Sant Joan les Fonts

Can you build a house on rustic land?

Catalonia allows no new houses on rustic land. Restoring an existing or listed building is the way.

DL 1/2010, art. 47. A town plan can be stricter.

Plan in force: Plan General (a full town plan), from 2003. The region's planning viewer ↗

The national urban information system (SIU) maps the land class for 100% of the municipality.

Only the town hall can confirm it, in writing: ask for a certificado urbanístico.

Is there water?

IGME records 22 wells and boreholes in Sant Joan les Fonts. Half of the 19 with a depth found water at 23–89 m. 14 springs are recorded.

Ground: 44% porous aquifer, medium productivity; 27% low permeability, local groundwater only; 15% practically impermeable; 14% porous aquifer, high productivity.

Choosing where to drill takes a hydrogeologist.

What to watch for

• No mapped fire since 2016.
• 1.2% of the municipality lies in the 100-year flood zone; 1.7% in the 500-year one.
• 1.2% of the municipality is preferential flow zone, where new building is generally banned.
• 83% of the municipality is Natura 2000: new works need the region's consent.
• 91% of the municipality is a protected natural area, whose plan limits what can be done.
• Not a radon zone.
• Basic seismic acceleration 0.11 g: new buildings need seismic design.

Living here

• 4G reaches 100% of homes; fibre 93%. Averages for the municipality.
• Rain: 722 mm a year (1971–2000), about 618 by 2041–2070.
• Summer highs: 27.6 °C, about 31.2 °C by 2041–2070.
• Frost days: 59 a year, about 33 by 2041–2070.

Around it

Castellfollit de la Roca · Olot · Sant Jaume de Llierca · Santa Pau · Montagut i Oix · La Vall de Bianya