A recent article by Richard Torné in the Costa News, entitled “Expats told to cough up” reports on the unpleasant situation facing thousands of expat home owners – mainly British – in Almeria.

Through no fault of their own (though in many cases naivety has played its part) many expat buyers in the region find themselves owning ‘illegal’ properties under threat of demolition, which of course they can’t sell if they need to go back home.

Now the authorities are talking about solutions, which is a start, but it looks like there may be expensive strings attached.

“THOUSANDS of expats who own illegal properties throughout the province will be expected to foot a substantial part of the infrastructure bill as part of the regularisation process, the Junta’s chief planning inspector declared last week,” writes Torné.

“José Antonio Ortíz insisted that neither cash-starved local authorities nor developers will be able to stump up all the cash needed to transform clusters of isolated developments into proper neighbourhoods.”

Read the rest of the article at Costa News