One of the big attractions of inland rural Spain for immigrants from the densely populated UK and other crowded countries of northern Europe is the large expanse of land that can surround their new home in the sun.  

For these newcomers land is a luxury which is beyond their pocket in their countries of origin. However, to prevent creeping development of those rural areas various provinces including the Comunidad Valenciana and Castilla-La Mancha have imposed strict controls on the minimum plot size for new rural homes.  It can come as a shock to buyers of rural homes to discover just how big their plot must be for their new home to be legal.

By the Law 10/2004  of 9^th December 2004, the Comunidad Valenciana imposed a minimum plot size of 10,000 Square Metres (approximately 2.4 acres) for a home with a built area of 200 square metres and a “footprint” of 100 square metres – in other words a two storey house of 100 square metres on each floor.   In Castilla- La Mancha the operative date for similar legislation is 28th May 2007.   New property built after these dates must comply with these rules otherwise it will not be possible to obtain the necessary certificates which are absolutely essential to enable the property to be legally sold, and to have services such as electricity and water connected.

Rural homes which have been built on smaller plots or which exceed the maximum footprint can be legalized, either if they pre-date these regulations or the period for enforcing planning infringements and imposing fines has expired which is four years as provided by Law 30/1992 and Legislative Decree 1/2004. 

A subsiduary issue is that some Ayuntamientos in rural areas are reluctant to issue certificates to prospective buyers that properties do not infringe planning regulations, as many properties do not in fact comply with these regulations and they would then be forced to take enforcement action against the owners which they are reluctant to do for political reasons.    

Many buyers of rural property also hope to become “small-holders” - keeping a few animals and carrying on some market gardening.  With the object of improving the efficiency of small-holders the provincial governments have also imposed minimum plot sizes on agricultural holdings. 

The size of these plots depends on whether the land is officially classed as irrigated (“regadio”) or arid (“secano”).   The law on use and division of rustic land for agricultural purposes is complex.  In the Comunidad Valenciana decree 217/1999 fixes the minimum viable size of plots of irrigated land as 5,000 square metres  (approximately 1.2 acres) and arid  land as 25,000 square metres (approximately 5 acres).

In addition, Law 8/2002 of the Comunidad Valenciana allows rural land to be reorganized by local agricultural boards into holdings of the minimum viable sizes. 

Whether land is officially “irrigated” or “arid” is determined by a certificate issued by the local irrigation board, the “Conselleria de Regante”, who organize the provision of water for agricultural irrigation in a particular area.

Those who are hoping to retire and relax in the sun may be unpleasantly surprised at the amount of land that they will have to maintain, but the rules have been imposed to preserve the rural character of the countryside which so attracted them originally.