An interesting sentence in the Supreme Court this week which considered that in the face of the ‘lack of action and discipline from the administration’, penal law can be turned to against the ‘town planning disaster’ which is destroying Spain.

The statement came as part of the proceedings against the ex Mayor of Andraitx on Mallorca, Eugenio Hidalgo, who claimed at the time, that he did not know that his own home was illegal, but whose four year prison sentence has now been confirmed by the upper court.

The company has applied for a three-month cushion to avoid a suspension of payments

The Polaris World property developer is reported to have applied to the courts for an additional three months to continue negotiating its debts with its creditors. The application was made on Monday last week, and should the court agree to the request, it would mean that none of the company’s creditors could apply for court intervention during that period. It’s understood from La Opinión de Murcia that the decision has fallen to Mercantile Court No. 2 in Murcia.

Three were served last week and another five are expected

Demolition orders were last week served on the British owners of three properties in Albox which have been ruled as illegal by the courts. Local Mayor, José García, has told the AUAN association, ‘Abusos Urbanísticos Almanzora NO’, that another five demolitions have been ordered by the courts, and he is legally obliged to carry them out. He has asked AUAN to arrange a meeting with the owners affected in early January, and the association has called on owners who purchased their home in good faith and have received a demolition notice to contact them urgently at info@almanzora-au.org with a view to arranging a meeting with the Mayor.

The Andalucia ombudsman Jose Chamizo claims there are already more than 1000 illegal developments on the Andalucian coastline.

And he warned that the coastline is so “exceptionally fragile”, that all building taking place within 500 metres of the shore should be immediately frozen.

“At the moment, few town halls are rigorously adhering to the laws currently in place.”

Chamizo claims that there is a “lack of respect” for the coastal law, which he insists lacks teeth.

It would mean more than a million undeclared rental incomes across the country

A study carried out by the GESTHA collective of technicians in Hacienda has established that more than half the incomes obtained from rental accommodation are not declared. The amount lost to the taxman has been put at 2.45 billion € a year, with the fraud most commonly found in Cataluña, Andalucía and Madrid.

Many British owners are without water and electricity owing to the irregular situation of their homes

With the recent police raid on the Town Hall building in Arboleas, said to be connected to alleged planning irregularities, El País has highlighted the case of British residents in the Almanzora Valley affected by the uncontrolled irregular development which has left hundreds without mains electricity or water.

Purchasers of property at Trampolin Hills in Campos del Río, will now be treated as ordinary creditors for monies paid

British and Irish owners who fear that they may lose their money with the collapse of the Trampolin Hills Golf Resort in Campos del Río, Murcia, have until December 2 to register their claim with the authorities.

Sales for the first six months of the year were 50 percent down on last year for the same time

The number of houses purchased by foreign residents of Andalucía in the first half of this year was 50.3% down on the same period in 2008. There were 2,200 deals done over the six months this year, compared to 4,429 last.

Sales increased by 16 per cent in the second quarter of 2009 compared to the first

DATA released by the Spanish National Statistics Institute reveal that for the first time in many months, the property market in Almeria Province may be showing signs of recovery.

Transactions within the housing market increased during the second quarter of 2009 when compared to the first by 16 per cent.

Finding a home is usually quite frustrating for an expatriate and even more so in Spain where there are less properties for rental.

Taking Madrid as an example, the rental market is quite undersized in comparison to other European cities. It is made up of only 300,000 properties, which represent less than 15 percent of the total housing market (14.9 percent first quarter 2007 – Municipal Housing Bureau).

The Town Hall says the extension to the protected area is based on maps from 1992 and will appeal the move

The local government in Calpe says it will appeal a proposed change to the Environment Ministry’s demarcation of protected coastal area which will extend protection to the entire 15,800 metres of the town’s entire coastline. El País said the plan from the Coastal Authority will affect more than 1,000 properties and could mean partial demolition for some of them, as the new demarcation will mean that they now stand on public land.

Sales of houses in Spain fell 25.5 percent for the month of June from last year, a slowdown in the rate of decline from May, when they dropped 32.2 percent, official data showed Wednesday.

Sales of houses plunged 34.9 percent in the first half of the year from the same period in 2008, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said.

INE did not issue the total number of transactions for the first six months, but listed June’s tally as 35,372.

Like most holiday home owners in the southern Italian region of Calabria, Carole Davies’s rental income relies almost entirely on Ryanair and easyJet. She owns a two-bedroom house in the village of Falerna, 20km from Lamezia Terme airport, which is serviced by both of these budget airlines. “If those routes were to close, the nearest alternative is Naples and then a four-hour train journey to Lamezia,” says Davies, who moved to Calabria 30 years ago and now rents out her home through Owners Direct (property IT2083).

They refused to allow access without a court order for entry to the property, which could take up to two months

The owners of a house built illegally in the Dehesa Alta, Cártama, have managed to stop the demolition going ahead until at least the end of September, by refusing entry to the property without a court order.

The Mayors of Axarquía want an amendment to allow building on rural land in order to legalise illegal properties

A Junta de Andalucía official has spoken this Wednesday of dialogue and negotiation as the way forward to solve the problem of illegally-built properties in the Axarquía district of Málaga province.

When it comes to ageing, our increasing life expectancy suggests we should plan for the future. But partly as a result of our Western youth-oriented culture, it is too often common practice to ignore the latter part of the life cycle.

The good news is that nowadays ageing is a more upbeat prospect than ever before. There has been an explosion of lifestyle choices, medical advances and improved retirement housing.

The drop in housing prices in Spain, where a property bubble burst last year, picked up speed during the second quarter of 2009, falling 8.4 percent over the level at the same time last year, the housing ministry said on Wednesday.

By comparison, housing prices fell at a 6.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter and a 3.2-percent annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2008 as builders struggled to unload inventories accumulated during a decade-long property boom.

The Mayor, Ángeles Muñoz, says she will protect those who purchased in good faith

The P.P. Mayor of Marbella, Ángeles Muñoz, gave a press conference on Thursday in which she made it clear her intention to legalise most of the illegally built property in the municipality, including that constructed during the years of the GIL administration.

The mayors have proposed legal construction on rural land

The 31 mayors of the Axarquía region of Málaga, meeting at the Mancomunidad de Municipios de la Costa del Sol Oriental, have come up with an idea to legalise the illegally built properties in the region. They want the law to be changed, to allow construction on rural land.

The Junta de Andalucía has passed new regulations on access

Blocks of flats with three or more floors built more than two years ago which have no lift, will be obliged to install one before 2019, except in cases where it is physically impossible.

The new rule was passed on Tuesday by the cabinet of the Junta de Andalucía, which also now requires that all new three story or more blocks have a lift which runs both down to the underground parking and up to the roof. The rule applies to two story buildings when there are six or more homes.