Tuesday, October 04, 2005
World News The Times June 08, 2005
Costa Britons face million new homes on their doorstep By David Sharrock
ONE million new homes and 90 golf courses are expected to be built on the Costa Blanca, Britain's favourite Spanish region for holidaymakers and second home-buyers, under massive expansion plans over the next decade. The developments are likely to affect even more British homeowners, thousands of whom have already fallen victim to a controversial "land-grab"law that property developers are using to buy up land for building. The environment and water resources of the western Mediterranean coast will also come under unprecedented pressure. Government bodies in Valencia have just released figures that reveal the extent of construction being planned over the next ten years. The plans reflect the demand for accommodation by Northern Europeans wanting a holiday home. However, an estimated half a million homes in the region already lie vacant for the majority of the year. The supply of prime coastal real estate has almost been exhausted, so developers are turning their attention inland. One of the developments is slated for Sanet I Els Negrals, north of Alicante, where Francisco Roig, a Valencian entrepreneur, plans to build a golf course with 1,500 houses on five million square metres of land. But whether non- Spaniards will continue to buy homes on the Costa Blanca is in doubt because of the Urban Development Activity Act (LRAU). More than 15,000 home- owners - the majority of whom are British - have been affected by the law, introduced by the Valencian regional government in1994. It allows land and property to be seized for development, its owners paid only derisory compensation and then charged for "infrastructure improvements". The LRAU has been criticised by the European Commission for breaching European property laws and human rights. The commission has threatened sanctions and the suspension of subsidies. A second mission in 12 months to Valencia to study the problem has just been completed by the Petitions Commission of the European Parliament. Charles Svoboda is president of a group of mainly expatriate Valencian homeowners that has become a thorn in the side of the Valencian government. The retired Canadian diplomat's rural home in Benissa is under threat from plans to build a housing complex. The law was allegedly introduced to prevent speculators from sitting on plots of land waiting for its value to rise and preventing the construction of low-cost housing. However, developers only need to buy more than 50 per cent of an area zoned for development and present their plans to the local town hall. In many cases the town halls retrospectively change the land's status without the knowledge of owners of rural homes, leaving them at the mercy of the developers. Stung by Mr Svoboda's success and the growing concerns of the EuropeanCommission, the Valencian government has proposed reforms to the LRAU. Yet none of the 15,000 people already affected would be given a reprieve, since development plans already approved will still go ahead.
FEELING THE HEAT
More than 600,000 Britons live in Spain
40 per cent of properties on Valencia's costas owned by Britons
15,000 owners have suffered from urban development "land grab"
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(note. It is not just British affected, all nationalities are caught in the land grab and the number of families suffering grows daily !!!)
Costa Britons face million new homes on their doorstep By David Sharrock
ONE million new homes and 90 golf courses are expected to be built on the Costa Blanca, Britain's favourite Spanish region for holidaymakers and second home-buyers, under massive expansion plans over the next decade. The developments are likely to affect even more British homeowners, thousands of whom have already fallen victim to a controversial "land-grab"law that property developers are using to buy up land for building. The environment and water resources of the western Mediterranean coast will also come under unprecedented pressure. Government bodies in Valencia have just released figures that reveal the extent of construction being planned over the next ten years. The plans reflect the demand for accommodation by Northern Europeans wanting a holiday home. However, an estimated half a million homes in the region already lie vacant for the majority of the year. The supply of prime coastal real estate has almost been exhausted, so developers are turning their attention inland. One of the developments is slated for Sanet I Els Negrals, north of Alicante, where Francisco Roig, a Valencian entrepreneur, plans to build a golf course with 1,500 houses on five million square metres of land. But whether non- Spaniards will continue to buy homes on the Costa Blanca is in doubt because of the Urban Development Activity Act (LRAU). More than 15,000 home- owners - the majority of whom are British - have been affected by the law, introduced by the Valencian regional government in1994. It allows land and property to be seized for development, its owners paid only derisory compensation and then charged for "infrastructure improvements". The LRAU has been criticised by the European Commission for breaching European property laws and human rights. The commission has threatened sanctions and the suspension of subsidies. A second mission in 12 months to Valencia to study the problem has just been completed by the Petitions Commission of the European Parliament. Charles Svoboda is president of a group of mainly expatriate Valencian homeowners that has become a thorn in the side of the Valencian government. The retired Canadian diplomat's rural home in Benissa is under threat from plans to build a housing complex. The law was allegedly introduced to prevent speculators from sitting on plots of land waiting for its value to rise and preventing the construction of low-cost housing. However, developers only need to buy more than 50 per cent of an area zoned for development and present their plans to the local town hall. In many cases the town halls retrospectively change the land's status without the knowledge of owners of rural homes, leaving them at the mercy of the developers. Stung by Mr Svoboda's success and the growing concerns of the EuropeanCommission, the Valencian government has proposed reforms to the LRAU. Yet none of the 15,000 people already affected would be given a reprieve, since development plans already approved will still go ahead.
FEELING THE HEAT
More than 600,000 Britons live in Spain
40 per cent of properties on Valencia's costas owned by Britons
15,000 owners have suffered from urban development "land grab"
---------------
(note. It is not just British affected, all nationalities are caught in the land grab and the number of families suffering grows daily !!!)
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