Hello everyone. My husband and I (I'm the fran, he's the rod) are planning to move to Spain in a couple of years' time. We want to go rural, no golf complex or city living. After a few "reccies" we've decided on our area. For all sorts of financial reasons, it makes sense for us to buy a building plot, engage an architect, and get a house at least to shell stage by the time we move out. We need some info on water, and building licences.

We were over there recently and looked at a few plots. One in particular appealed to us. It was covered in scrub and bang in the middle of a lot of orange groves (it had access). We've checked at the Land Registry - its 13,000 plus sq. m, classed as rustico and the use is agrario.

Water - The estate agent told us it had "water rights" but the document he gave us simply says it has the right to irrigate 3.3 sq m. Lovely for a few tomatoes no doubt, but not sure about running a shower and washing machine! I've seen some info on another plot which stated it had water rights for the xxx no. of trees on the plot which was (apparently) "necessary for the building licence".

Building - the estate agent says you can build on any plot over 10,000 sq m, which we've heard before, but I'm thinking there must be "zoning laws" of some sort?

Can anyone explain or direct me to a book or website which (a) explains the mysteries of water rights, and (b) tells me how to find out if any particular area/plot is likely to get a building licence before we fork out money to an architect?

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for any info.