Mark Stucklin
Mark Stucklin is the author of ‘Need to Know? Buying Property in Spain’, published by Harper Collins, and writes the Spanish Property Doctor column for the Sunday Times. He also writes about energy efficiency and how to save money at home.
Why has there been so little outcry in Spain?
Beautifying the Spanish coast
It has always amazed me how little outcry there has been in the Spanish press and society about the depraved goings on in the Spanish property market, and Spain’s uniquely grotesque town planning model, especially in the Valencian Region, home to the Costa Blanca (and some of the most venal politicians on earth).
I was interested to read an article in the Spanish daily La Vanguardia that offered some sort of explanation.
Referring to the horror of speculation and over-development that has been the main dish of Spain’s coastal building boom in the last decade, the author, Susana Quadrado, in an article entitled ‘Requiem to the Coast’, asks “why have we not heard a squeak from anyone? Where are the intellectuals, the town planners, the architects, the naturalists, the politicians, and the citizens who protested against these aberrations in the ‘80s?”
One answer is offered by a Valencian friend of hers. “Everyone here has gotten rich quickly and easily. But nobody is blind. There is a sense of collective guilt, but it is covered in a blanket of silence.
So, whilst everyone was making money, nobody complained about the monstrous way that Spain has been built in recent years. An old story.