Felipe Martinez de Marmol, from solicitors Martinez-Echevarria Perez & Ferrero Abogados, explained in further detail the regulations surrounding Decree 218, passed in 2005, which requires all agencies selling property on the Costa del Sol to have a Documento Informativo Abreviado (DIA) and a Ficha Informativa (FI) - similar to the UK’s Home Information Packs (HIPS). De Marmol believes the need to be compliant with the Decree is becoming increasingly important as officials from local government have been conducting snap inspections of offices on the Costa del Sol recently. He added that buyers needed to be taught to ask for these documents, as well as agents providing them.Javier Ledesma, President of AEGI, the Spanish estate agents association, who spoke about the future of the area’s property market leading up to 2020, acknowledged the concerns shared by several members of the audience surrounding Decree 218, however said it was a case of recognising it was there to stay and making sure individual firms were compliant.
“After two years we still haven’t taken Decree 218 seriously. While we might not agree with certain aspects of it, we must follow it. It is the law. Some 67% of real estate offices still don’t provide the mandatory information required by the executive order published in 2005 and we are in April 2008. People didn’t believe it before and thought it was a gimmick but it is not and we are in a delicate situation.”Other speakers examined issues surrounding the Costa del Sol's property market, such as concerns over its environmental sustainability, the best way to promote residential tourism and more detail about the Marbella PGOU plan.
The LPA has another conference that will examine these and other issues, in more detail, later this year.