion Instituto de Propietarios Extranjeros in 1998, to be funded by the Generalitat Valenciana, that partly forgot their promise and placed FIPE and also Ciudadanos Europeos in a difficult position).
IV. The fight against the urbanistic abuses under the Valencian law LRAU, led by the association Abusos Urbanisticos NO, with a strong participation also of Spanish citizens, again leading to the European Parliament, resulting in a report denouncing the law and the practises. This work continues and has attracted a great interest in medias all over the world.
There have also been many local issues taken up by groups and associations of foreigners, like denunciation of the urbanistic policy on Costa del Sol by Foro de Benalmadena, a federation of owners on 14 urbanisations, and the organisation of Neighbourhood Watches, mostly consentrated in the Torrevieja area.
Summing up: It has been proved that it is possible to mobilise the foreigners to work against abuses and for their interests. Some important issues have been resolved, while others are still pending.
D) The organisations
There are hundreds of associations, clubs and groups for the foreigners or where the foreigners take an active or leading part, both for the people in group 1 as in group 2.
The great majority of the associations and clubs for the foreigners in group 1 are local, based on one nationality or one foreign language, and mostly concentrating on leisure, entertainment and “information light”. Many of them are not very stable, relying on one person or a small group of volunteers and contributors. However, some of them have supported the work on some of the main issues mentioned under C). There exist also some federations of local associations of the same type, often linked to one nationality or language.
The only national association for the foreigners, discussing and taking up general, national issues, has so far been Ciudadanos Europeos. The association Abusos Urbanisticos NO has grown into a strong regional organisation in the Valencia region, and starts to spread out to other regions.
There are also a great number of foreigners publications and radio station, catering to a specific language group in one area. They play an important role in informing the foreigners on local issues and events.
Summing up: Many foreigners are taking part in associations of different kind. But it has been difficult to find forms of joining the foreigners in a national organisation, due to the language differences, the great spread of the foreigners settlement and the problem that 80% of them are non-residents.
E) A program
If one should draw up a program for the foreigners in group 1, it would probably have the following main content:
A system for collecting and spreading vital information in the various languages English, German, Scandinavian, Dutch and French, aiming at the foreign buyers, owners and taxpayers. It must be run by the foreigners themselves, knowing the situation and the problems, but financed by the administration in an irrevocable and secured manner. A central web-page is an essential part of this system, but also local information offices.
The establishment of a National Council for the European Citizenship, where the foreigners organisations can discuss with the national and regional administration the problems, issues and proposal in a continuous manner.
No more urbanistic abuses, and restrictions to the extensive and frenetic construction,
A system of notifications to the foreign property owners taking their special situation into account.
Summing up: Such a program should be acceptable to all foreigners in Spain, and supported by all foreigners associations, even if we may expect some of them not to want to act outside their limited aims and charter.
F) An action plan
The foreigners in Spain need a permanent national organisation, able to speak in their names on general issues contained in an approved program and represent them in relation to the administration. Such a federation of association, or a standing conference of foreigners organisation, would not in any way intervene in the work of the associations, it would not preclude the setting up of combative organisations in special issues and it would be neutral in relation to the different political parties and governments.
The organisations with only one issue, like Abusos Urbanisticos NO, tend to disintegrate once the issue has been resolved, or if it seems that the issue may not be resolved in this form or time. The great energy and force generated in AUN must not be lost, and even if the fight against the abuses be won at this moment, one must have a permanent “firebrigade” to prevent them coming back in another form. Due to its strength and activity, AUN could take the initiative to establish a permanent organisation for the foreigners in Spain.
Summing up: The way to go, could be to draw up a program and invite all foreigners associations, clubs and groups to come to a first national conference of the European citizens in Spain, with the aim to form a federation or a standing conference. We could get the support (also economical) from the administration to arrange the conference.
Notes for a discussion
A) The numbers
We are dealing with two groups:
The mostly Europeans coming to buy or having bought a property
The immigrants from the third world.
The tourists do not enter our study.
Group 1: Fipe estimates that there are now 1,5 million properties owned by foreigners in Spain (more than 90% Europeans), with an average of 2 persons per property, or 3 million people with specific situation, problems and interests. Only 80% of the foreign owners are residents. But the non-resident owners have the same problems and interests.
Group 2: The National Office of Statistics reports that there are a total of 2.664.168 people empadronados per 1st of January 2003, or 6,2% of the total population in Spain (up from 1,6% in 1998. 1.032.129 of them comes from Latin America, 587.686 from the European Union, 522.682 from Africa and 348.585 from the rest of Europe.
Summing up: The foreigners in Spain is already an important social group in Spain, rapidly increasing. The foreigners from the third world increasing faster than the Europeans.
B) The situations
The situations of the two groups are very different:
Group 1 is sometimes affected by fraud and lack of information in the purchase and ownership; by a lack of interest and attention from the administration; by abuses under urbanistic laws threatening their properties and economy; the insecurity of the system of notifications, and by being considered a “milking cow” by taxes and charges.
Group 2 is mainly striving to obtain a residence and work permit; find a dwelling and proper work; avoid bureaucratically hassle and mistreatment, and secure the same payment for the same work as the Spanish. As property buyers and owners they have the same problems as the first group.
Summing up: The differences are greater than the joint interest. But since there are no conflicts between the two groups, the possibility of a limited collaboration should be studied.
C) The issues
The main issues where the foreigners in group 1 have joined forces and fought for their interests, are the following:
I. The work against the fraud in the property sale and lack of protection for the foreign buyers in the years from 1982 to 1989, led by the Institute of Foreign Property Owners, first denouncing the situation in the town halls and to the national government, and since no results satisfaction was given, the issue was presented in the European Parliament that appointed MEP Edward MacMillan-Scott as “rapporteur”. As a result of the report came “hearings” in the national parliament and in 1989 Law Decree 515, giving more security for the buyers.
II. The work to get the vote for the Europeans in local elections, a campaign started already in 1983 by the Institute, and continued by the organisation Ciudadanos Europeos, leading to the granting of the vote in local and European elections.
III. The campaign led by Ciudadanos Europeos from 1995 to establish a permanent relation between the organisations of foreigners and the national administration (proposal for a national council for the European Citizenship) and improved information to foreign buyers and owners (resulting in the establishment of the Fundacion Instituto de Propietarios Extranjeros in 1998, to be funded by the Generalitat Valenciana, that partly forgot their promise and placed FIPE and also Ciudadanos Europeos in a difficult position).
IV. The fight against the urbanistic abuses under the Valencian law LRAU, led by the association Abusos Urbanisticos NO, with a strong participation also of Spanish citizens, again leading to the European Parliament, resulting in a report denouncing the law and the practises. This work continues and has attracted a great interest in medias all over the world.
There have also been many local issues taken up by groups and associations of foreigners, like denunciation of the urbanistic policy on Costa del Sol by Foro de Benalmadena, a federation of owners on 14 urbanisations, and the organisation of Neighbourhood Watches, mostly consentrated in the Torrevieja area.
Summing up: It has been proved that it is possible to mobilise the foreigners to work against abuses and for their interests. Some important issues have been resolved, while others are still pending.
D) The organisations
There are hundreds of associations, clubs and groups for the foreigners or where the foreigners take an active or leading part, both for the people in group 1 as in group 2.
The great majority of the associations and clubs for the foreigners in group 1 are local, based on one nationality or one foreign language, and mostly concentrating on leisure, entertainment and “information light”. Many of them are not very stable, relying on one person or a small group of volunteers and contributors. However, some of them have supported the work on some of the main issues mentioned under C). There exist also some federations of local associations of the same type, often linked to one nationality or language.
The only national association for the foreigners, discussing and taking up general, national issues, has so far been Ciudadanos Europeos. The association Abusos Urbanisticos NO has grown into a strong regional organisation in the Valencia region, and starts to spread out to other regions.
There are also a great number of foreigners publications and radio station, catering to a specific language group in one area. They play an important role in informing the foreigners on local issues and events.
Summing up: Many foreigners are taking part in associations of different kind. But it has been difficult to find forms of joining the foreigners in a national organisation, due to the language differences, the great spread of the foreigners settlement and the problem that 80% of them are non-residents.
E) A program
If one should draw up a program for the foreigners in group 1, it would probably have the following main content:
A system for collecting and spreading vital information in the various languages English, German, Scandinavian, Dutch and French, aiming at the foreign buyers, owners and taxpayers. It must be run by the foreigners themselves, knowing the situation and the problems, but financed by the administration in an irrevocable and secured manner. A central web-page is an essential part of this system, but also local information offices.
The establishment of a National Council for the European Citizenship, where the foreigners organisations can discuss with the national and regional administration the problems, issues and proposal in a continuous manner.
No more urbanistic abuses, and restrictions to the extensive and frenetic construction,
A system of notifications to the foreign property owners taking their special situation into account.
Summing up: Such a program should be acceptable to all foreigners in Spain, and supported by all foreigners associations, even if we may expect some of them not to want to act outside their limited aims and charter.
F) An action plan
The foreigners in Spain need a permanent national organisation, able to speak in their names on general issues contained in an approved program and represent them in relation to the administration. Such a federation of association, or a standing conference of foreigners organisation, would not in any way intervene in the work of the associations, it would not preclude the setting up of combative organisations in special issues and it would be neutral in relation to the different political parties and governments.
The organisations with only one issue, like Abusos Urbanisticos NO, tend to disintegrate once the issue has been resolved, or if it seems that the issue may not be resolved in this form or time. The great energy and force generated in AUN must not be lost, and even if the fight against the abuses be won at this moment, one must have a permanent “firebrigade” to prevent them coming back in another form. Due to its strength and activity, AUN could take the initiative to establish a permanent organisation for the foreigners in Spain.
Summing up: The way to go, could be to draw up a program and invite all foreigners associations, clubs and groups to come to a first national conference of the European citizens in Spain, with the aim to form a federation or a standing conference. We could get the support (also economical) from the administration to arrange the conference.
