Possible Urbanisation of El Moco in Albatera
For Update of meeting Saturday the 19th January 2008 at the Casa De Cultura Albatera please scroll down, I would like to add that I could not attend the said meeting (Away for the weekend for a friends 50th - Typical I know! Sorry! ). However, my good friend was there who lives in the area of Las Lomas and who did not really think it necessary to go (but with some pressure from me did as I couldn’t). In his own words (which were the same as when he bought a year ago!) ”If it happens it happens” as he was aware of the proposed plan when he bought! Also, at the meeting was my other source of information; a very kind contact from the Agrupacion, who very kindly gives me and my clients his time to explain any issues they may have when looking to purchase in this area. Both of these people have seen my update and agreed it is a true version of the discussion.
The Partidas del Moco and Las Lomas rural area at the foot of the mountains of Albatera consists of approximately 370 residential plots with over 75% of the owners of these being members of a legally registered entity of community of owners or ‘Agrupacion’ as it is known in Spanish.
The Agrupacion was originally formed a few years ago and successfully lobbied the town hall against a developer urbanising the rural area mentioned above in much the same way as the ‘concrete cities’ that have sprung up in recent years especially along the coast at a cost not at all favourable to the current owners. Since that time the members have agreed and voted that the most appropriate way to prevent recurrence of any ultra urban plan being submitted and to retain the rustic nature of the area is to submit its own development/infrastructure plan and to control the development themselves with the help of the Town Hall, who will ultimately take over the plan.
An independent architect was appointed and an outline plan was drawn up and submitted to the town hall for consideration in October 2006. This plan fully retains the rustic character of the area and does not compromise any existing plots or houses but does bring the area into the 21st century with properly constructed roads, street lighting, mains water and sewage, upgraded electricity supply, telephone, broadband, daily local refuge collection, a park area and provisionally a small group of shops located in the north-east of El Moco. In order not to encroach on any residents land the roads will be made in a one-way system. There will be NO land grab or reclamation of property from owners. The owners if they wish of course can sell off some or all of their land but only if they choose and of course for a value they agree to.
In effect this is not an urbanisation plan but a development/infrastructure upgrade; however the land which is now rustic land will be re-classed as urban land which has a higher value than rustic and so some of the costs will inevitably be taken by the owners whether or not they are a member of the said Agrupacion.
The plan has to be agreed by the Town Hall first and the next step is for it to go to the Valencia government for approval before any work can commence. The timeframe for this project, if and once approved, is of the order of 2 to 10 years but could be even longer.
The funding of this project will come from the owners of the plots, irrespective of whether they have houses on them. The costs for the new roads which will be higher to the developers than the residents will go to the owners of the land who will develop it.
The Agrupacion approval committee will be responsible for selecting and appointing the developer and criteria will be set such as insisting that the developer will provide flexible payment schemes such that owners can fund this by different means such as a 5 year payment plan, mortgage/re-mortgage facility, equity release, being able to sell off part of their land etc. Other criteria to restrict over-development of the area will be a minimum plot size of 1000 square metre per house build and any house build will be limited to 2 floors. This will ensure that the area remains as rustic as possible.
The plan is to tastefully develop the area, to retain the rustic nature and owners will not lose any of their land. They will be allowed to sell off land if they wish to do so. With minimal plot sizes of 1000 square metre per house the area will not become over developed.
Once the area is developed this will significantly increase the desirability of houses in the area and will certainly increase the market value of the houses and plots. As already mentioned urbano property and land is much more expensive per square metre than rustica, so the owners will have a significantly increased return on their investment as demand and market value will both increase.
Obviously it is necessary for all owners current and potential to know about this plan so that you have the choice and the facts.
To give an idea of the financial benefit accruing from such developments, similar sized, comparable properties on plots of only 500 to 800 square metres in other developed areas in the region are being marketed at over 100,000 Euros more than rustica fincas in El Moco.
There will of course also be Disadvantages
The disruption during the construction phase and how much each individual is disrupted will depend on where your house or proposed house is situated, but for most of the owners this will be limited to the actual work being done to the road outside their property as there will not be any major new build of housing ‘estates’ in the area. Having said this there are one or two areas where there are large plots of land owned by one or two main developers and of course there are several smaller plots owned by individuals and one would assume that building if and when it happens would take place over a number of years and not all at once. The main developers for example if they sold off-plan would possibly only build to order, which is how this already works. Of course it could feel like there is substantial building going on in the neighbourhood for the people living in these particular areas.
Of course there will also be costs involved if this plan is passed and goes ahead so if considering purchasing a property in this area you will, I am sure, want to know as much as you possibly can about the current situation. If you are interested in a property in this particular location it can be arranged for you to look into the plan in more detail and to speak with other members of the group of property owners to find out the current situation.
There is a meeting at the end of January to discuss new ideas and to give members a chance to ask questions regarding what could or is happening at the moment. Remember the Town Hall is not in a position to tell you anything about this plan until it has been passed by them primarily as a partial plan and then as part of the General plan by Valencia... and there is still some way to go...
There have been payments made already by members and this is towards the costs of the architect etc and anyone who lives in the locality can join the group, however whether you are a member or not you will ultimately have to pay your share as and when and if the plan comes into play. When the plan was put forward there was talk of costs around 9 euros per m2 obviously the longer the plan takes to be passed inflation makes the price creep up, but the general idea is to keep the costs to a minimum for the home owners and for the developers who expect to be the ones to make their money via the development of the land they will have to bare the most expense. Individual plots will be re-measured as and when to get a true pricing for each piece of land.
Meeting and points raised/Discussed and outcome from 19th January 2008…
Basically…
The original plan from the Agrupacion was time barred and because of this was rejected by Albatera and the new government refused to give extended time to present the final plan. The original time frame was agreed upon by the old government but not by the new. So the project will have to start all over again.
Basically the Agruapcion have to represent the original plan and so have a lost a year in the process, but not only this there will be lots of new documents as well as the old ones as the new LUV law has to be obeyed and so of course there will be some changes done to this. The Town-hall has written a specification as to how the urbanization shall be when finished. This specification is the same as was presented to the town-hall years ago and that means that the Agrupacion can change the dates on the old papers and reintroduce to the town-hall again for this part.
Some points that were raised:
- 600,000 euros needs to be found as a guaranteed bond to start the project and at present no one is forthcoming.
- Marcos the solicitor for the Agrupacion is in talks with a company that may be willing to do the work and put up the bond, however there is no confirmation of this
- The Agrupacion then sells the project to the Company/developer that runs it to the agreed specification and the completed infrastructure is then adopted by Albatera Town Hall
- The project is still to be put to Albatera as a partial plan, then it has to be put to Valencia as part of the general plan
- Valencia had said previously that they would not pass the project, however Marcos said he had fought this at his own expense and got it over-turned.
- The old price given which will be paid by the residents was 9 euros is now thought to be in the region of 15 euros per m2 due to inflation