Spain’s ‘assault’ on private property

People with coastal properties in Spain are feeling very nervous at the moment…

The Spanish Government is getting tough about what constitutes coastal public domain — the strip of land stretching back from the water's edge — and telling thousands of house and apartment owners their properties do not really belong to them.

The fears of losing coastal villas come as Spain's real estate market is turning sour, a situation tied by some to the international banking crisis and its parent, the U.S. subprime mortgage scandal. While the troubles of Spain's overgrown Coast are not directly tied to the banking crisis, both have involved shady business practices that often wind up in the lap of individual homeowners.

Along the Spanish Coast, a protest group formed in January says it already represents 20,000 people. It notes that up to half a million others — apartment and villa owners and restaurant and hotel proprietors — could be affected. Most are Spaniards, but many are foreigners.

Threatened with demolition

Jose Ortega, a spokesman for the group and lawyer for many of those affected, commented: "This is the single biggest assault on private property we have seen in the recent history of Spain. At best, owners are being given 60-year concessions to live on the property or operate their businesses. Others are threatened with demolition.

"Today, anybody who owns or wants to own a home or property on the Coast can't be sure because at any moment the government can take it away from you without compensation,"

Jose Fernandez of the Environment Ministry said: The claims are exaggerated but the fact remains the Coast has to be saved. We're taking the law seriously. Previous governments didn't think it was important, while we have made it a priority."

The government is finishing the process of drawing the line that designates what is state-owned and cannot contain private property along Spain's 4,900 miles of Coast — which includes the Canary and Balearic Islands and North African territories in addition the mainland.

It plans to spend some $8 billion to fix up the Coast. Some of the money will go to homeowners who, under the 1988 law, cannot sell to another private party but can sell to the state.