Buying Coastal Property on the Costa Blanca: What You Need to Know

Article from Tomas Ballestero Lawyers, Javea

Tomas Ballestero Lawyers has been advising international buyers and sellers in Spain for over 30 years, from its office in Jávea.

Tel +34 965 79 29 46 · info@lawyerssoliciorsjavea.com · Tomas Ballestero Lawyers 

Spain's coastline is public property. The Ley de Costas declares the shore, the beach and the land the sea reaches to be dominio público marítimo-terrestre — public maritime-terrestrial domain. It cannot be owned privately, and it cannot be acquired by the passage of time.

Where exactly that public land ends is decided by an administrative procedure called the deslinde: a boundary demarcation approved by the State and marked on official plans. Inland of that line the law then imposes a right of way along the shore (servidumbre de tránsito) and, behind it, a protection zone (servidumbre de protección) in which building is restricted. The width of the protection zone is not the same everywhere — it depends on how the land was classified when the law came into force — so two houses a few hundred metres apart can be in entirely different positions.

In practice a coastal property falls into one of three situations:

Entirely outside all of it. No issue arises.

Inside the protection zone. It can normally be bought, lived in and sold, but what you may do to it is limited. Extensions, new build, changes of use and certain works may need authorisation from the regional government, and some are not permitted at all.

Partly or wholly inside the public domain itself. These are typically houses that existed before the current law. They were not expropriated; their owners hold a concession — a right to use public land for a period of time. What is sold in that case is not full ownership but the concession, the transfer has to be approved by the State, and the concession has an expiry date.

None of this is on the sales brochure, and it will rarely be clear from the Land Registry either: many registry entries were made before the present demarcation existed.

What we check before a client signs anything

Whether an approved deslinde covers that stretch of coast, and where the line falls in relation to the plot.

Which zone the property sits in — right of way, protection zone, zone of influence, or the public domain itself.

If there is a concession: who holds it, what it covers, when it expires, and what the State requires in order to transfer it.

Whether the works already carried out — pool, terrace, boundary wall, garage — were authorised. Works done in these zones without authorisation can be ordered to be removed, and the order falls on whoever owns the house at the time.

Whether any proceeding is pending against the property.

A typical situation on this coast. A villa on the front line, asking price around €3,000,000, sea views from every room, a pool and a large terrace built out towards the cliff. The house itself predates the current law and is registered without difficulty. The pool and the terrace, however, were added in the nineteen-nineties, and they sit inside the protection zone. No authorisation from the regional government was ever obtained. The buyer's questions are then straightforward: can the works be authorised now, can they be required to be removed, and who pays if they are. Those answers change the price. They cannot be found in the estate agent's file.

This is not a reason to avoid a coastal property. Many of the finest houses on this coast sit in these zones and are perfectly saleable. It is a reason to know precisely which of the three situations you are buying into — and to know it before you sign the deposit contract, not at the notary.

Article from Tomas Ballestero Lawyers, Javea

Tomas Ballestero Lawyers has been advising international buyers and sellers in Spain for over 30 years, from its office in Jávea.

Tel +34 965 79 29 46 · info@lawyerssoliciorsjavea.com · Tomas Ballestero Lawyers 

This article is general information on Spanish law and does not constitute legal advice. Every case depends on its own circumstances. Take advice on yours before signing anything.