SPANISH PROPERTY CLASSIFICATION - RURAL - A TERM OF VITAL IMPORTANCE

Rural land (also known as rústico or no urbanizable) encompasses most of the land in Spain and is essentially agricultural land. However, in property terms, it means that it is land in Spain that is severely restricted for building puposes. Unfortunately, this has been abused by the Spanish who have built many properties illegally on land classified as rural.

Existing Spanish properties located on rural land need to be treated with exceptional care. They may be legal, partly legal or completely illegal. Equally, at any time, they may be subject to a change of designation from rural to urbanizado.

Even if a Spanish property is legal and on rural land it can, by definition, potentially have serious future liabilities should the land be reclassified. This can happen anywhere but is most likely to occur in areas of high development potential such as those close to the coast or, perhaps, near to a booming town or village.

If an area of land in Spain is redesignated from rural to urbanizado then all the liabilities and benefits inherent in the redesignation of the land occur. This redesignation of land in Spain can be fantastically advantageous, make little real difference or be disastrous – depending upon the extent of your land, your finances, the cost and extent of the work and the actual execution of the infrastructure project.

Subject to obtaining the correct planning permission and abiding by strict regulations (such as the size of the property allowed) you can build a new property in Spain on rural land. However, this normally requires you to have a significant plot of agricultural land - although the regulations on this depend very greatly upon the given Spanish region (Comunidad). Equally, the law changes frequently which means that you must always check extremely carefully with a Spanish lawyer the precise regulations in force (in your particular region) before buying anything.

Currently, as an example (with various exceptions), you would need some 10,000 m2 of rural land in the Comunidad de Valencian before you could build a new property legally.1

SPANISH PROPERTY CLASSIFICATION - URBANIZADO - A VITAL TERM TO UNDERSTAND

To know what the term ‘urbanizado’ means is of vital importance to anyone thinking of buying land or property in Spain. Indeed, it is so fundamental - that you would be literally crazy to buy a Spanish property without fully understanding its significance...

‘Urbanizado’ is the term that describes land in Spain upon which it is legal to build - subject to obtaining planning permission and abiding by the relevant regulations. This land will normally (but not always) have a complete infrastructure of made up roads with pavements and street lighting, mains water supply, mains drainage, mains electricity and land line telephones (generally with an ADSL facility). Urbanizado areas are clearly designated on the plans held by town halls and their designation is ‘black or white’ – either an area of land in Spain is classified as urbanizado or not.

However, it is critically important to know that urbanizado areas are not always fully urbanizado (fully urbanised). This means that an urbanizado area may not have all of its proper infrastructure in place.

So, for example, an urbanizado area (particularly on some estates) may have electricity, mains water and some of the roads properly made up with street lighting and pavements. Any deficient elements of the infrastructure (such as, for example, where there are no pavements and street lighting) may at some stage be compulsorily rectified by the local authority. If this occurs then the owners of the Spanish property on the relevant part of the urbanizado estate (urbanización) will have to pay for completion of the remaining works i.e. the installation of mains drainage or the surfacing of the roads or the installation of proper pavements and street lighting.

Vitally, the safest property in Spain that you can buy is a Spanish property situated on land that is urbanizado and that is fully urbanised (urbanizado). If this is the case then you should face no further liabilities for infrastructure costs nor have any possibility of ‘land grab’. The signs that a property in Spain is urbanizado and also fully urbanizado (subject always to confirmation from your lawyer) are when the property has:
· Mains water.
· Mains electricity.
· Telephone land line.
· Mains drainage.
· A properly laid road.
· Pavements.
· Street lighting.

If your intended property in Spain lacks any of the above then it is highly unlikely that it is both urbanizado and fully urbanizado (with all the infrastructure works completed) – so be extremely wary of being assured otherwise!

Normally all cities, towns and villages are urbanizado as are some, but by no means all, housing estates (urbanizaciónes).1