ABSTRACT
In Spain, property needed for public infrastructure is most of the time acquired through land readjustment (LR), and incidentally through expropriation. The first LR regulation was introduced in 1956 by the central government, and since the 1980s each region has developed the central regulation into its own regional LR regulation. Urban densification in plots already provided with public infrastructure that does not require property readjustment and the construction of new public infrastructure is most of the time implemented by their owners, without need of expropriation or LR. The distribution of legislative competences between the central government and each of the regions is based on the principle of symmetrical division of competences. In 2007, the central government modified the appraisal rules, trying to reduce compensation sums and stimulating the participation of landowners in LR, but in practice not much seems to have changed.
