Yes, its all intentional, many laws. On top of that also bureaucratic hurdles, widespread incompetence and a little corruption. But our company gradually learn

Yes, its all intentional, many laws. On top of that also bureaucratic hurdles, widespread incompetence and a little corruption. But our company gradually learned the solutions with the help of many Spanish and Portugese locals and high fees for the local lawyers and technical architects. There are millions of dwellings in Spain and Portugal built without permits. Nowadays they are demolished quickly if they find out. Buying the older illegal houses is also dangerous (and the reason so many foreigners are scammed bying their dream property). For example, you can not build on rural land outside of town, not on farm land or on nature reserves. The government owns the water, you can't just digg a well. You can only get permission to build a tool shed in some areas if you own at least 5000m2. The police will evict you if you start building or living on your land, tipped off by the neighbours who don't like foreigners or competition from your farm. If you rent out your house to tourist, you'll need a permit and pay more taxes. And anything is slow, you'll run out of money much quicker than the government runs out of ways to delay you. Watch the 17 years of Dutch episodes (thru a dutch VPN) of "Ik Vertrek" for all the horror stories of people buying land or houses in Europe and losing all their money.