European Property Rights and Wrongs - Diana Wallis MEP

The law was introduced at the start of the housing boom with the intention of
preventing say one local farm owner from holding back the development of an
area by refusing to sell land, the balance of rights historically lying with the community
rather than the individual. Unfortunately the law was not well drafted
and allowed developers to take advantage of its terms to propose a development
scheme over land they did not own. They would then be able to legally take over
inhabited land in these areas with minimal compensation paid and a bill to the
former land owner for the installation of services such as street lighting which
they did not want or need. This law was revised two years later and became the
Ley Urbanística Valenciana (LUV) which did not address the central concerns of
land owners. A similar law was also in place in Andalucía with the same effects.
Nationally, a re-prioritisation of environmental issues and planning for sustainability
has led to a desire by Regional Governments to re-claim for the public
and future heritage some of the coastal region and special rural places given
over to rampant development in the 1980s and early 1990s in what is known as
“urbanisation”. The painful process of finding a balance between public natural
spaces and sensible urban planning has left many innocent victims in possession
of homes that have been declared illegal, despite having been purchased with apparent
full compliance. Sadly, criminal prosecutions and convictions of local public
officials and developers continue to demonstrate that corruption in the real estate
sector played a part in this picture. 5
Bulgaria saw an unprecedented property boom when EU membership talks
began in 2000, with six years of growth as an investment hotspot, and figures
for 2005 showing 23 % of sales to foreign buyers and a capital price increase of
37 %. 6 Most of the foreign buyers’ difficulties arose from properties purchased
“off-plan”, i.e. not yet built, with a lack of sustainable infrastructure and uncertain
and under-regulated planning, legal and sales advice. The majority of problem
areas arose as a result of ambitious promises of large returns on investment
for properties bought off-plan through aggressive marketing with oversupply and
the downturn in the market leading to many developments going bust and being
left unfinished. In addition, the Pirin National Park became overdeveloped as a ski
5 Transparency International Global Corruption Report 2009
6 http://www.channel4.com/4homes/buy-sell/homes-abroad/country-region-guides/bulgaria-08-05-29
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European Property Wrongs