There are a staggering number of beach-front properties in Spain that are in fact built on illegal land. Here’s why.
According to a new study by fact-checking company Newtral there are a total of 86,426 coastal properties located within the public maritime-terrestrial domain which is protected by Spain’s coastal law.
This technically means that they’re not legal and are built on land which has certain restrictions.
Spanish coastal law establishes that the state can take the necessary measures if a house occupies the public maritime-terrestrial domain (DPMT), including demolition.
The Maritime-Terrestrial Public Domain is the part of the coast that includes the shoreline and beach itself and belongs to the public. Legally, it cannot be privately owned and therefore cannot have private homes built on it.
Slightly further back is the Deslinde or the Demarcation line. This separates the beach area that belongs to the state from the interior and the parts that can be owned privately.
The study lists several reasons as to why so many homes close to the coast are built on illegal land.
READ ALSO: Why you should think twice before buying a coastal property in Spain
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The first point is that these houses may have been built before the 1988 coastal law came into force. Properties that already existed in one of these areas before the law came into force can be lived in, but not legally owned.
In the majority of cases (76,709 properties, or 88.8 percent), concessions were granted because of this, but only for a period of 75 years. These concessions may have expired, or the owner may have never requested them in the first place.
This could in theory lead to homes being demolished, although given the sheer number of properties it is highly unlikely to happen to the majority.
Alternatively, homes could have been built after 1988, but the boundary line marking the The Public Maritime Terrestrial Domain (DPMT) has been changed. This could be due to rising sea levels or changes in the area or environment as new ones can be created and existing ones modified.
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This summer, in Guardamar del Segura in the Alicante province, two commercial buildings located near the beach were demolished due to the lack of a land concession, according to EFE news agency. In the same municipality, residents have come together to prevent the demolition of their coastal homes, which is scheduled for September 15th due to expired concessions.
Congress has submitted a bill from the PP party to reform Spain’s coastal law in a bid to prevent the demolition of homes, but whether this will pass or if it will save the majority of these homes remains to be seen.
To find out which zone your property is located in, you can visit the web page of the Ministry for Ecological Transition. Be aware though, if your property currently lies just outside one of these zones, you may find that it might not be within a few years’ time due to eroding beaches and rising sea levels.
READ ALSO: 3,600 residents of seafront properties in Spain’s Denia face eviction
