Buying rustic land in Spain: what to check before you pay the deposit
The expensive part of rustic land is not the price: it is finding out after the deposit that there is no water, that you cannot build, or that a river floods it. This is what to look at, in this order.
1. Can you build?
Each region sets a minimum plot for a new house on rustic land, and several allow none. See each region's rule and ask the town hall for a certificado urbanístico.
2. Is there water?
What the wells nearby found and at what depth, which aquifer lies below and whether it is declared at risk. A new well is notified to the basin authority, and sometimes needs authorisation. The well guide explains it.
3. Does it flood?
The 100- and 500-year flood zones, and the preferential flow zone, where new building is generally banned. Only studied rivers are mapped: look at dry gullies (ramblas, barrancos) on site too.
4. Has it burned?
Burnt forest land cannot change use for 30 years (Forest Act, Ley de Montes, art. 50).
5. What runs over it or under it?
- Livestock routes (vías pecuarias): public land, even when it looks like part of the plot.
- Streams: a 5 m right of way along the water and a 100 m zone where works need consent.
- High-voltage lines: an easement and distances for building.
- Mining rights: their holder may apply to occupy the land.
- Protected areas and Natura 2000: new works need consent.
6. Can you get there and live there?
Access by a public road or a registered right of way, mobile and fibre coverage, winter sun for solar panels, radon and earthquake design.
7. The papers
- Nota simple from the Land Registry: owner, charges, registered area.
- Catastro certificate: Catastro's area, which sometimes differs from the Registry's.
- Certificado urbanístico from the town hall.
- If there is a well, its entry in the water register (Registro de Aguas).
All of this but the papers, each plot's report in the map checks in seconds, with the questions for the seller that come out of what needs checking.
Information, not advice. Before signing, have a lawyer check the papers.