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In a decision with far-reaching implications for Spain’s property business, Marbella’s plan to legalize more than 17,000 illegal homes along the Costa del Sol was approved by a regional commission last week.
Marbella, which bills itself as Spain’s version of Monte Carlo, was the poster child for corruption and backroom deals in the go-go days. In the wake of the scandals, tens of thousands of homes were found to have been built illegally, including an estate owned by homegrown hunk Antonio Banderas.
Years in the making, the Marbella town plan is something of a bellwether for the country. If implemented, it could provide a framework for other regions to move forward, without destroying people’s homes.
Of course, Marbella, to say the least, is a unique market, even for Spain. The clientele is a swirl of Middle Eastern royalty, Russian oligarch-wannabes and good ol- fashioned Brit nouveau riche.
Here’s how British professional celebrity Piers Morgan recently described Marbella for the Daily Mail:
“Before going there to film an ITV1 documentary, I assumed it was a rough, tough Costa del Crime kind of town where villains hung out with boozed-up glamour models, hookers and footballers, snorting cocaine and avoiding the police,” he wrote. “And to a certain extent it is. But there's another, quite extraordinary side to Marbella--one of staggering wealth and discretion that acts as a fabulously opulent secret haven for super-rich Saudi princes, Hollywood stars, European royalty and billionaire tycoons.”
The huge number of illegal homes found in the area provides stark testimony to the level of corruption that flowed through Marbella and the region. Mid-level bureaucrats were living like sultans. Outrageous proposals for oceanfront condo towers sailed through the system.
The town’s plan, known as the PGOU, is considered a key step for Marbella’s return to the land of the respectable. Not only does it specifically address the illegal homes, it creates a specific guideline for project development--a rarity in many regions.
But the plan has been controversial. Many local critics believe the amnesty program gives developers a free pass for building blatantly illegal projects. Environmentalists charge that the projects have consumed acres of protected public land, especially on the waterfront.
The beachfront condo projects left out of the plan should be demolished, the regional government argues. But Marbella has fought for the legalization of the remaining projects, a battle that includes legal actions by the owners of the condos, including the 297-unit project known as Banana Beach. Typically, the owners had no clue the fully-permitted development was illegal when they bought their units.
“This could drag on for years, maybe even decades,” writes Mark Stucklin of Spanish Property Insight. “That will be little consolation to elderly owners at developments like Banana Beach.”
Comments
There is the very small brash side that makes the headlines and a very large population of affluent Europeans enjoying an unrivalled quality of life.
Perhaps now Spain has joined the first world in terms of town planning.
(Marbella resident)
The vast majority of the so-called illegal dwellings were built on already zoned urban land, not public green zones, not protected areas. Agreements were reached with the Town Hall at the time of building by property developers, to change the type of unit to be built, or to increase building volume and number of units built, in anticipation of this being reflected in a new general plan. The regional government had knowledge of this but for a long time, looked the other way.
This practice was rampant not only in Marbella but throughout the country, as we are seeing now. The problem was that for mostly political reasons, and since 1997, the regional government placed obstacles against approval of prior General Plans that the Marbella Town Hall wanted to approve, . The "illegal" units were given building licenses by the highest authority qualified to do so, the Town Hall. People bought townhouses and apartments, the government is collecting taxes, many already have their first occupation certificates, they have water and electricity and sewage connections.
So what Mr. Alias would apparently like to do is to tear them down and have the purchasers lose their investment, rather than normalize their situation through a legally acceptable procedure where, in many cases, compensation still has to be paid by the developer to the Town Hall for overbuilding.
This planning procedure is now accomplished, and the public interest is served by it. The new General Plan was approved last week by the Socialist Regional Government, Mr. Alias, not the P.P. (Partido Popular), and a dark chapter in Marbella's history is closed, with all but a few hundred units being now fully legal dwellings with the newly approved plan.
Easily 90% of the foreigners living here are ignored, the people in between, people of mostly of means, and a few of lesser means, quietly engoying the best quality life style in Europe.
And compare Marbella with any other Spanish coastal area, including the Costa del Sol, we are an oasis of green areas and low rise building.
As a resident of Marbella since 1973, I have seen the ups and downs of this great resort town, now a city. Since the mid-90's, we have had a hard core nucleous of then 150,000 residents off season, now around 250,000 off season which allows services and facilities to remain open year 'round, unlike any other resort city on the Mediterranean.
The corruption that we suffered, and which put Gil and his team in disgrace, does not erase a lot of great work that he accomplished in the first half of the '90's with infrastructure, parks, public art, planting, increased police force, and additional much needed services and improvements.
And, while we are on corruption, although Marbella had the biggest case known in Spain and perhaps all of Europe, it has now become clear that corruption is and has been rampant in Town Halls throughout the country, irrespective of political colors. One of the basic reasons for this is that when the political parties devised the system for financing Town Halls in the early '80's, they came up with a system which made the financing of the Town Halls between 40% and 60% dependant on the urbanization processes.... new building, and all the taxes that come on all levels, starting with the permits for urbanization of land, obligatory cessions of new urban areas to the Town Hall, building permits, first occupation certificates, annual taxes, etc. Easy to see, with a financing system like this, how easy it is for corruption to evolve, and until the system for financing the Town Halls is revised, this problem will not be fully resolved.
At any rate with the corruption issues and the issues of the so-called illegal units now behind us, Marbella can shine again and maybe some of the press will begin to again give Marbella the positive press it merits.
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