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PROPERTY

Noisy construction work in Spain: What are my rights?

Sometimes living in Spain can seem like you’re trapped in a perpetual building site. But if noise levels get too much, what are your rights as a tenant or owner and what you can do about it?

A construction site of a house.
Can you do anything about noisy construction work happening close to your home in Spain? Photo: Myriam Photos/Pixabay

Wherever you are in Spain, from Barcelona to the Canary Islands, there always seems to be some type of building or renovation work going on.

Whether your neighbour is doing a simple kitchen revamp lasting a few weeks or you have to deal with the complete construction of a whole apartment block opposite your building, taking several years, construction noise is a common issue in Spain.

Noise levels, disturbance and dust can be a major problem when works are being carried out, especially since many people are still working from home during the pandemic and are not in sound-proofed offices.

The constant noise of tile cutters, electric saws and hammering can be enough to drive anyone insane, let alone when you’re trying to conduct online meetings at home or concentrate on writing your latest report.

What are my rights?

Exceeding legal noise levels and disturbing the peace in someone’s home is considered a violation of the right to personal and family privacy according to the Spanish Constitution.

Spain’s national Noise Law was first created in 2003, but other specific regional and municipal regulations also apply in many towns and cities.

According to Noisess, a Spanish company specialising in carrying out noise pollution assessments, the legislation isn’t too clear when it comes to noise disturbances at home. There is ‘domestic noise’ (from neighbours, pets, use of electrical appliances) as well as noise from construction sites, mopeds, garbage collection and festivals, with the latter often being out of reach of state law.

If neighbours are carrying out works in your building, then you should be informed via a notice in the entrance hall, especially if this will involve a lot of noise, demolishing walls or other things that could affect the structure or exterior of the building. This means that you should at least be able to prepare yourself for the upcoming disruption by investing in some noise-cancelling headphones or planning on working from local libraries or cafes. 

If no notice has been put up, at the very least the president of your community or building should have been informed and should in turn, inform the tenants or other owners.

According to the Citizens Advice Bureau, generally construction works cannot be carried out between the hours of 9pm and 8am on weekdays and 9pm until 9.30am during weekend or holidays.

Your community or owners’ association can also lay down their own rules of when works can be carried out, however, these may not be enforceable by law.

Noisy construction in Spain. Image: Hans Braxmeier / Pixabay

Are there different rules depending on where you live in Spain?

Yes, permitted noise levels are regulated by the environmental bylaws of the municipality in which you live. Town halls also can regulate hours, so it would be best to check there first as to when construction work is allowed in your area. 

For example, in Bilbao, Valencia and Zaragoza, it is forbidden to carry out any construction or refurbishing work at home from 10pm to 8am on weekdays and until 9.30am on weekends and holidays.

In Barcelona and Madrid, however the ban begins earlier and all construction work should end by 9pm.

If you live in Seville, then you’re in luck as there are some very strict laws that builders need to abide by. Here, noisy construction or renovation works in the home are only allowed to be carried out between 8am to 3pm and from 5pm to 9pm on weekdays, and between 9am to 3pm and 5pm to 7pm on weekends and holidays.

What can I do if builders are breaking local laws?   

If you find that building works are starting earlier than they should be or are carrying on late into the night, then there are a few things you can do about it.

  • Talk to your neighbours
    The first step is to talk to your neighbours if their works are bothering you. Ask them if they can stick to the working hours set out by your local council or ask them if they can schedule a break mid-morning, so that you can at least enjoy a bit of quiet time to concentrate.
  • Talk with your community of owners
    If talking with the neighbour who is carrying out the construction isn’t working, then try speaking with your community of owners or president of the building, if you live in an apartment block. If you’re being bothered by the noise, it’s likely that others are too and if you band together you may be able to get the builders to stick to the times set out by law.
  • Make a formal complaint in writing
    Before you scale things up and bring in the authorities, it’s important that you warn your neighbour that you’re going to do so, as well as having a written record of you asking them to stick to construction during the allowed times.
  • Place a ‘denuncia‘ at the police station
    If all else fails and construction continues outside of the times, then you can make a ‘denuncia’ or complaint at your local police station. To do this you will need to take your ID – TIE or residency certificate and passport. You will also need to bring with you as much evidence as you can, such as recordings of the construction noise during hours when it’s not permitted, statements from other neighbours in the building and any formal complaints you have made in writing.

If you want to find out what the construction rules are in your local area, try doing an internet search for “ordenanza ruidos obras” and then adding the name of your town, village or city. 

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PROPERTY

Why Spain is unlikely to ever ban foreigners from buying property

After several regions around Spain have attempted to bring in limits on property purchases by foreigners, members of Spain's government coalition have even started floating the idea of an outright ban at a national level.

Why Spain is unlikely to ever ban foreigners from buying property

In recent years several regions around Spain have attempted to put limits on foreigners buying homes and clamped down on tourist rentals. These are mainly in areas traditionally popular with foreigners, and many have become places with highly inflationary property markets.

In 2022 Canary nationalist political party Nueva Canarias demanded the regional government address the large number of property purchases by non-residents in the archipelago, and even suggested a limit on the number of properties that can be bought by foreigners altogether in the popular holiday islands.

READ ALSO: Will Spain’s Canary Islands limit sale of properties to foreigners?

Property prices have surged across Spain in recent years, sparked in part by an influx of post-pandemic purchases by foreigners, as well as tourist accommodation geared towards wealthy remote workers and digital nomads pushing up rental prices and pricing out locals. Increasingly, landlords will buy properties with the aim of converting them into Airbnbs, thus removing them from the pool of available (and affordable) housing stock for locals.

This comes after Spain’s other archipelago, the Balearic Islands, also started this same debate in November 2022, with the regional Senate agreeing to discuss solutions.

In the two decades from 2000-2020, the islands’ population grew by 50 percent – rising from 823,000 to 1,223,000 inhabitants. Around a third (32.67 percent) of property purchases in the Balearics are made by foreigners, and of those 57.4 percent are residents, while the remaining 42.6 percent are non-residents.

National ban?

But it’s not just a regional issue. In 2024, the debate rumbles on in parts of Spain particularly affected by foreign home owners and members of the Spanish government are even proposing similar measures at a national level. Though, it should be said, no policy has been decided on yet, and any move such as a ban (in whatever form, on whatever type of property) or even a limit would likely face fierce opposition from the main opposition parties, notably the centre-right Partido Popular (PP).

Sumar, the far-left junior coalition partner in the Spanish government, has even gone as far as proposing a three year ban on the purchase of housing by investment funds and non-residents in Spain.

This was recently outlined in a (for now) non-legislative proposal that was presented to the Spanish Congress’ Housing Commission. It was roundly rejected with the vote of, among others, its coalition partner in government, the Socialists (PSOE). That’s not to say the PSOE is totally against the idea, however.

Socialist Minister for Housing Isabel María Pérez said of the plans: “We agree on the philosophy of the proposal, but with nuances,” she said. “We have submitted an amendment but we think it will not be accepted, so we will not be able to support this bill,” she added.

So, from that we can take that the junior partner in the Spanish government wants to ban non-residents and investment funds from buying property in Spain, and the senior partner (Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s party, no less) supports the principle but not the practicalities.

READ ALSO: Spain’s new housing minister vows to protect second homeowners

The argument against

Clearly, non-resident foreigners buying up property in Spain, particularly in its space starved archipelagos, contributes to price inflation, saturates the market, and plays a role in pricing locals out of their own neighbourhoods.

However, it’s not that simple. Clearly, there is a difference between a non-resident foreigner buying a holiday home (perhaps to rent out as tourist accommodation for half the year) and a resident foreigner buying property to live in.

READ ALSO: How important are foreign second homeowners to Spain?

This difference has, for now, been reflected in proposed limits at both the regional and national level, rather than outright bans.

However, foreign home owners in Spain also make a huge contribution to the Spanish economy. In 2022 foreigners with a second home in Spain contributed €6.35 billion to Spanish GDP and generated more than 105,000 jobs in the tourism sector, according to the study “The economic impact of residential tourism in Spain” done for the Spanish Association of Developers and Builders (APCE) by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

The financial contribution made by these second-home owners in Spain is clearly significant. In fact, experts point out that the money brought into the Spanish coffers by foreign homeowners even outstrips some major industries.

“The contribution of residential tourism to GDP is triple that of the textile industry, double that of the timber industry and the same as the manufacture of pharmaceutical products in Spain,” Anna Merino, director of the Economics team at PwC, said when presenting the study. Every euro spent by ‘residential tourists’ adds €2.34 to Spanish GDP. On top of this direct contribution to the Spanish economy, the surrounding economic activity associated with the spending generated 105,600 full-time jobs in 2022.

So, there’s clearly an economic argument against banning foreign property purchases completely.

In the case of the Balearic Islands specifically, the proposals have met some opposition. The Balearics, which generates 35 percent of its GDP from tourism, according to figures from Caixa Bank, has long been a holiday or second-home hub for wealthy foreigners.

On this point, right-wing Popular Party member Sebastià Sagreras suggested in the regional parliament back in 2022 that conflating the foreign-buyer property market with local shortages is unhelpful, adding that the properties bought by foreigners, often worth more than a million euros, “do not compete” with those that cost €200,000 or €250,000 and are largely bought or rented by national residents.

Is it even legally possible?

Denmark, Malta and the Aland Islands in Finland all have restrictions on how non-resident foreigners can buy properties in their territories. However, they introduced these before entering the EU and these limits were factored in and accepted by Brussels. For Spain to do this, it would be much more difficult.

For local authorities in both the Balearic and the Canary Islands it could prove difficult to go against the EU’s legal principles of the free movement of people and capital, experts say.

This means that other potential solutions may be needed. Though there doesn’t seem to be a national level ban on foreigners from buying properties in Spain anytime soon, several regions have been attempting to do it for a couple of years, at least for non-residents, and even the national government is beginning to try and do something about it.

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