My wife has just been out for a week or so to check up on our Phase 1 Penthouse and she commented that the whole place (Benalmadena) is currently like a ghost town and the condition of the 'golf course' on Arenal Golf is horrendous.
We have been exploring the possibility of selling the apartment and buying a house and for that purpose she contacted one of the supposedly 'recommended' agents on this site, a company called 1casa . Well, I don't know how they've become recommended and I could find no mechanism on this site to post her opinion but to say the service was less than professional would be an understatement.
The guy who answered the phone had absolutely zero interest in coming out to value our apartment. He asked my wife what she thought it was worth (err, isn't that for him to say?) and when she told him our estimate (albeit based upon prices a year ago) he said well, I just sold a villa near phase 1 for 200,000 euro's. When she told him the apartment had quite a special outlook, one of the best on the phase, he asked her to send in some pictures! Outrageous. Just what does this company actually do for their commission? Yet they come highly recommended. Avoid at all costs.