Homes Finally Legalised in Andalucía, Mostly

As the Junta de Andalucía has (more or less) legalised the majority of those ‘viviendas alegales’ (can they now be sold or inherited?), allowing them to receive services like water and electricity – and to be taxed – we look at the reactions.

From a lawyer writing at Spanish Property Insight here: ‘Planning amnesty in Andalucía, just don't call it an amnesty!’. He quotes the old saw ‘“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”’. From Sur in English here, ‘The Junta takes a big step towards in regularising many more of the 327,000 illegal homes in Andalucía. While the properties will still be illegal, they will be given the right to services and judicial security by extending the existing AFO designation’. From La Vanguadia here, ‘The owners see this regularization decree as the light at the end of the tunnel of urban folly’. El Mundo has an opinion piece attacking ‘the amnesty of the parcelistas’: ‘...We do not quite understand - and it is not a problem of ours - how the government of the Most Reverend Juanma Moreno congratulates itself - with metal trumpetry! - for his decision to legalize the 327,000 illegal homes that exist in the Republic of Noddy, built outside the law by owners who knew per-fec-tly well the house of snakes which they were constructing...’. The ecologists are similarly aghast at the ‘amnesty’, saying they plan to appeal the ruling.

Our own opinion is that, with enough regular urbanisations and homes built – legally – in flood plains (Orihuela or Puerto Rey anyone?), homes built safely in the middle of nowhere should hardly be an issue, since they bring a little wealth, life and employment to otherwise moribund villages in el quinto pino. 

Our support and thanks to both AUAN and SOHA.