In Spain all land is categorised. For example, a piece of land could be classified as urban land ( "urbano" ) or rural land ( "rustico" ) – more accurately, for planning purposes, known as suelo no urbanizable When buying property that is rural land or in a rural area there are always certain risks.
The Valencian Urban Planning Regulation Law, ( Ley de Regulación de la Actividad Urbanística) or LRAU (to give it its Spanish acronym is a piece of legislation which allows land to be confiscated from its owners so that it can be “urbanised” or developed with the addition of infrastructure such as roads, piping, lighting, drainage systems and a host of other facilities. In many cases confiscation can be, and has been, effected without any compensation. Furthermore, landowners may have to pay for the cost of this “urbanisation” at a price which can be determined by the developers.
LRAU only affects land currently classified as rustico (rural) – or (possibly) adjacent to rural land.Read the PDF file to find out more.