málaga
Construction is not getting back on its feet, and despite new PGOUs, funds from planning deals are not coming through
18.12.11 - 18:57 -
Malaga. A virtual image of the planned Repsol towers project. The city hall is negotiating a new payment plan with developers. SUR
The fact that the construction industry is still not picking itself up is plain to see, and bad news for employment and growth in a province that made building one of its main sources of income, along with tourism. The lack of activity is also affecting local authorities, which are still suffering from the brutal drop in planning-related income. However the larger municipalities had deposited much of their financial hopes in the new PGOUs (urban development plans) that would free up more land for building and generate more income through planning deals.
Now, however, all these hopes are fading as none of the four main municipalities that have approved new planning guidelines shows any signs of recovery. In Marbella and Antequera the situation has changed very little, despite having new development plans in place since 2010. Meanwhile Fuengirola and Malaga (whose PGOUs came into force in April and September respectively) have come up against an added handicap: developers are unable to deliver the substantial sums of money stipulated in the agreements signed back in the boom years.
Both Malaga and Fuengirola town halls blame the Junta de Andalucía for the delay in the approval of the new plans, which were designed in the context of the real estate boom and came into force in the middle of a crisis. But politics aside, the solution involves negotiating a new payment scheme with landowners that is more in line with today’s reality.
In the case of the city of Malaga, five main planning agreements were due to bring in 172.4 million euros to the city’s coffers, of which 126 should have been paid already. In reality the city hall has received 27.1 million and only two of the developers, those responsible for the Hipercor and Malaga Wagen projects, are up to date with their payments. Planning councillor Diego Maldonado has said that negotiations to modify other agreed payment plans are going well, especially in the case of the project to build tower blocks on the former Citesa site in Martiricos.
The authority is only considering reducing the agreed fees in the case of the former ‘Térmica’ factory, on the west side of the city, where the size of the land available for construction could be cut by the Coasts Authority on the grounds that it invades public maritime domain. The site owners had originally agreed to pay the City Hall 58 million euros to develop the area.
In Fuengirola the Town Hall is still waiting for the payment of 25.5 million euros corresponding to 28 planning agreements. After meeting with all the developers, the mayor, Esperanza Oña, explained: “not one of them is able to pay at the moment”. The town hall has opted to allow the developers to pay in installments over a period of up to eight years, either by paying ten per cent a year and the rest at the end, or putting off an initial payment of 30 per cent until the end of the second year. The Town Hall requires developers to produce a bank guarantee worth more than the amount in the planning agreement.
Marbella
The case of Marbella is different. In May 2010 the new PGOU put an end to the planning chaos of the GIL years which left the town with little land to develop and, more importantly, no legal guarantees with which to attract investors. Nevertheless the main guidelines have still not yet been established to allow construction to get off the ground. The legal issues are taking their time to be resolved, although the town hall is confident that the real estate market will pick up as processes such as the subdivision of land and the drawing up of partial plans make progress.
In Antequera, the document that defines urban development for the next decade is now a year old. In this time the crisis has slowed down any type of growth but, on paper, work is taking place to make sure the town is ready to go when the economy does eventually pick up. Three partial plans have already been drawn up to allow the construction of housing and to free up industrial land for the extension of the logistics centre.
