Town Planning Advice
As explained in the section About Us, we offer a vast experience and expertise in Town Planning. Mrs Katja Range, the director of Real Time Realty, has successfully qualified as Expert in Town Planning and Development of Real Estate Projects ("Experto en Urbanismo y Desarrollos Inmobiliarios" = UDI) in the business school "IPE = Instituto de Práctica Empresarial" of Málaga in 2001-2002, and we constantly keep up to date through further courses and seminars about changes and improvements in the corresponding laws.
The reason for this is, that we want to be able to not only “show you nice properties”, but make sure they are legal and that we can tell you whether any suitable property for you may or not be affected by regulations of the corresponding General Plan of the Town (PGOU) or the new Infrastructure and Protection Plan for the Western Costa del Sol (POTA).
In which way could a property be affected by Town Planning issues?
PGOU = The General Plan of a town (“Plan General de Ordenación Urbanística)
This plan stipulates, amongst many other details, for which type of building the different plots of land are qualified. It establishes how many storeys, or maximum height buildings can have, as well as the maximum buildability (m2 under roof) (="edificabilidad"), the minimum distance buildings have to keep to public and private borders, and many more details.
It also shows which plots are qualified for residential use and which plots are public or private green areas, equipment plots for the Town Hall (for educational, sportive or social services), commercial areas, new roads, etc.
We work and check all the General Plans of the different cities we offer properties in. When we show you a property, we are therefore able to inform you, for example in the case of villas, whether or not they could still legally be extended or whether they may already be "overbuilt". In the latter case we can double check whether this fact does not affect you in any negative way, making sure that the overbuilt size has either already been legalized or that it will be done so during your possible purchase process.
We will also correctly inform you whether or not an empty plot in front of the property that you are interested in, is really an open public green area, or whether it is a residential or equipment plot and what could be built on it.
We do not just only "guess or say something” to you. We are here to show you the whole REALITY of a property, including its town planning situation. We will prove it to you with an extract of the correspondent General Plan and its building regulations we are used to work with.
This way we make sure that you will also know in detail what could happen "around" the property that you may be interested in. If we cannot find the answers in the General Plan or have the slightest doubt about a question, we personally go to the Town Hall and find out for you with the authorities in the Town Planning Department. We will double check and not leave any question unanswered.
Service of Real Time Realty: In case you do already own a property, or if you are interested in purchasing one, and would like to know how a certain plot in the area, in front or around you is qualified and what could happen there in the future, we also offer you the service to study the case and issue the corresponding report, answering your questions. Please do not hesitate to contact us!
Special case of Marbella
Regarding the special legal issues with past General Plans of Marbella, 16.500 properties that have been built with invalidly granted building licenses and the full General Plan of 2010 having been declared null and void by the Supreme Court of Spain in 2015, please have a look at our special section dedicated to such questions under “Is Your Property Legal”.
Please also follow our News and our Facebook page, where we will keep you updated with new information regarding these cases and about what is going on in regards to the new General Plan of Marbella, that is currently being developed with the Town Hall aiming to have it finally approved in 2022.
We will also keep you updated with any other legal information we think is very important for you to know when buying a property on the Costa del Sol, Marbella, Benahavis, Estepona and Mijas.
POTA = Plan de Ordenación del Territorio Andaluz
(New Infrastructure and Development Plan for the Western Costa del Sol)
This plan was approved in November 2006 by the Andalusian Government for 9 years to define:
- areas that were already qualified as urban and where building could take place
- areas that could be developed in the future for building
- protected natural areas (with different protection levels, prohibiting new development construction)
- new roads or extension of existing roads, foreseen on the coast and in urbanisations, to improve mobility
- newly planned commercial areas / industrial estates
- itinerary that was planned for the new train from Fuengirola to Estepona
- new centres of general infrastructure for the train and equipment for the town
- maximum growth in properties per municipality
Yet the Supreme Court declared this plan null and void in 2015, mainly because of two administrative mistakes during its approval phase. A revision of the document and new POTA is currently being worked on by the Andalusian Government.
In addition to correcting the previous mistakes, it will include new actions for infrastructure, mobility, touristic and socio-economic development, with the aim to improve the communication and integration of the urban areas and the sea front, the maintenance of environmental and natural values and the relationships between the different towns. The plan for the Western Costa del Sol will include the municipalities of Manilva, Casares, Estepona, Benahavis, Istan, Marbella, Ojen, Mijas and Fuengirola. Other areas will have their own regional POTA.
We have always been working with the previous plan in all the years it was valid, in order to show our clients where the protected areas are and of which improved infrastructure they will benefit in the future or which actions could affect their property negatively, such as new or wider roads, new industrial estates and the itinerary of the new railway, that was planned to go mainly subterraneous, so underneath certain areas with properties built above.
We will go on informing you about this new plan to come. Please stay tuned on our Facebook page, watch out for our News and follow our YouTube Channel.
