lgib.gov.uk

Owners of holiday homes in Spain face a summer of discontent after local authorities on the Costa del Sol launched an inquiry into demolishing illegally constructed buildings. The councils on the popular coastline plan to control and organise building in the area, more than 20 years after the idea was first mooted.

Greenpeace estimates that nearly 45,000 flats and houses have been built illegally on Spain’s southern coast. Nearly half have been built in just town alone: Marbella.

Many of the holiday homes were built by developers without proper planning permission. Some councils are said to have flouted their planning regulations in order to boost the local economies.

Holiday home owners say they will not stand by and watch their investments torn down. “Those who have bought apartments in good faith should not be punished,” Juan Sánchez, President of the Association of Western Costa del sol Towns, told the ‘Guardian’. “The costs of compensation should be assumed by developers or town halls.”

Marbella Town Council is understood to be lobbying its neighbours to allow a blanket amnesty on all existing illegally built homes.