Marbella has bounced back but buyers need to be aware that the legality of thousands of homes is in doubt after court ruling and Marbella Unique Properties would like to inform clearly about that issue.
A winter weekend on Marbella’s beachfront and the holiday town on the Costa del Sol shows all the signs of business as usual. Some people are busy enjoying a drink in any “Chiringuito” of the boardwalk, while others are finding the temperature high enough to lounge in swimwear on the sand or on the decks of their superyachts at Puerto Banus. New boutiques and restaurants have opened in Marbella’s Old Town, high-end villas are taking shape near the beachfront, and San Pedro, a nearby village to the west of Marbella, is seeing a new lease of life. Property prices and demand are on the up, say local agents, now that the town’s notoriously clogged main artery has been re-landscaped — with parks and its traffic rerouted through a tunnel.
The issue stems from a shock announcement in November last year by Madrid’s Supreme Court. It ruled that Marbella’s existing 2010 PGOU — the urban plan that was drawn up six years ago to determine precisely what can be built in the municipality over the next decade — was illegal. The ruling determined that the 2010 plan — which was designed to patch up the major planning issues left after a decade of corruption from 1991 under the previous Marbella mayor, Jesus Gil — had been drawn up too hastily. The plan ignored environmental and economic issues, it said, and did not consider the provision of basic utilities for a rapidly growing Marbella. It was scrapped overnight and the town’s previous 30-year-old plan, the 1986 PGOU, was reinstated.
So what does that mean for buyers, owners or anyone else with an interest in Marbella property? Part of the problem with the 2010 PGOU is that it legalised 16,500 properties that had been built illicitly under Gil on the equivalent of greenbelt land. Now the legality of those 16,500 properties is under scrutiny again and their owners will be in limbo until a new plan is drawn up.
“One issue is whether banks will lend on those properties whose legal status is being questioned,” says Yolanda López. “Some bank manager told us that they will look at each on a ‘case by case’ basis, but some urbanizations getting mortgages directly”.
Lawyers Martínez Echeverria urges potential buyers to ask a lawyer to check the planning status of each property. Legal projects, or those that comply with the 1986 urban plan such as Icon’s scheme in Santa Clara Golf — where we are marketing villas from €1.64m to €1.85m — are safe.
“Whether you’re a developer or a private housebuilder, if you are buying land in Marbella now, it must comply with the 1986 urban plan,” says Marc Pritchard, sales and marketing manager of Taylor Wimpey España. “For owners of properties legalised in the 2010 plan, the problem is time. They won’t be able to sell until the planning situation is sorted,” he says. Developments that have yet to be granted a licence could also be put on ice until a new plan is drawn up. According to Marbella’s current mayor, José Bernal, this will be 2019 at the earliest. One such scheme is The World, a new high-end development on Marbella’s so-called Golden Mile where off-plan apartments cost from €1.3m to €3.9m.
The lack of concern on the Marbella beachfront is pretty commonplace, say local agents. News of the planning reversal has yet to register with most property-hunters, so you will need a really good lawyer to touch a property now if it’s not 1986-compliant. Amid the confusion, there will be some winners too, such as the neighbouring municipalities of Benahavís and Estepona, where licensing is not an issue. Marbella Unique Properties have a great selecction of properties in Estepona and a exclusive selecction of properties in Benahavis.
“Wanda, a huge developer, is looking at investing heavily in Benahavís,” says Lucio González, “and Benahavís is also home to one of the country’s most expensive gated communities, La Zagaleta, where we are marketing luxury villas“.
“Unloved, unfashionable old villas in other areas of Marbella are also gaining in popularity,” says Yolanda López “We’re seeing buyers reconsider the appeal of this kind of property as they cost about half what they did at the peak [in 2007]. You can get them from about €700,000 if you don’t mind the hassle of renovating them, and they won’t be affected by the current planning issue,” he says.
Original source: “International Property“