The owners of houses on the exclusive Galician island of A Toxa ask for public money to maintain it

It was the first and most exclusive tourist enclave of the Rías Baixas since the seventies, but now its owners have pressed the alarm button due to the gradual deterioration of its infrastructures. The Galician island of A Toxa, where the resort concept was born around its large thermal spa hotel, is today trapped in its past. The businessmen and aristocrats who promoted its urbanization agreed half a century ago with the City Council of O Grove (Pontevedra) that they would be the owners of villas and apartments, 600 at present, who would be responsible for paying the costs of services and maintenance. Today these owners say that these payments are unaffordable. As if that were not enough, the legal situation of this unique territory of just one square kilometer is in an urban limbo because the Consistory on duty never certified the works executed within its special plan. As the municipality also lacks planning, it is not possible to build on the island, affected by the Coastal Law and cataloged by Red Natura as a protected area. Despite this intricate scenario, the price of its real estate offer has become more expensive.

The owners of the exclusive homes of A Toxa claim financial aid from the Xunta, the Diputación de Pontevedra and the City Council to be able to pay for the conservation of the roads, the cleaning and gardening service, the bringing and purification of water, as well as the lighting of the island. Only garbage collection is a municipal competence. Any accident that occurs on public roads has to be assumed by the neighbors as civil responsible for the maintenance of the infrastructures.

Community expenses require an annual budget of 800,000 euros that is imputed according to the buildability index of each property or plot, including hotel facilities, which are the ones that contribute the most quota. The average expense borne by the neighbors is approximately 200 euros per month. Most are holidaymakers, as only about 50 are registered in O Grove. Both the community of owners and the neighborhood platform Por La Toja consider that "the situation is unsustainable" due to the avalanche of tourists who visit the island throughout the year. Depending on the season, up to seven buses a day are concentrated. "There are thousands of people and continuous acts of vandalism, which leads to constant wear and tear of the facilities," they say from the neighborhood collective.

Entrance to the bridge that connects the island with the rest of O Grove.ÓSCAR CORRAL

In this enclave, the surveillance of the territory is also the responsibility of the neighbors and includes the alert against possible fires or similar environmental accidents. In the middle of August, two fire alerts were unleashed in the central forest of the island, in front of the Gran Hotel. The tip of a hired guard prevented the flames from spreading. Three minors were the alleged perpetrators of the fire attempt, which were discovered by a follow-up on social networks. A month earlier, the twelfth-century hermitage covered with scallop shells, one of the main tourist attractions of the island, suffered an attack. A group of tourists engraved their names on the main façade. It is not the first time that they appear painted in the chapel or there is significant damage to the heritage of A Toxa.

"We are facing a legally complex situation that can only be resolved with institutional help, since it is a territory of tourist interest," says Juan Buhigas, president of the community of owners, who rules out resorting to the courts, as the residents of the urbanization of San Vicente do Mar did two decades ago successfully. also in O Grove. "It would be an endless dispute," the president alleges.

Buhigas explains that the current inhabitants of A Toxa drag the consequences of the pact signed half a century ago by Inmobiliaria La Toja, which promoted the urbanization of the island, and the City Council of O Grove. "We do not know in exchange for what interests it was agreed that some services, which in normal circumstances would have to be of municipal competence, are exclusively private," he says. "Times have changed and the island is not what it used to be; It has lost its essence due to lack of resources." Buhigas sees willingness in the City Council to find a solution and trusts that the negotiations that have begun with the mayor, the socialist José Antonio Cacabelos, will put an end to this legal limbo.

Cacabelos admits that "it is a problem that must be solved", although he acknowledges that there is no short-term answer, as it is "an exceptional case, since the works that were done were never certified by the City Council". In addition, the possible solutions go through the involvement of the Xunta de Galicia and the Diputación de Pontevedra, which recently undertook the repair of the nineteenth-century construction bridge that connects the island with the rest of the municipality. Infrastructure, however, requires even more investment.

From the Marquis to the Bilderberg Club

The model of A Toxa has as a reference the banker José Riestra López, Marquis of Riestra, who bought the island at the beginning of the last century. After the crash of 1929, the complex passed into the hands of the Count of Fenosa, Pedro Barrié de la Maza, who continued with the plans for subdivision and privatization devised by his friend, the Marquis. At that time only its owners and guests of the Grand Hotel could enter the island. A post with uniformed guards controlled the bridge, an exclusive service that went down in history with the arrival of mass tourism.

Despite the inherited hidden vices, the land of this island is revalued as much or more than that of other popular tourist areas in the surroundings such as San Vicente do Mar and Sanxenxo, according to Benito Castro, expert of Tinsa, the leading international firm in the real estate appraisal sector. Castro confirms that the property in A Toxa has been revalued by 30% in the last two years. "There is demand, but there is no supply because here you can not build as in other neighboring tourist enclaves," says the architect.

With some 26 properties for sale, the offer in A Toxa does not languish at the pace of its infrastructures. The most exclusive villas are the oldest ones. One of them, with a plot of 1,000 square meters, is valued at 3.5 million euros, while the price of a duplex can reach half a million. Wealthy families and aristocrats were the founders of the exclusive summer resort on the island. In the nineties the new cache of A Toxa was marked by well-known Galician businessmen such as the owner of Inditex, Amancio Ortega, and other families linked to fashion such as Adolfo Domínguez, properties that are mostly in the name of mercantile companies.

In 1989, A Toxa came to host a meeting of the select Bilderberg Club and now tries to recover its elitist business model with the La Toja Forum, promoted since 2019 by the Galician businessman Amancio López Seijas, president of the hotel firm Grupo Hotusa. A year earlier, in 2018, López Seijas rescued from decay the five-star facilities of the Gran Hotel, which was mired in an evident decline due to lack of investment from its owner, the disappeared Banco Pastor. This international conclave of intellectuals, politicians, businessmen and academics, whose fifth edition was held a few days ago with the presence of King Felipe VI, is an added attraction for the island and the hotel complex itself. In winter, the Grand Hotel will close its doors again, away from the hustle and bustle of its heyday.

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