ABSTRACT

The exceptional rhythm of the construction of residential dwellings in Spain between 1997 and 2006 and its geographical contrasts are explained by a time of economic expansion, a political and social context favourable to unlimited growth and excessive and untempered municipal land-use plans with passive or complicit regional governments. The lack of effective land-use regional plans and the discrediting of municipal land-use plans are a manifestation of a deliberate subversion of public planning to subordinate the public interest to the developer’s demands. This article concludes by presenting a panorama of the disturbing consequences of this urban development model.