Land “should have reverted to public domain a long time ago,” mayor says
The mayor of Tavira has condemned a proposal to sell 24.5 hectares of land on the idyllic Tavira Island as “abusive”.
The controversial sale attempt, initially announced by a real estate company affiliated with British firm Christie’s, has been abruptly pulled from the market after the news was made public by Expresso newspaper.
The land saga stretches back nearly 60 years, local mayor Ana Paula Martins has told Lusa news agency, explaining that 27.5 hectares of land on the island were declassified for municipal use in 1966, with 24.5 hectares sold to the Sociedade Urbanizadora da Ilha de Tavira (Urbanisation Society of Tavira Island, or SUIT) with the goal of developing an “urbanisation project.” However, the project never moved forward.
According to the mayor, the land should have reverted to Maritime Public Domain, emphasising that environmental regulations have tightened considerably since then, with the creation of the Ria Formosa Natural Park making large-scale development increasingly unfeasible.
The mayor has also clarified that, according to her understanding of the situation, the island’s campsite and some of its houses are not part of the plot which is for sale.
During its time as owner of the land, the Urbanisation Society of Tavira Island tried to sell plots of the land off-plan which were never developed, leading buyers to demand refunds, the mayor explained. While the company tried to get the local council to pay the compensations, it lost every case in court, said Ana Paula Martins.
The issues continued in the 1980s when the society sold some apartments off-plan yet again, facing court action when the project was not developed. “Those who had made down payments wanted to be reimbursed and sued the municipality, having lost, appealed and lost again,” the mayor said.
The land eventually ended up in the hands of construction giant Teixeira Duarte, which tried unsuccessfully to offload it to the municipality for €5 million, Ana Paula Martins told Lusa. Just two years ago, another sale attempt sparked outrage among locals, forcing the developers to retreat.
The mayor insists that the land should have reverted to public domain “a long time ago,” having tasked the municipality’s legal team with analysing the entire process to make sure any sale attempts are unsucessful.
Meanwhile, a source from the real estate company Porta da Frente, which published the latest sale ad on its website, told Lusa the ad was removed “either because it was sold or because the owner decided to withdraw it,” and stated that the land was not exclusively being advertised by this real estate company.
