We went to the town hall the other day to ask about a plot of land in the countryside, on behalf of a friend. He was interested in maybe buying it and wanted to know what it would be possible to build on the land.

Quite interesting conversation we ended up having with the town hall architect. When we asked about why our friend would only be allowed to build a small 40m2 house when we have seen so many houses mushroom in the countryside in the last few years, the architect told us that they were all illegal. He said that there were around 2-300illegal houses in the countryside around my village. I think that is a hell of a lot, especially considering our town only has around 2500 inhabitants.

There is an estimated 4.000 (i think or was it maybe 40.000?) illegal houses in the Marbella area, and out of all of them only 40 so far has been ordered to be demolished. I am hoping that they will crack down harder and and more will have to go. Otherwise the odds are just too good, so people take the piss and build houses here there and everywhere. If you know the chance of it getting demolished is so little, it could be worth the risk for a lot of people, which is a shame.

I guess we just have to wait and see what happens over the next year or two. Most of the courts have a massive backlog, so it will take some time for all the decisions to come through.