Holiday Lettings news - Review of Valencia's 'land grab' laws to be undertaken

Review of Valencia's 'land grab' laws to be undertaken

Valencian authorities last week agreed to overhaul their town and planning laws. Spanish Property Insight comments on the development and explains that as a result, the "infamous" 'land grab' laws are to be reviewed.

The region is to "coordinate all the town and planning laws and satisfy Europe" José Ramón García Antón, Valencia's minister for public works, transport and town planning, last week announced at a conference on the construction sector.

Remarking on the existing regulations, the Ley Urbanística Valenciana (LUV), Spanish Property Insight argues: "Many of the victims would argue that the worst aspect of Valencia's town planning law is the right it gives developers to propose planning schemes on land that doesn't belong to them, forcing affected owners to give up land at a fraction of its true value and contribute tens of thousands of Euros or more to the cost of urbanising the land lost."

The decision marks the second time in the space of a few years that the authorities have seen themselves pressured into changing their urban planning laws. The original 'land grab' law, known as the Ley Reguladora de la Actividad Urbanística (LRAU) was replaced with the LUV in 2006 which, although "a slight improvement" on the LRAU has not eliminated developers presenting proposals that expropriate land from private owners.

Although the European Union (EU) has no jurisdiction over national planning laws and cannot therefore intervene in such matters, it has "attacked" the LUV, and before it the LRAU, for "violating public procurement procedures".

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