Building a Rural Property in Spain - Ruins
Following the introduction of restrictions on building in the country, the prospect of rebuilding a ruin became more attractive. Unfortunately, the owners of ruins also realised this very quickly - the price of ruins has risen much faster than the price of any other category of property except for urban land.
In general, a ruin can be rebuilt. The rebuild may not be larger than the original building. In the past, the restrictions on this were quite strictly enforced in this area. Other areas were liberal to the degree that we know of houses which have been build on land which were accepted as having ruins, but in fact was agricultural land.
The two main restrictions which are seemingly now no longer being imposed are:
- If the ruin had been registered as such (in order to avoid paying council tax), it was generally not possible to rebuild it. Recent applications for rebuild of ruins in this category have been approved in Huercal Overa.
- The rebuild not only needed to be smaller or of the same size as the original building, but it also had to fit into the existing walls. This would now seem to be less strictly applied than in the past (although the local authorities will still not allow the ruin to be extended).
Officially, the reconstruction of a ruin falls into the same category as a renovation, so some of the advantages of new build (in particular the provision of a 10-year building guarantee) no longer apply.