Local council in the Costa del Sol resort of Marbella – an area traumatised by years of corruption involving politicians and residential developers

Local council in the Costa del Sol resort of Marbella – an area traumatised by years of corruption involving politicians and residential developers – is seeking to retrospectively "legalise" 18,000 homes, which are now found to have been built without appropriate construction licences. But three schemes, all close to the water, have not been included in this de facto amnesty and instead face demolition.
They were built since the introduction of the 1988 Coastal Law (called the Ley de Costas) designed to protect the coastline by prohibiting construction within 100 metres of the high-water mark. "These buildings are practically in the sea," says Barbara Wood, a buying agent, who runs The Property Finders in this part of Spain.