Tarifa

Can you build a house on rustic land?

Andalucía requires at least 2.5 ha for a new house on rustic land.

Other cases: 5 ha on forest land.

Decreto 550/2022, art. 31. A town plan can be stricter.

Plan in force: Plan General (a full town plan), from 2002. The region's planning viewer ↗

The national urban information system (SIU) maps the land class for 99% of the municipality.

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

Catastro records 113 homes on rustic plots in Tarifa, 5 of them built before 1950, and 1,188 farm buildings. See them on the map →

Towns in Andalucía where you can build a house →

Maps of Spain: Old farmhouses

Is there water?

IGME records 8 wells and boreholes in Tarifa. Half of the 8 with a depth found water at 3–7 m. 19 springs are recorded.

Ground: 71% low permeability, local groundwater only; 29% porous aquifer, high productivity.

Choosing where to drill takes a hydrogeologist.

Maps of Spain: Wells · Aquifers

What to watch for

• 17 fires since 2016 reached the municipality: 2,037 ha in all, the latest in 2025.
• 8.8% of the municipality lies in the 100-year flood zone; 10% in the 500-year one.
• 54% of the municipality is Natura 2000: new works need the region's consent.
• 54% of the municipality is a protected natural area, whose plan limits what can be done.
• Not a radon zone.

Maps of Spain: Flood zones · Radon · Wildfires

Living here

• 4G reaches 100% of homes; fibre 95%. Averages for the municipality.
• Rain: 775 mm a year (1971–2000), about 642 by 2041–2070.
• Summer highs: 28.5 °C, about 30.9 °C by 2041–2070.
• Frost days: 0 a year, about 0 by 2041–2070.

Around it

Barbate · Los Barrios · Algeciras · Vejer de la Frontera · Medina Sidonia