Advertisement

Bulldozers to Brexit: British second-home owners in Spain face uncertain future

The Local Spain
The Local Spain - [email protected]
Bulldozers to Brexit: British second-home owners in Spain face uncertain future
Photo by Zac Cain with Unsplash

The dream for many British second-home owners in Spain was once threatened by bulldozers, but now it's Brexit, writes Graham Keeley, and this time there won't be any chance of compensation for those who lose out.

Advertisement

Standing atop a pile of rubble, gazing out into the valley, it was obvious what had inspired the former owners of these houses to buy a place in this beautiful part of Spain.

Sadly, Peter and Margaret Hegarty and Frank and Janet Doel never got to live out their twilight years in Cantoria, a tiny hamlet in Almeria, in southern Spain. 

They became the latest Britons to see their Spanish properties reduced to rubble after a court decided their homes were illegal and must be torn down by bulldozers. 

Painted in red on the wall of a house which was about to be torn down was the mocking postscript: The Spanish Dream.

I was in Cantoria to report on the plight of Britons who had lost their dream second homes because they had been declared illegal like so many thousands of others. 

Advertisement

The British owners were usually victims of a mixture of corruption, archaic planning laws and naivety on the part of the purchasers.

Some spoke little Spanish and unfortunately took Spanish mayors or developers at their word. Most, however, were the prey of developers keen to cash in on a building boom which appeared to have no end. Except, it did. 

READ ALSO:

Now, ironically perhaps, British second home owners face a new threat not from the Spanish – but from their own compatriots in the form of Brexit.

Four years after that dramatic vote, Brexit is fast approaching and for some with villas along the 8,000km of Spain's coast this might spell trouble. 

Little progress has been made on negotiations about key issues like freedom of movement for Brits who want to come to Spain to spend time in their second homes. 

Indeed, the worst-case scenario of a hard Brexit appears more likely. 

Those with properties in Spain still have until the end of the 2020 to apply for residence status under the EU rules. But time is drawing short. 

The coronavirus has played havoc with Spanish bureaucracy, along with everything else. 

This means just getting an appointment to sort out residence is nigh on impossible. Campaigners have suggested if freedom of movement for EU/UK citizens is not provided for in the future deal, which will almost certainly be the case, Britons who are not resident in Spain may face new restrictions on movement. 

This could mean they can only spend up to 90 days in any 180-day period within the Schengen Zone. But all this is still speculation with only six months to go before Britain finally leaves the European Union. 

Imagine if no deal is reached on this key point, it could mean something like this: 

Instead of heading off to your villa in Valencia for the weekend on a whim then staying for as long as you want, things might start to get a little more complicated. 

Second-home owners – at least the British ones – might have to start to keep a close tally on how long they are in the country so they do not exceed the 90 day limit. 

'Swallows' – those Britons who head off to Spain for the entire winter – may find they have to return to the UK just as the weather is at its worst. 

Advertisement

Looking ahead, what could this mean? Among foreigners, Britons still buy the largest numbers of homes in Spain and have done for years. 

If it seems harder to come and enjoy that villa or hacienda, then that could all change.

Personally, I do not think it will alter our passion for Spain. 

Britons have weathered other property scandals here and still come back looking to spend more cash in Spain on bricks and mortar. 

Remember the land grab scam in Valencia? Councils simply redefined which land could be used for building and which could not. If part of your property bordered on 'rural' land, it could be declared illegal and effectively grabbed back by the local authority. 

Tens of thousands of homes have been declared illegal in Spain. 

Thankfully, that situation is changing. The conservative regional government in Andalusia, where many Britons have bought houses, has signalled it will grant compensation to those who lost their properties but had acted in good faith. 

This has come about mainly thanks to the hard work of campaigners like Maura Hillen and Gerardo Vazquez, a lawyer, who have fought to change the law so those, like the Hegartys and Doels, could get some redress from the Spanish judiciary system in terms of compensation. 

If only this were possible with Brexit.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also