building Regulations in Spain

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Urban Land Regulations in Spain

Designated approved building/development land and described as such on the government approved General Plan of the area. This plan, which is revised periodically, is a public document and can be viewed freely by anyone who cares to enquire at the appropriate department in the local Town Hall.
Because this type of land has been already approved for building, outline planning permission is not necessary. The building project process can begin almost immediately.

Plot Sizes
building plots range in size from 600m2 to 2,000m2 depending on the conditions applied to the urbanization plan (Plan Parcial). Usually urbanizations comprising individual houses are made up of plots of 800-1000m2.

Area occupancy
The maximum size of the property to be built is governed by another set of rules, again this varies from Town Hall to Town Hall.
As a general rule, the building may not occupy more than 20% to 30% of the area of the building plot.

EG. A building plot of 1,000m2 with an area occupancy restriction of 25% would allow a building to have a ground floor of 250m2.

Total construction
Another regulation to be considered is the total construction factor, this governs the maximum number of square metres in total allowed to be built on the plot.
This factor again usually ranges from around 20% to 30% per m2.

Therefore if we take the example above, given an:
Area Occupancy restriction of 25%
and a Total Construction factor of 0.3 and a plot size of 1,000 m2.

The Maximum ground floor occupancy is 1000 x 0.25 = 250m2
The Maximum overall construction is 1000 x 0.3= 300m2.

This would allow a house with a large ground floor area of 250m2 plus a small upstairs of 50m2 (Total constructed area 300m2.)
Or alternatively and possibly a more practical arrangement might be two floors of 150m2 each. (Total constructed area 300m2.)

It should be noted that these are the maximum areas of occupancy and construction however they exclude a cellar, (which may be the same area as the ground floor,) terracing, porches and a swimming pool.

There are other rules governing the maximum height of the building, usually between 6 and 7 metres, and the distance from the boundary usually between 3 and 7 metres. Rules also restrict the height of sold boundary walls typically 1 to 1.80 metres.

Sometimes the ascetic appearance of the building is restricted, but generally speaking unless an outrageous design is planned this usually does not present a planning problem.

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