BELIEVE EVERY WORD FELIX HAS WRITTEN.

I work in a small town hall and on Fridays share an office with the municipal surveyors etc. Building ANYTHING on "rustico" is a PITA - even a goat shed. Minor renovations to existing REGISTERED property on rustic land is often OK but new building or any "Obra Mayor" will almost certainly get rejected. To deal with these guys you'll need EXCELLENT Spanish skills. I occasionally get asked to help translate - I'm trilingual but even so there are technical terms that I have to look up. You need a good local bilingual lawyer.

Here in Madrid there have been cases where a small shed/stable was made more robust - and the bulldozers were sent in.

Also get prepared for frustrations as the records at CATASTRO and the local authorities VERY often do not match up - if they don't you need to gain an agreement between them - this takes TIME - I know of one case here they've been fighting 3 years.

A Finca Rustica is best left for raising goats or turning into a Cotos de Caza (hunting land) if the GC will allow it!.

IMO - Estate Agents are now getting VERY desperate. About 4000 have filed for bankruptcy since January - Was chatting with my local bank manager yesterday and he was telling me that many Estate Agents/Builders are cashing in all investments as they have outstripped themselves.

My advice also is NEVER PAY CASH. take out a Mortgage and protect it with the capital you intended to spend. Apart from there being a slight tax advantage, the BANK (if it's any good) is then going to INSIST the deeds are bona fide. Leastways ours did and forced a change of clause at the Public Notary office. Builder was a tadge miffed - but faced with a Notary they will back down.

Right now many small builders are WAY overstretched. If you see a property that is not finished and there's little sign of work - back away FAST.