Any ideas of how to get from Malaga Airport to Cherbourg France PLEASE?????

Thanks CUZ you saved me doing the fingerwork.  Hope it helps all

Ruth,Peter & Krystal

Hi All,

Just been on this web site and you can't sell your property back but what you can do is sell it on (if anybody wants to buy it) and lose probably about 30% of what you've already paid!!!!    I think they are calling them distressed properties. Well it is for the owners who have to sell them.  I have found it quite disturbing the number of properties that are for sale on these sites with people losing thosands of pounds.

Lisa

Yes, I noted this too via google and through conversations with another source who is an agent in Murcia. There are really  large numbers of people wanting to sell on; either through genuine need or because they planned to sell originally. However lots of people have found that the off plan they bought for profit is a mill stone around their neck as they didnt plan to have to pay the mortgage so that accounts for the huge discounts- had we only known!

Problem for Polaris is they wont want the resort festooned with 'for sale ' notices as it affects the look of the resort for prospective purchasers and undercuts their sales.  It can also lead to a 'ghost town'  which none of us want. Lets hope for a pick up in the market soon. Its still a good product.

 

Hi All

The amassing thing to me is considering the downturn in world markets particularly property, how well overall Condado is doing, although sales are very slow they are still selling from what I have seen. Lots of people will have ordered the properties when the market was buoyant, myself included, and it looked like a sure fire investment, many of them will have bought with the intention of flipping the property before completion to make a quick profit and these are the people who are having troubles now, if they are not in a financial position to complete. Yes a small number of people will have had a change in circumstances, which is preventing them from completing, I feel very sorry for them, as none of us truly know what is around the next corner. Some people have bought to rent and to me it looks at the moment as if they are going to have a challenging time with the strong euro against other currencies and slow progress of the commercial parts of the complex. Letting/selling commercial space will be even harder in this climate, the golf course, which I don’t think is behind schedule, its just a slow process to build a championship quality golf course. All this will make letting your properties difficult in the short term, but like they say when the going gets tuff the tuff get going, I thing I remember reading a post at some time from someone with property on La Torre and how he uses every avenue he can fined to promote his property’s and it takes a lot of effort but he manages to let all his main weeks and most of the other weeks. I also remember meeting a young couple when we came out on our inspection visit again when times were good, they had come back to buy property number three and when we chatted with then they had every intention in investing in as much rental property in Condado as possible then selling up at home and moving themselves out to live in Spain for a better life, I think of them now as I hope they didn’t overstretch themselves as they are a very nice couple and I hope they had considered how they would cope if things didn’t go smoothly. But my point is albeit slow now Condado is still progressing and if we get though this down time, then in a couple of years time when economies improve as they eventually will, we will have fantastic properties in a fantastic location as long as our Communities don’t allow it to be spoilt.

Phil

All
I can empathise with everyone who are now being held to ransom by Polaris in a completion and financial sense.  We too are in this situation and after having the legal letter forcing us tom complete on the 4th Aug, and got a reprieve to the 28th.  Fortunatley we can afford (just) to pay for our two bed cash but it is not ideal and we may decide to lose 40% rather than tie up another £70k in unmarketable Spanish property - which is the lesser of two evils?

When we contacted Polaris on about the enforced completion date of the 4th Aug, we told them we were not delaying completing (seeing as we have already signed on our 3 bedroom property) - the bank were delaying giving us a mortgage or were viewing us as high risk, hence not giving us a mortgage.  Polaris were good enough to take that on board, cancelled the enforced completion (which needs to be ratified by the notary) and have put our details forward to "preferred brokers" and banks to consider our financial case for a mortgage.  One of them has come up good but only if we deposit a substantial sum in sterling into there bank as a bond (or collateral) against default, and it's tied until the mortgage is paid off!

Speaking to our Spanish freinds last week (both lawyers but not conveyancing) they think Polaris cannot keep the full 40% deposit of we decide overall to pull out.  I am taking my purchase agreement to them this week to read over and they will seek advice for us (even though they are on holiday for the month of August!).  The good thing is that they are not conveyancing lawyers and, in effect, have no love for Polaris so we will get a completely impartial view.  My conveyancing lawyer read from the same hymn book as everyone else and told us we would lose the 40%.

Aparently there has been a high court case in the UK with the same situation on an earlier Polaris resort with a victory for the man on the street - it took a bit for him to wrestle his money back from Polaris (and not the full 40%) but he got some. 

Esentially, I know I will not get the 7% commission paid to my agent and I would reckon Polaris would get to keep reasonable costs - say another 5% c €2500 - but when I would get the rest back and how much I would have to shell out to recoup it is anyones guess. 

May be the solution is for a load of people (as mentioned previously on this thread) to collectively challenge the situation.  Let's face it, it's not our faults the greedy banks have created a credit crunch and Polaris, and other large builders, have more chance of getting lrge scale funding (like the €241m euro loan to complete Mar Menor II) than many individuals have in orer to keep them afloat until other cash rich buyers can snap up the properties.

Alan

Can anyone pass on the name of a lawyer who is prepared to represent on the basis that too many changes have been made.in jardines
this would be appreciated

This message was last edited by sartom on 8/11/2008.

Hi all, 
like many of you , we are in the last throws of having to pay our 60% for a penthouse apartment on Los Naranjos.( mid October we are being told now , when previously it was going to be early 2009) Whereas we do ( luckilly ) have the funds in place, I am deeply concerned by some of the changes Polaris seem to have made regarding the local shopping centre, the removal of pools,, the earlier completion dates, etc. I have asked my solicitor for advice on whether this could constitue breach of contract as I am un nerved. I am no solicitor, but common sense leads me to believe it should.However the only way forward would be to have a large number of people, pushing for this, i.e a group action.You might find , if such an action was brought, it may at least delay the completion timetables, which all seem to be , being brought forward. This is a worry in its own right, as if one is suspicious/ paranoid, one might think that PW is in trouble and want to complete as many as possible, before they might go bust. Where will that leave us all then!!! I have no evidence of this and would not want to start any rumours, and am floating this in ignorance, but  does anyone have any info.on PW latest financial position.

Kelvyn & Lisa

Hi kelvyn & Lisa,

If you go to all threads and go to the thread entitled P.W reasurring news posted by Kev1  on 7th August, I am sure this will put your minds to rest.  We are also in the penthouses Block 10, what block are you in ?. 

Hope this helps
Alison

This message was last edited by Alison&Simon on 8/11/2008.

HI Sartom
A good lawyer is Maria de Castro. You can find her on the main forum.so you can pm her. She is on holiday for another week. She is Spanish and representing a few from Condado. She rekons that there is a good case against PW. Myself wanted to continue the fight with PW but my wife had enough hassle, we came to an agreement with PW AFTER a long fight



                                                                                                       Dave

Hi,
Thought I'd add a comment re-completion dates. We too now have one for October for our Los Naranjos penthouse and it is sooner than we expected. We initially were thinking mid-2009 as that is what people 'unofficially' estimated. However, when we signed our contract we asked our lawyer about completion dates as it stated the apartments would be completed 18 months from 'start of works'. He determined that this date was March 2007 for Los Naranjos and said we should therefore expect completion in Nov 2008. He did add that in Spanish law it may be difficult to hold the builders to this and also that, if building was finished early, there were sections in the contract indicating we would have to complete. I therefore conclude Polaris have actually finished around the time they 'officially' committed to (unusual nowadays) so have no concerns over this. Hope this puts a few minds at rest.  

Hi Alison,
I  read the article about the quater of a billion Euros being made available to PW some while ago, and on the face of it you would think this is good news. On the other hand however, if PW was financially stable, they would not have needed it. It smacked to me of something broadly similar to the Northern Rock fiasco. You could take a view that the banks were placed between a rock and a hard place.( no pun intended) They had to support PW or lose what they have already invested. Maybe I am too sensitised and risk averse, but with other Spanish developers( and English) going to the wall, it might be a concern. 

We are in  block 1 by the way.

Kelvyn & Lisa

I don't think it is very healthy to start an unconfirmed rumour, which is what is it, on the forum when people are in the throws of completion or even worse yet to complete.  It causes unnecessary worry when people should be excited about their small slice of the sun......  I think if there were any financial issues it would soon be leaked by someone on the inside !!

I agree plus any large company executing a project of this size will be underwritten by financial institutions with sums like this. As far as I'm concerned they are doing a good job and to deliver my apartment on time is somewhat a surprise but GREAT news ! 

Jackie/Kev,  
I am sorry if you felt I was spreading rumours, but as I said, in  my first post on this thread, I was not looking to start rumours. But can you honestly say that you have not thought yourself of some of these issues.?? It might be unwise, if you haven't. From some of the posts I have seen, I am clearly not the only one who has concerns...am I??? 
Kelvyn and Lisa

I have to agree with you smivs and Kev1. In these shakey times for us small investors, negative unsubstanciated rumours although inevitable, are not what most people want to hear.
I am all for everyone's opinion counting, this is after all an open forum, but anxious first time investors don't really want to hear those negative vibes.
If Spanish/European banks are lending PW almost £230m they will have done so with significantly more financial advice than we have had. Northern Rock (the example given) is now backed by the Bank of England and HM Treasury. 
I would say of all the banks that might crumble in the future, NR will not be one of them.
It is far more likely that the banks which have lent this huge amount of money to PW have been attracted by the mid to long term investment possibilities they can see and are simply taking advantage of a very popular developement. 
From our first contact with this developement we were told that Contardo will not be at it's most magnificent until the whole complex is up and running and that could take up to seven years!
TJ

Given i have funded some pretty big projects then there are two ways of looking at this.

1) The main one to me was that the funding of €250m was for a project / expansion of Mar Menor, i.e. something they didn't have to do. 
2) If the funding had been part of a refinancing/re-structure package then maybe there could be 1 or 2 concerns, but again the fact that the package is given means the funders believe in the long term viability of the business. This does not smack of a bail out, as that would have involved some kind of debt for equity deal.

If you follow that, then the €250m for a project is very positive news.

As for delivering early well development started on 1/4/07 at Condado, and PW stated quite clearly from the outset that they expected to start completing c18mths after starting, but if sooner then they have the right to request completion once Habitation Certs received. The whole thing caught me out as well as i expected 2 to 3 years (like most Spanish developers) so i had to go down route C to complete which was not perfect for me. Again this is far better than waiting 5 years to complete.

When it comes to projects then you also deliver your cash generating part first, so that's the properties, the amenities then follow, this keeps funding costs down, keeps the funders happy, and gives the funders confidence to do it again when next requested.

PW have not been perfect here with a number of changes, however that's what happens on developments. This is a 10 year plan, things will be added piecemeal. Whilst I am disappointed that I am not near a Foro now, I wouldn't have wanted to be visiting an empty one, so if the shared Foro is busier then that will suit me - the walk will do me good.

Glass more than half full for me

Dear all, how do you know that the Spanish banks have got more info, than those involved in Northern Rock?  I doubt it somewhat.I appreciate that you ''might not want to hear '', or that ''its inevitable the conclusions drawn'' your words not mine, but  come on get real, surely I am right to be nervous. All I am looking for , I guess ,is some re assurance.You have'nt given it to me yet. I am open to be persuaded!!! Lets get back to the original issue. PW are taking out facilities, and are pushing hard for early completion.

Kelvyn and Lisa

Lisa/Kelvyn

See my post................ also a big chunk of PW is now owned by Credit Suisse, some of the original investors sold out between Dec 06 and June 07.

OMG! Take 6.. steps back and think about why you wanted a nice apartment in the sun??!!??
And if it isn't want is it you want?rd

Anyway its going to rain here tomorrow.  What's it doing where you are?

Nice try Shampers but you can't convince those that don't won't to be convinced, I'm with you my glass is half full and dead chuffed I have got my apartment early !!!!