TW
0

The Insular Council of Majorca may well have just introduced a new building freeze, but during its first year in local government, the left wing coalition's measures to protect the environment and especially rural areas, have prevented a total of 34'593 new houses, with a potential population of 103'773 inhabitants, from being built. These building suspensions are not the result of action by the Insular Council of Majorca, but a succession of construction restrictions introduced by the Balearic government since it came to power just over 12 months ago. But it appears that the 34'593 suspended property projects do not include the number of houses which have been blocked by the government crackdown of the splitting-up and selling-off of fincas or country estates. In total, Francesc Antich's government has stopped 48'300 houses from being constructed with a potential population of 145'000 inhabitants. The government's modified Rural Land Law is the legislation which has most effect. According to the government, 13'678 fincas were due to be parcelled off and sold as separate plots of land, but while the government admits it is difficult to reach an accurate figure as to how many independent plots would have been sold off, the government believes that the figure would have been at least 100'000. The prohibition on constructing in Areas of Special Natural Interest (ANESIS) has been directed especially at the Serra de Tramuntana mountains. The ANESIS restrictions have put a stop to the construction of 6'525 house and a population increase of 18'756 people in the Serra de Tramuntana. But the tougher laws have not only put the brakes on the construction of private houses. The suspension of the Port of Ciutadella project put an end to the construction of 1'166 houses and had the Campos Polo farm project been allowed to go ahead, a further 667 would have been built.