LPA conference, a forum on the future of the Costa del Sol

It was billed as the largest and most important conference on the future of the Costa del Sol, and it did not disappoint. Founding LPA member Diana Morales Properties was one of the present agencies.

The Leading Property Agents of Spain organisation (LPA) had gathered together southern Spain’s most important bodies and agencies at the Don Carlos Hotel, to discuss the way forward for the coast, leading up to the year 2020. The LPA’s operations manager Stuart Brown-Giraldi, explained:

“We want people to get up and start taking action, rather than just complaining about over-development, lack of infrastructure, or the political situation. We want to influence the people that matter, the people who have the power.”

One of those people was the Mayor of Marbella, Angeles Muñoz, who turned up on the day to give her personal support to the LPA’s flagship event. “I keep saying that the best place to live and to work is Marbella and the Costa del Sol,” she said.

The main speakers at the forum included President of the AEGI Javier Martín Ledesma, and Ramón Dávila, President of PROMOTUR (The Promoters Association of Residential Tourism and Sports in Andalucia) and Enrique Vega from CIEDES.

Other key orators included legal experts Ignacio Pérez de Vargas and Felipe Martínez de Marmol, Ben Dahlstrom from the Overseas Property Professional Magazine, and Professor Luisa Gomez Moreno from the University of Málaga.

Subjects ranged from water provision to the Málaga airport expansion, from planning issues and real estate, to tourism and media coverage.
More than 250 delegates were there to witness the debates, and all agreed it had been a great success. The LPA President Ian Bateman said he was delighted with the turnout, and with the event as a whole:

“We needed to bring awareness to the public in general that we do care about how the coast is going to develop in the future. Let’s start discussing it by getting all the different professionals from the environmental side to the planning side, to everything, talking together. Hopefully this will be a positive catalyst...”

Diana Morales, 21 Apr 2008 - News