Hi,
I'm a bit slow on the uptake and have only just found this site! Been reading your messages and experiences, and thought i'd share my 'story'!
In 2002, after unexpectedly coming into some money, and a Sangria soaked summer holiday, My ( now ) husband and i thought it would be a fantastic idea to invest everthing in a spanish property. ( watched too much 'a place in the sun'!) Can't rember how exactly, but it was at this point we crossed paths with one Ocean View Properties, obviously a miraculas meeting, as dispite our best efforts we have not managed to cross paths since.
We had a fantastic weekend away, and decided to invest, in fact it looked so good we started to wonder if we could find the money for a second ( luckily we couldn't)
We came back to England full of enthusiasm despite both sets of parents asuming that we had gone completely mad.Things started off alright, but then started to progress a bit slowly to say the least. We kind of put it on the back burner and did other things ( got married, had a baby, moved house) But started to get some strange old letters that Ocean View had ceased communications with IFOS then a year ago we were about to complete iminatley etc. I'm sure you're all familier with the story.
Anyway it had been 4 long years when we were told we were ready to complete dispite not having a fairly important liecence. We ummed and arred but though sod it, it's taken this long lets just get the keys. We booked a flight with easy jet last Tues ( I'm very lucky as one of my dearest friends works for them, and bumped his parents off his staff travel list and put us on, so our flights are now incredibly cheap- although our 3 year old would have to pay full price, so that's mummy and daddy's excuse for coming away alone- thank god for grandparents!
We stayed in an incredible pent house apartment- one of Ocean views rentings and were so excited, as although we knew ours would be smaller as it was Ocean Views quality we were expecting. Oh dear.........
After much searching, we eventually found Miraflores again, and everything looked really nice as we were looking for the Angel apartments. Then we stumbled across what appeared to be a car park.Oh dear.......
It didn't take long for the penny to drop. Think multy story car park, think bad housing estate, think prisioner cell block H ( block 6 in our case)We thought our surprises had ended but no! When we eventually picked ourselves off the floor, we let ourselves in to our apartment. Imagine our surprise when we found we had 2 bathrooms ( sorry guys we've nicked someones) instead of 2 double bedrooms we had one double and one single ( presumably because of the extra bathroom) and if i could have caught a cat i would have seen if i could have swung it around the kitchen. ( a joke i promise!) and then there at the far end of it all, was the biggest and most beautiful balcony with mountain views to one side and the mediteranian sea on the other, wow, all was not lost.
There wasn't a lot of conversation on the way back to where we were staying and we poured a large bacardi and coke when we got there. Decided on an early night and to gather as much information the next day as possible.
Next morning we spoke to an estate agent at miraflores, and to be honest, unless you want to make a loss, now is not a good time to sell. She advised us that when the place is up and running, with a community going, and the land scaping was finished, ( we breathed a sigh of relief, as the day before we thought it WAS finished) Angel de Miraflores wasn't a bad investment as long as you are looking pretty long term.
We then went up to see the lady in the offices on site, and found her to be really helpful, apparently there has been 2 quotes for gardeners and work should begin fairly soon. ( land scaping will make such a differance). She also told us about a community meeting this sat. morning, which my husband and i are flying out for.
We came away feeling so much more positive than the day before, we had a lovely lunch in a hotel by the sea, and started to remember why we fell in love with the area.We then went back to the apartments and saw them with new eyes. We tried to imagine trees growing and loads of plants and flowers, the large pebble dashed wall painted white and lots of people milling around. Then we went back to our small but nice apartment and stared out to sea.
As I said my husband and i ( minus small child) are flying out on thurs and back sat night after the meeting, so if anyone is going, we look forward to meeting you. We are staying in our apartment on Thurs and Fri night ( on what i don't know, as we have no furniture yet!) So think of us, whether permitting, sitting on or balcony, drinking wine, putting the world to rights and remembering why we fell in love with Spain.
Sorry about the length of this, and spelling, just thought i'd let you know our thoughts,
Jo
P.S For better or worse, for richer or poorer, (probably) till death do us part, we are all in this together!