Spain goes casa crazy: Forget fusty old fincas, the costas are all airy and light
Friday, August 14, 2009 @ 11:56 AM
Grand Designs has reached the Costas and it's changing the shape of the popular Spanish coastline. Buyers who once flocked to the Costa del Sol seeking a classic taste of Andalucia now turn their noses up at colourful wall tiles and Mediterranean hues in favour of a more upbeat look.
'Buyers' tastes on the Costa del Sol are changing, particularly in the more upmarket areas of Marbella such as La Zagaleta or Sierra Blanca,' says Barbara Wood, of The Property Finders.
Conventional marble is out, she says, and solid oak or travertine floors are in, while the old-style, small Andaluz windows, which keep out the sun, are being replaced by floor-to-ceiling glass to increase light and space.
And if you're after wild modernist luxury, the Bolt Property Group builds villas costing from £3.5million within the gated estate of La Zagaleta in Marbella. Extravagance is a theme.
The company's director Hadleigh Bolt, 29, has designed a £27million ten-bedroom mansion which includes a ten-vehicle 'car museum' and a black marble indoor pool.
'Contemporary is the norm now,' says Bolt, whose designs have to comply with La Zagaleta's stringent bylaws, which include no flat roofs, unnatural colours, visible aerials or tennis courts.
There are similar restrictions on the Monte Mayor Golf & Country Club, near Marbella, where Ken and Jackie Brownlee, from Berks, are having an open-plan four-bedroom holiday home designed by Contemporary Villas.
It will include vaulted reception areas, outside 'rooms' including a courtyard set around an infinity pool, and a complete intelligent sound/ light system.
'We saw dozens of more traditional villas for sale which were too rustic for our taste,' says Mr Brownlee. We wanted to design something different.'
Modern design is more accepted at La Quinta in Marbella, where one boat-loving owner has designed his home like a ship, now on sale for £1.67million through Contemporary Villas.
'The steep terrain suited digging out more rooms below ground level,' says the Dutch vendor of the 500sqm, two bedroom glass, steel and concrete villa with glass-bottomed pool.
On the Sotogrande estate, near Gibraltar, one German couple have created a red Casa Mexicana - complete with a glass-case travertine marble courtyard - on sale through Contemporary Villas for £3million.
But Robert Green, director of developments for Cluttons Resorts, reminds buyers or self-builders that 'expressing too avant garde a taste can make the property difficult to sell'.
A prime example is the eccentric Finca de la Belette in Marbella, a nine-bedroom house that mixes Moorish design and futuristic features and includes huge iron gates from an old French castle and Italian renaissance columns.
'It took a long time to sell. No one could quite imagine living in it,' says Green. But no doubt its eventual buyers are relishing their surroundings. And can rest assured that there's nothing else quite like it.
Source: The Daily Mail