Real estate dynamics, land and population in the city of Valencia, 1960-2009

Abstract

Since the mid-twentieth century until today, Valencia has known an intense development of real estate activity. Between the late twentieth century and early twenty-first, the city experienced a second real state "boom", but less important that which occurred in the seventies of the twentieth century. To analyze this phenomenon, we have studied the licenses of occupation of buildings and homes since 1960 and the building licenses since 1993. Likewise, we have observed the use of erroneous demographic calculations for justifying the city housing developments since the first urban plan in 1946. Moreover, the behavior of Valencia is contextualized with the evolution of housing visas in three other major Spanish cities, Madrid, Barcelona and Seville. Finally, the article offers an overview of the urban development of the city of Valencia by partial plans and other similar figures derived from the 1988 General Plan and the regional Valencia land law of1994.