Spain's building permits: why a licence takes a year instead of three months, and how to cut it

Spanish law gives a council three months to decide on a licence for a new building. The real wait is about a year. That gap is the most concrete version of the problem Miriam González described in Democracia 21's launch speech on 10 October as a tsunami of paperwork, with almost three years passing before anyone can build. We treat the three-year figure as the party's claim, since it bundles several stages together; the licence stage alone is well measured, and it is bad enough. Our overview of the speech sets it in context.

How long it really takes

El Español put the numbers together in September 2026. The legal reference is three months from application. The national average is around 12 months, four times as long. The Madrid developers' association ASPRIMA puts the Madrid region at 12 to 14 months and says waits of 18 to 24 months happen more often than they should. The construction employers' confederation CNC and the buyers' platform SOMRIE confirmed waits of a year and a half to two years for some residential projects.

The cost lands on the home. The Spanish architects' council, CSCAE, estimates that 12 months of delay add about €13,000 to each home, through building costs, fees, maintenance and finance. ASPRIMA points out that families who have bought off plan keep paying rent while they wait. El Español tells the story of a seven-home project in Blanes, Girona, filed in October 2023 and licensed in July 2025, still missing another authorisation in September 2026, with the buyers' contracts amended twice.

And the licence is only the last step. Our explainer on developable land shows that turning rural land into building plots takes 10 to 15 years, according to the CNMC.

Why it is slow

The people El Español consulted name the same causes: too few technical staff in councils, turnover in municipal teams, reports required from several bodies, municipal, regional and state rules that overlap, and little digitalisation. ASPRIMA says part of the review is still done in an almost handcrafted way. It also warns that thousands of homes in medium-sized towns are about to enter the process, in councils that may not have the capacity to handle them.

The competition authority, CNMC, reached the same diagnosis in its 2026 study on land for housing. The building stage carries multiple controls and administrative requirements, sometimes disproportionate, that can delay licences without justification. Sector rules on environment, water or roads add duplications and blockages, including negative silences, where a missing report counts as a no.

Marc Dunkelman's book Why Nothing Works gives the general pattern a name. Systems designed to restrain power can end up as what he calls a vetocracy, where nearly anyone can stifle progress. A licence queue is vetocracy in its most ordinary form, with no villain at all.

What is already on the table

The CNMC's recommendations are concrete. Remove duplicated or unnecessary steps, such as successive approvals. Promote responsible declarations in place of licences. Run procedures at the same time instead of one after another. Keep requirements on builders proportionate. Use technology to speed up both licences and sector reports.

The Housing Ministry published a guide with 20 recommendations and good practices on residential licences, dated 29 December 2025 and drawn up with the federation of municipalities FEMP and the architects' council. It covers full digital files, coordination between administrations, common criteria and a role for professionals, and it analyses 30 municipalities. It is guidance, so each council decides whether to follow it.

Portugal went further. Its Simplex Urbanístico, Decree-Law 10/2024, moved more works from licences to prior communication, let builders start without the municipal permit document once fees are paid, and introduced tacit approval when the municipality misses its deadline, which runs from 120 to 200 days depending on the project. Since 5 January 2026 an online licensing platform is mandatory in all 308 Portuguese municipalities. Montepio's guide for buyers still advises checking a property's legal status, since a missing licence can complicate a mortgage or a later sale. Spain can borrow the speed and design the safeguards from the start.

The radical-centre plan

From the left we keep public control. Safety, environmental and planning rules exist for good reasons, and the people who check them should be properly staffed public services. From the market-liberal side we take deadlines that bind: if the council does not answer within the legal period, a complete application for homes on land already zoned for them is approved, and responsible declarations replace licences wherever the risk is low. The idea that fits neither camp comes from treating permitting as a delivery service, in the spirit of the delivery approach Jennifer Pahlka argues for: measure it, staff it and fix it from the user's side.

Put together, for a law that Congress and the regions could agree:

• One digital file per project, shared by the council and every body that has to report, with all sector reports requested on day one and running in parallel, each with its own deadline.
• Silence counts as yes for new homes on fully planned land, as the Partido Popular's 2026 housing bill proposes for new buildings after three months, with the exceptions for protected buildings and rural land kept.
• Accredited checkers. Councils can rely on certificates from accredited professional bodies for technical compliance, and keep inspection powers afterwards, with liability insurance for whoever certifies.
• Fees pay for staff. The licence fee, already capped at cost, funds the technicians who process files, so more applications bring more capacity, as we propose in today's piece on council incentives.
• Publish the wait. Every council publishes the median time from application to licence each quarter, and the regions compare them.

A licence in three months is the law already. This plan simply makes it the normal experience, with the same checks, done on time.