Junta de Andalucía has asked for patience from the foreigners who find themselves to be living in property now deemed to be illegal.

Junta de Andalucía has asked for patience from the foreigners who find themselves to be living in property now deemed to be illegal. The Councillor for Housing and Territorial Ordination, Juan Espadas, commented that the LOUA territorial ordination law was not a law to a single end, adding that guarantees would be given to purchasers. However he told journalists that in the cases where the property could be brought into legality it would be the owner who is expected to compensate the municipality, either by the payment of a sum of money or by handing over land. He referred to this idea as ‘criterio de equivalencia’ saying it was needed because it would be impossible to return the site to how it was given that an illegal property had been built on it.He said that those homes already built and occupied would be looked at case by case, and that in the most delicate cases where legalisation was not possible, compensation would be paid when necessary. However he repeated earlier comments that homes could not be legalised with the sweep of a pen.