recent visit to hacienda del alamo

I have just returned from a visit to Hacienda del Alamo this weekend. It's my first visit since November last year.

There have been a lot of changes since then and I was reminded as to why I decided to buy on this resort compared to the many others I had looked round.  

The Spanish village looked fantastic and just about ready  for owners to move in.  I understand that 32 out of the 47 commercial units have been sold (info from the official sales office) and a further 12 have had leases agreed for a 12 month period.  They were a little vague as to what type of businesses were going to be opening but I understand that a variety of restaurants, bars, newsagents and general stores are what will be available.  I also was led to believe that a massage therapist/beauty therapist was interested in opening a unit which they thought would be beneficial as competition to the spa in the hotel, thereby keeping prices competitive.

The hotel is well under way and is scheduled to open in June 2009, although the marketing will begin at Xmas.

The club house was superb and the food was good and prices pretty competitive.  I didn't play any golf on this visit but the course looked in excellent condition and most of the golfers were saying how good it was, although it was slow getting round.

The Oasis development has progressed very significantly, since the "hole in the ground" I last saw in November.  There appear to be a large number of units but it is difficult to see what amount of space is present between blocks, and what the development will look like until more has been done.  There are still a lot of unsold apartments.

There appear to be some very good bargains available at the moment if one wanted to buy some resale villas.  I suspect the current financial situation is having an effect, although the official line still appears to be that sales are going well.  A word of warning, though, Hacienda Management Services has gone into liquidation.  We rented a villa through them for our recent visit, for which we paid in full several weeks ago, only to be told the day we arrived that they had gone into liquidation.  The owner of the villa was fantastic and acknowledged that we were the innocent party and honoured the rental - thank you Ronan!!  I assume that some of the other companies may follow a similar pattern!!

The peace and tranquility of the resort persists, and I didn't hear anything from the race track so assume that's moved now.

I have taken several photos which I will try to download soon.

Hi Richard Ronan here you are more than welcome no doubt we will meet up some day for a game of Golf.

Ronan

hi i am new to this

i have a frontline property on phase one at hacienda del alamo.

spent new year in the club house was good turn out.

didnt recognise many faces so didnt get the usual update feedback gossip etc

the hotel is looking amazing now, a lot of progress since oct.  the spanish village is also exceptional and looks incredible especailly the views.  i go out to hacienda regularly so i thought was good idea to update for those of you who havent been able to visit for a while. 

of the little update i managed to here ...'apparantly'  the monthly magazine will no longer be printed which is a great shame.

not sure what happens from here how or if i will get any replies..

need to get my 13yr old daughter to assist as this is the first time i have done anything like this

 

 

 

 

i am not sure why i have received 2 emails.. got impression email address was private

isnt the forum a means of annonymous communication?

not sure how i get to the messages

 

 

Hi Willoughby - your email address is private but there is a private message facility here which allows people to send private messages to each other on the EOS system.  They don't get access to your email address but you can pass personal details that you wouldn't want to have published on the public forum.

You won't be able to access your private messages until you make a few more posts or you can send a message to Justin who runs the site to ask as you already have messages to read.

Hope that helps and welcome to the forum!

 

hi clare t

was very kind of you to reply to my message thank you kindly

i have enjoyed reading what everyone has to say to each other & often wanted to respond but didnt know the best way..  i have a major problem with my laptop which prevents me dong most things at the moment in XP so having to make do with windows 2000 . all the other computers i have access to are linked together which isnt private so i tread with caution.

i seem to fumble my way round 'eye on spain' , there doesnt seem an awful lot on the Hacienda del Alamo.. where i have my place.  

anyway once again thank you 

 

Hi Willoughby,

 

thanks for the update.  REally great.  Was there any shops or anything open in the Spanish Village?

I have had our place on sale over there since July,  not even a veiwing.

 

Thanks again

 

Mia

 

Hi Mia

sorry that you havent had a viewing..

its the most magical feeling at the spanish village very uplifting if your feeling stressed.  as yet only 'home from home' karine i think her name has opnened up a shop.  as you enter the village by car her shop is almost one of the first on the right hand side.. no expenses spared its been fitted out very stylish looks very classy.  not so sure how well you know 'hacienda del alamo' but i have learnt in the past 5 years to absorb the feedback 'of  little you get' and tread with caution when passing any info on.

i go to spain most months from april to october i love my place at hacienda feel very lucky that i purchased 'off plan' when only a handfull of plots were sold.

a few weeks ago when i visited the village it did appear when i peared through the windows a lot of the units & apartments had got bits and bobs in as if they were in preparation for being occupied.. but everywhere was closed.. 

where is your place in the village?

have to collect my daughter will be back in 5 minutes..i am new to this so forgive me 

 

Hi Willoughby

 

thanks so much for update.  We have 2 Coraliv, one on Canada and one on Bahamas, both for sale, no viewings.  We bought 5 years ago (I think).

 

We have spent lots of time visiting Hacienda and really really love it, but I dont think its going to end well for us, all these years of mortgage payments and the lettings we have had have not covered payments, and had lots of probs, tenants running off not paying for months, and not paying utilities etc.  So I think we have more or less given up now, which is a real pity because we were sooo happy with the developement. (except for the slowness of the Spanish village, it would have really helped with lettings if it was finished a couple of years ago.

 

Again thanks for the update.

 

mia

its a difficult one...i have a sirio 1 on phase 1 frontline and its gobbling money.. we even let our pool guy go December and installed a winter pool cover to cut down on costs .  my hubby also installed cctv in oct as we had a bit of an issue with people cutting through our garden from the golf course.  we love our place and never have rented it out as we are all too familiar with the hastle that goes with renting. there isnt a great deal of profit to be made either. though we havent ruled it out as we have had a lot of friends visit us who rent at la manga club who have asked plus other friends asking too.

it would appear the long term rentals are the way forward.  the security staff need accomodation whilst training and staff etc..

can i ask who your mortgage lender is? if you have one that is so do forgive me .. we are with CAM & have recntly found that communication isnt flowing as well as i expected.

do you know many people at hacienda? most people i know have done well with rentals but not through the agents mostly direct.

i am going to be visiting more often to keep up to speed i also go check that all seems well at the villas of  valuable friends i have made at hacienda

are you selling your properties through an agent?

i think the Hotel will move things along, people will be melia sol visitors

Hi Willoughby,

We have rented through agents, one that went bust recently,  you prob know of them HMrental, we are now also using another.  But every month there's just something else. lol

We didnt really get to know people on Hacienda but were familiar with the bank staff (Caixa Catalunya who our mortgages are with, they were lovely), really liked the girls at resort management, we had some rentals with them and would often pop in to say hi and chat when we were over.  Last time we were over in June, all my underwear got stuck in the washing machine, so you can imagine the hi jinks with the girls in resort management trying to help get it sorted with me.

I was knickerless for a few days on Hacienda so that prob de valued the houses a bit, apologies.

We never got to go around the Spanish Village in June because although it was finished, still couldnt just go walk around it.  Though looked really amazing from outside.  Hotel looked great too.

At this stage I dont know if we will be visiting again, because if things dont work out well, it will be way too sad to go back.

An amazing development.

 

Mia

 

 

hi again mia

for some reason my last reply didnt get through to you and i had to go out last night and have only just noticed.

what position are you at with the banks at the moment? have you had any feedback from Hacienda?

obviously your situation comes as a shock to me as i actually havent managed to speak with anyone in your position.  i do know of a few villas recently gone up for sale on phase 1 where we are but i dont know them or circumstances. 

debbie

 

 Hi Richard and All those other residents at Hacienda Del Alamo.

We have a 3 bed/3 bath Altair on phase 3 which has been rented through Sue Gardner's property management company before it went into liquidation. We are desperate to find a solution to our mortgage which we are unable to continue paying, as there is just no regular rentals, which we were led to believe by the agents would be no problems when we purchased 6 years ago, and there would be huge demand due to a complete infrastructure being in place by 2007. This is still not the case 2 years on.

I have read your recent visit up-date and although sounds positive, doe's nothing for my confidence in the development management team as people will not be holidaying in large numbers until the infrastructure is fully operational.

Can anyone advise me of a good lawyer who would be able to assist us in resolving our dilemna.

Regards

 

Martin        

 

HI everybody,

 

Same problem here - Sue Gardnier totally screwed me over - rentals were lookign good - or so she said, and never had any money out of her.  Worse still, I paid for a 'furniture pack' from her and it turns out she may have simply moved furniture from one villa to another.  I just read on a post she may be living in Surrey - I would certainly like to know where if anybody had a clue..?

I 'sold' my 2nd Phase Altair through Hacienda Multi Services (Robert Shaw, Robert Capewell), but the 'sale' has never made it through because of various things along the way.  The Bank "Caja Murcia" really became quite agressive about the whole thing with chasing for mortgage payments (which of course i thought were being made due to the rental monies in my account, which subsequently discovered of course never made it in there).  They threatened and threathen legal action for repossesion and eventually all went very quiet after it was passed to their 'legal' people and the whole process has now started.  I have put a lot of money into the villa over the last few years in mortgage payments and a substantial deposit, but due to no rentals, exchange rate etc I cannot afford to pay the mortgage, so like some of you, have had to give up..! Very very sad and not sure what next steps actually are with the banks process or with what happens to the villa.

It sounds very very scary as to what is happening out there as I have been looking at trying to remortgage through a company called SunSea Preperties Worldwide (guy named Alan Hall).  anybody come across him at all...?  My thoughts were to remortgage hopefully to a level that would cover the mortgage payments, get out of the legal process and get to a stage where I could sell the villa and at least make a marginal profit.  By the way I had agreed a sale price on the villa of Euro 245,000..!!! a tad shocking seeing as i paid 272,000 plus IVA off plan about 6 years ago..!

 

Any feedback from anybody on the above would be good..

 Hi Everyone

Sue Gardner is back in UK and currently living in Guildford. I have a tel number for her as she owes me substantial amounts of money, following her total lack of management.

I am also reviewing my position as we were led to believe the resort would be operational by 2007.....thats a joke eh?

Regards

M

i personally think you should post her number on this thread...  (I would certainly like to have it) I am assuming there is no comeback on her through a UK court..?

Hi there Carl and all,

 

Shit it's a big mess really isnt it.  Am in the same situation as you, not been paying mortgage for a few months now etc. 

 

I also got really screwed over by the recent incumbent that took over after HM rentals.  Took 6 months payment from my tenant and never got a penny of it.  It is so shit really.  A few years of HM rentals and then this shower of sh~~~ts.  I still wonder how they can get away with it.

 

Not looking to re mortgate though as that is really scary.  Because just my opinion only, but I receckon these properties will go down even further.  (like who is going to open up in the Spanish village when there just arnt any people around etc etc)  I too have paid mortgage for 4 years now.  Its just all such a freaking mess.   Well just wanted to let you know your not alone, dont know if that helps.  We have put thousands into that development and well we may just have to draw  a line somewhere in the sand...

I don't even want to pay money for legal advice as it seems like its just more money down the drain.

You take care.

 

Mia

 

 

 

 

 

I am assuming there is no comeback on her through a UK court..?

 

Oh just one other thing.  All they have to do is declare bankruptcy in the UK, and this will cover all debts through the EU.

Soz to post bad news.

 

Mia

yes, but the majority of what they were doing was fraudelent.  Personally I paid her money directly (not through her company) for the 'furniture pack' that I am told she simply moved from somebody elses villa..!!  I would like to find her address in Guildford so I can involve the police if necessary.  If anybody has that information or her personal landline numbers, please feel free to send it to brennan dot lucy at googlemail dot com if you are not comfortable posting it on public board like this. sorry - had to obfuscate the email address as i got an error saying i could not include it.

Mia

 

personal messages not enabled on my 'account' here.  you can mail me on carl dot brennan at db dot com