Occupied or unoccupied?

It is not hard to notice that throughout Spain there are so many empty properties. I admit that it’s not always possible to tell if a Spanish building is occupied or not as they almost all have shutters which can be down during the day to keep the hot sun out, and block the shine of interior lights at night. But, what we did see was especially stark in the smaller, northern and interior towns. Huge stone buildings with their wooden shutters were left standing without occupants.

In the Basque Country, the style of building tended to be large and historically would have housed multi-generational families. The changing economics of the countryside and the movement of people from rural areas to cities and larger towns means some of these places are just left derelict, even in the most prominent parts of town.

The juxtaposition of those that are empty and those that are occupied was very stark. In Sunbilla, the house on the left was really well kept, painted and in good condition, whereas the large house attached was in poor condition and not occupied as far as we could tell. There was some beauty in these, the old shutters, window frames, doors and the traditional construction of the buildings was on show.

There were dwellings we found where large parts of the property were crumbling down, roofless or derelict but the lower floors or a small number of rooms were still clearly in use.

In Daroca, empty houses within terraces stood beside occupied houses on narrow streets. Wandering through the rabbit warren of the old town there was again a real contrast between those that are lived in and those that are not, squeezed in beside each other.

Many properties were for sale for really low prices but when you looked at the listing there were suspiciously few photos of the inside and for those that did include them it was clear that the task of bringing them back into habitable condition was more than just a lick of paint. As is often the case, restoring buildings can be costly and complicated compared to a new build. In addition, if there is no or low demand for properties in the location then dwellings remain a little unloved.

We looked into this in a little more detail in Daroca as we found the town to have a fantastic community, plenty of shops and bars, and a delicious bakery - all things that we value in a place. It also had history, monuments and culture coming out of its ears, which would appeal to tourists and foreign visitors. Despite all these positive attributes, the number of empty homes and those for sale were still significant compared to what we are used to seeing in the UK.

So here are the numbers which seem to back up our experience:

In Spain there are approximately 3.8-3.9 million empty properties. This forms around 12-15% of the total housing stock.

Comparing this to England, there are approximately 265,000 empty properties which is around 1% of the total properties.

Across Britain, only about 2.7% of homes are classified as vacant at any time, among the lowest rates in the OECD.

Clearly these numbers don’t differentiate between those empty properties that are habitable or not. Many of those in Spain looked like they had not been lived in for a considerable period and so would need a lot of attention to bring them back up to a decent standard.

Agricultural buildings were also abandoned throughout the farmland and villages. We noticed a pattern that the older stone buildings had fallen into disrepair and then newer concrete and block sheds and barns had replaced them. We wonder whether the buildings were no longer fit for purpose or no longer required, so a more modern new agricultural building was constructed to meet the needs of the farmer.

Some dwellings were more understandably no longer occupied including tiny little places carved into the rocks.

As we travelled south, the number of abandoned smaller properties seemed to decrease, but what increased were the number of larger developments, hotels and complexes that were under construction, unoccupied or abandoned part-way through.

The most glaring example we passed in the Natural Park of Cabo de Gata-Nijar near to Carboneras. In the morning sun we passed this huge hotel complex which appeared to have been left abandoned and unfinished, with three cranes still on site. We were amazed at the apparent waste of resources and this eyesore in the middle of the National Park, on a stunningly beautiful coast. We took a little bit of time to take it all in and discussed it long after we had passed. We did some further research into it and we found it was called Playa del Algarrobico (the Ghost Hotel) and is the most famous example of illegal tourist developement in Spain. A couple of years ago the Government passed a motion to demolish the complex and restore the land back to its natural state but that doesn’t seem to have begun yet.

Protestors against this development have included local people and Greenpeace.

In the tourist town of San Juan de los Terreros, we explored lots of infrastructure including roads, cul-de-sacs, roundabouts and streetlights in the scrub. They didn’t lead anywhere and the street lights weren’t plugged in but they laid the foundations for future developments. From what we could tell, they had been there a little while and vegetation and nature had started to reclaim some of these areas. At the end of one of the winding streets, we found a hotel/tourist development which looked unoccupied from afar, but on closer inspection there was some life inside!

The redundant roads did offer lots of places for motorhomes and caravans to overnight but we’ll discuss that in another blog!l (here it is…)

Talking of Spanish construction we often remarked at the building methods employed. One of the most common sights was to see buildings just demolished and removed even if they were once attached to another. Where the neighbouring wall was exposed, blown concrete was applied to keep the elements away. I presume that in a warm and dry climate, this will suffice, but in the UK, it would almost certainly lead to some damp issues…

Another extreme is the removal of almost the whole building, but leaving the historic frontage. It looks crazy in real life. More of the yellow/orange concrete sprayed onto the wall of the adjacent building.

No doubt with this last one: someone lives in this house!