Architect in Jávea, Costa Blanca

Jávea has a planning scheme of its own

The building permit is applied for at the town hall of Jávea, and what may be built on a plot — the floor area, the height, the distance to the boundary — follows from Jávea's own planning scheme. The neighbouring municipalities have their own: anyone who has built in Moraira or in Benissa cannot simply carry that experience over to here.

Within Jávea, moreover, the conditions differ from one zone to the next. The old centre, the coastal strip, the extensive residential area on the slopes and the protected areas around the Montgó each fall under their own rules. What applies to your plot therefore depends on where it lies.

What else comes with a house in Jávea

In the extensive residential area, where most of the villas stand, a building permit covers more than the building alone. A water tank of its own, the collection and discharge of waste water where there is no mains drainage nearby, and parking within the plot are part of the plan as well.

If the plot is on a slope, the earthwork has an important part to play too. Among other things, the height of the retaining walls and the distance between them are considered, in relation to the level difference across the ground. The unbuilt parts of the plot are kept at their natural level as far as possible.

The appearance of the house is subject to rules as well. Conditions can even extend to the roof covering, down to the colour of the tiles.

These are not matters that can be settled once building is under way: they have to be taken up in the design. Where the house sits on the plot, how the ground is adapted, where the retaining walls go, how the waste water is collected and discharged and which roof covering is allowed all follow from the conditions that apply to that plot. And those conditions differ from one zone within Jávea to the next.

Our office is here

Our office has been in Jávea since 2007. We have designed houses here and, together with the technical architect, carried out the construction supervision, and we know the route through the town hall: which departments an application passes and which documents they ask for.

Before you buy a plot

Before you buy, it can be checked which zone a plot falls in, what the planning scheme allows on it and what the ground itself means for the possibilities of the design. The study of ownership, charges and boundaries is for your lawyer.