Domino

such a foto does show part of the problem....
areas of Almeria such as the Almanzora Valley where Cantoria and Albox and Arboleas are surrounded by little hamlets that were perhaps 6-8 small houses but have now become a couple of hundred villas with swimming pools, where foreigners own a property for the summer 6months, coming over in their car loaded with the things they will need. I have heard stories of some people who live there not seeing anyone in the houses around them for months on end and go into the larger towns and villages just have a beer and see someone, hoping they will speak English.
Almanzora has over 12,000 IIRC Axarquia and area about 7,000.
Competa/Canales is also riddled with developments like the foto, access being on tracks a goat would have problems with.
There is no infrastructure, the only roads are appalling, there is no water, many have generators and PE cells.

But a number of people were "the promoter" and instructed the builder as to what and where, they surely knew the risk they were taking ??

Domino

if we are shocked by such sights then imagine how the Spanish Environmentalists, who are having a large say in all this, are feeling
Just the same way as we would feel about a gaggle of (so called) Travellers who drop anchor on a nice piece of historic or site of beauty.

jackytoo

We once went to look at a villa outside Nerja. We were in an Agents small car. On leaving Nerja we exited the A-7 on a track, crossed a dried up riverbed (it was August)! The unsurfaced track went right up to the top of a mountain. A times on the bends the Agent was in 1st gear The back garden was just steps and over looked by 2 phone masts. The sellers were old, don't know what they were thinking when they bought. Must have been illegal. There were lots more big villas up there, some with Brit plated cars.

However, they do bring money into the area. If living there year round they have to spend at least €10,000 in the shops surely, even if they never go in a bar!

jackytoo

Back on what about the UK then, about the third time you have tried it in this thread

Lenox

Here's my story on the demonstration today at Spanish Shilling.

jackytoo

Sad to see all those elderly people who have worked hard all their lives to have their dreams of a laid back lifestyle shattered

HBG

I agree, totally. What amazes me, and always has done, is that none of the negativity about buying in Spain, and there is tons of it, stops people from coming over and falling into all the traps they've been warned about for many years.

I see it daily, and it makes me very sad.

Lenox

Well, this lot (at today's demo) have been here for a while... and I think, in general, the type of illegal home built out of a shed in Ronda or Albox has probably passed. People buying today, I would think, are perhaps paying too much, or there's not many of them... but are probably not being ripped off in appreciable numbers on a house without an escritura in order.

HBG

I don't know the comparative numbers, but in the Alicante province where I live the basic problems are probably much the same as in Almeria as far as illegal houses are concerned.

The difference appears to be that our administration in Valencia has more sense than the one in Seville.

It could also be that we live here in far greater numbers, and have expat politicians at local level in most expat towns. We are in the majority in some and Valencia wouldn't dare start demolishing expat houses.

Lenox

Valencia is rather more modern than Andalucía (although the PP are in major caca with the corruption problems, over-spending, Canal 9 and sundry white elephants). There is much more foreign citizen participation there than in Andalucía, more foreign councillors and better informed voters. 'Illegal homes' was never a major problem on the Costa Blanca, perhaps because the local politicians have better control, However 'land grab' remains an issue there.

HBG

I don't know how relevant this is but when I moved to the Costa del Sol, and I have to add it was many years ago, I thought everything there was illegal, but nobody cared.

I hadn't been there that long when I was stopped driving the wrong way down a one-way street in Marbella. Ignorant and foolish as I was, I merely wound down the window of my English registered car and asked, 'How much?'

The police officer replied 'Four mil', and I handed it over and drove on.

That is one small, stupid example, but that's how it was at that time.

Domino

WTF are you bleating about, all of us have the majority of our life experience based on the UK, especially those who come on here relying on their time in Spain to do nothing but kick the country in the cojones

Domino

I think that based on my experiences earlier this year that although not built on a nave there are many properties on the market that potentially have good documentation - but are on agrario that cannot be urbanised, at least in the next 20-30 years.

local estate agents in the Albox area have nothing else to sell except illegal properties. They know it and rely on the buyer doing all the background and legal work. Properties are selling - one we seriously considered was taken by a Scandinavian - but we held back because of the Agrario on its Catastral reference and that although it had electricity still relied on a deposito for water. Water had been laid on adjacent to the property but that was over a year ago and still not connected - to be assumed it couldn't be connected. All we got was some waffle about it was there, and no reply about the cost of connection just mumbled something about €100 for a meter. If they had paid the connection charges they would have said so.

the agent we were using admitted to there being "serious discrepancies" on the catastral to the property she owned.

caveat emptor.

jackytoo

There's always one isn't there

Domino

presumably pesetas not euros