Until the mid-nineteenth S there was practically no urban planning law. The origin of the Urban Planning Law is located in the industrial revolution, which results in one hand, the rural exodus and, moreover, a significant demand for housing.
[:]In the nineteenth century there was a public works planning, which was carried out through laws widening of populations and internal reform. With regard to the laws of sprawl, was the General Law of Population Widening of 29 June 1864 and the Act of 26 June 1892 regulating the Eixample in Madrid and Barcelona. Regarding internal reform laws, the Expropriation Act of 10 January 1879 and the Act of 18 March 1895, on sanitation and improving the interior of large populations. The planning of public works was being carried out through the administration of the expropriation of land required for the development. In that expropriation was not paid any kind of expectations but was paid only the value of the land rustic. Furthermore, the development costs were paid by special contributions.
The Land Law of 1956 was the first standard that was a unitary urbanism and complete and all subsequent laws have changed very little in the scheme and the model created by the Act. This law is characterized by the emergence of the concept of statutory property, which means that the content of property rights will be defined by the planning, another figure who also created this law. Likewise, born current private project planning, which assumes that the administration will no longer be private but the leading role in the growth of cities. A Land Act of 1956 did the Land Law of 1976, prior to the Spanish Constitution.