Threat to Property Owners on the Coast

Expat expropriation threat as government unveils coastal reclaim scheme.

The Spanish government is set to unveil plans to reclaim large areas of developed land along Spain's Mediterranean coastline, and also on the Canary and Balearic Islands, this could leave thousands of British expats and second home-owners facing expropriation orders.

Expropriation is the act of removing control from the owner of an item of property. The term is used to both refer to acts by a government or by any group of people.

Environmentalists have welcomed the news, but fear that it may now be too late, and that the five billion euros allocated to the scheme will prove inadequate and that the process may get bogged down in negotiations at a regional government and town council level.

The new legislation will primarily affect properties built within 100 metres of the coastline.

A spokesman for the British Foreign Office has told a journalist from The Times that Britain would "engage with the Spanish government and the regional authorities on any policy which had implications for British citizens who bought property in good faith."

We’ve said it for years; you’re better off buying property Inland.