Marbella Residents clamour for gated Community Status

Marbella at the Costa del Sol boasts many urbanisations that will attract a whole range of different types of buyer. However, all of Marbella’s urbanisations have the same problem, namely that of attracting unwanted attention from intruders. Many of these urbanisations are only fully occupied during Marbella’s main holiday season. For around 6 months of the year they lack the protection their residents feel they deserve. Residents from around 20 such urbanisations have asked for municipal permission to become gated communities.

Security can be a major issue for buyers hoping to purchase a holiday home at the Costa del Sol. If you are not there all year round to look after your property, potential vandalism and break-ins might occur. Thieves will target households that appear deserted and homes that show signs of neglect.

Residents of urbanisations in Bahia de Marbella, El Paraiso, Guadalmina and Nueva Andalusia are not alone in their wish for gates and other security measures to be installed to keep their properties safe.

Especially the remoter, often very exclusive urbanisations on the outskirts and hills above Marbella can be at risk. Their residents would like to see gates, fences and CCTV installed. However, Marbella’s council has not yet passed the proposed by-laws that will permit such measures.

Liberty versus Vandalism

Apart from the theft and vandalism issues the council must deal with, the greater picture also requires thinking about.

The question arises whether or not people moving to the Costa del Sol are the type of people who want to participate fully in Spanish life or prefer to live, Florida-style, cut off from their immediate neighbourhoods and reside in a luxurious ghetto. Urbanisations constructed on private land can erect whatever fences, gates or access road barriers they wish to use to protect their residents, but when it comes to public roads, the issue becomes one of civic rights.

 If the countryside is to remain open to all, so the Mayor of Marbella, careful consideration of the “gated community” issue has to come first.

 “The elements requested by the urbanisations would, and should, not cut off citizen’s access to the countryside but rather should be a protective and dissuasive barrier to anyone contemplating a crime on a remote urbanisation,” Angeles Muñoz, Mayor of Marbella, explained in a newspaper interview.

The use of all roads should always remain open to all members of the public every hour and every day of the year – that is the current law; installation of barriers on public roads would fly in the face of civil liberty.

With around 5.6 million visitors expected to surge to the Costa del Sol this summer, many of whom are part-time residents, it is easy to forget that for the rest of the year people who actually live and work in the area permanently have a right to move freely and unhindered between resorts and urbanisations.

Undoubtedly, part-time residents also contribute greatly to the municipality’s economy, but a blanket call for road barriers on public roads is simply a step too far.

Location, Location, Location

Think carefully before buying in a remote part of the countryside, for if you are not planning to live in your property all year round, a contingency plan must be in place to deal with issues like year-round security and what happens if that security is breached.

Who talks to the police and insurance company when vandalism or a break-in has occurred? Who gets quotes from builders in and supervises repairs or graffiti clean-up operations when you’re not in Spain?

It is tempting to buy a Marbella retreat up in the hills of El Madronal or La Zagaleta, but if there is no live-in staff or friendly neighbour to keep an eye on your holiday home, it is best to have a formal arrangement with somebody who will check your property at regular intervals. This will, of course, add to the overall costs of maintaining your Costa del Sol property, but will work out cheaper in the long run, for having to deal with the aftermath of vandalism or break-ins is typically a lot more costly.