Tarragona

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: Normas Subsidiarias (an older, simpler plan), from 2021. The region's planning viewer ↗

The national urban information system (SIU) maps the land class for 97% of the municipality.

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

Is there water?

IGME records 227 wells and boreholes in Tarragona. Half of the 222 with a depth found water at 10–80 m. 2 springs are recorded.

Ground: 29% porous aquifer, medium productivity; 24% low permeability, local groundwater only; 24% porous aquifer, high productivity; 14% karstic or fissured aquifer, high productivity.

Choosing where to drill takes a hydrogeologist.

What to watch for

• One fire since 2016 reached the municipality: 14 ha, in 2020.
• 2.4% of the municipality lies in the 100-year flood zone; 7.3% in the 500-year one.
• 2.4% of the municipality is Natura 2000: new works need the region's consent.
• 2.4% of the municipality is a protected natural area, whose plan limits what can be done.
• Radon zone I: new and restored homes need radon protection by law.

Living here

• 4G reaches 100% of homes; fibre 96%. Averages for the municipality.
• Rain: 342 mm a year (1971–2000), about 292 by 2041–2070.
• Summer highs: 28.3 °C, about 31.2 °C by 2041–2070.
• Frost days: 3 a year, about 1 by 2041–2070.

Around it

La Canonja · Constantí · Els Pallaresos · El Catllar · Reus · La Riera de Gaià · Vila-seca · Altafulla