Julio Iglesias accused of landgrab with 1,500-villa holiday complex

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Telegraph
By Peter Upton in Valencia
(Filed: 13/03/2005)

Julio Iglesias, Spain's singing superstar, has a reputation as the housewives' favourite - except, that is, among villagers on the Costa Blanca, who accuse the crooner of exploiting Valencia's controversial "land-grab" laws to build a development worth an estimated £370 million.

Iglesias has a near 50 per cent stake in a property company that is planning to build 1,500 villas and a golf course on unspoilt land belonging to poor farmers in the mountains near the resort of Benidorm.

The plan has prompted fury among locals in the village of Benichembla, which numbers 120 British expatriates among its population of 350. Villagers accuse the mayor, Aurelio Llinares, of signing a secret deal with the developers and are campaigning for his resignation.

Valencia's controversial laws, passed in 1994, were aimed at speeding up urban development but were poorly drafted, enabling some unscrupulous property developers to ask for land to be reclassified from rural to urban without the owners' permission.

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