Demolished dreams

Picture this: you spend your life savings on a dream home in Spain, possibly moving to the country permanently for a better lifestyle or retirement and then you receive the news that your property is to be demolished, leaving you with no home and possibly no compensation either - this is what has happened to thousands of homeowners along Spain's coastline thanks to a highly controversial ‘Coast Law,' and it is set to continue...

The Ley de Costas' or ‘Coast Law' is to be enforced nationwide and could mean that thousands of properties could be confiscated or even demolished by the state as they are ‘rezoned.'

The law, which was introduced eleven years ago, forbids anyone to build privately owned property within 100 metres of the sea, as beaches are now considered to be nationalised public property.

Britons with homes on the Costas are among those most at risk from the £3.5 billion campaign by the environment ministry to restore and protect coastal areas from over-development.

There are scores of these beach properties all along the coastline with an estimated 20,000 such homes in Marbella alone.

What is most shocking is that even homes constructed entirely legally decades ago are being targeted for confiscation and possibly demolition.

Angry protesters say the Environment Ministry is acting illegally by retroactively applying the Coastal Law of 1988 to properties built perfectly legally in the 1970's.

Many of the people who own homes along the coastline are foreigners using the property as a holiday home. It is estimated that these new ‘rezonings' could affect as many as 500,000 people, of whom around 100,000 are foreigners.

The British couple who became the first expats to have their villa destroyed, are yet to receive any compensation for the £570,000 property.

Len and Helen Prior have been living in their garage since January last year when their luxury villa was bulldozed.

Hardly the golden retirement they had in mind.

Picture by Si_B