Los Olivos

I have just been to HDA and have spoken to someone in the know. He assured me he had seen the signed contract between Armilar, the race track and the local council for the movement of the race track.

This means they will be moviing but when this will be is not strictly defined. However, the person I spoke to was confident they would be out by the end of the year.

The above information is also in the March issue of the HDA magazine.

The race track has obviously had a detrimental effect on sales of Los Olivos. I was informed that only 30 of 240 apartments had been sold so far.

If HDA is serious about competing with La Manga rather than the smaller Golf complexes (ie Polaris World, Serena Golf, Mosa Trajectom) it needs facilities like a tennis and football academy

Double_Decker

Thanks for the info double decker

Los Olivos apartments ( phase 6 ) are in a poor position away from the hotel/ clubhouse and main facilities. Sale of the racetrack will make little difference to this. They are also VERY close together and might end up as fractional ownership in my opinion. When you can get a phase1 villa with pool for 450 000 Euros it would seem foolish to buy here even if they are high spec. I would go for the Spanish Village or phase 7 in preference, these are both much more central and seem better value.

I agree tennis and football academy would be welcome for prestige, are these planned for the resort ?

I hear the clubhouse looks great but is falling behind schedule for completion. Any idea when it will be finished ( honestly ! )

I agree that the apartments are overpriced and I suspect will have to be significantly reduced in price to sell. I suppose its possible that the land purchased from the racetrack may be developed into something that would make the Los Olivos site more appealing.

The clubhouse structure is finished and they are currently working on the inside. The exterior finish for the building needs to be completed also. Speaking to people living at HDA it more realistic that the Clubhouse will not be finished until late Summer or Autumn.

I have also heard a rumour that Caixa Catalunya are becoming upset with Armilar in that borrowing is increasing with little money coming back. Hopefully they will put pressure on the developers to put in more facilities and help sell the properties thay have already built rather than struggling to sell new phases. No one seems to know how much of phase 4 has been sold even though it is near completion.

The other rumour I heard whilst out there is that although Melia Group have agreed in principal to run the hotel this has currently been put on hold again.

On amore positive note if in the next 12-18 months the clubhouse and Spanish village is finished it should have positive knock on effect on the rest of the development. I hear that most of the commercial units have been sold and almost exclusively to Spaniards, which I think is good for the resort.

I am off to HDA to stay at a nice villa with a pool in July - I am really looking forward to it.  I have seen the slow pace of the development from the early days and it now appears to be coming together with the planned opening of the clubhouse and the commercial centre.  I won't be expecting those places to be open by July!

It's still a cheap place to rent a villa compared to La Manga and I expect this to change as the resort starts to get established.  The golf course is in good shape and it can only get better.  The designers need to concentrate on planting something around the course as the entrance to the resort is poor - lots of ugly flats and some mud banks towering over the road.  A bit of lavender and some grasses would make a huge difference and are water tolerant. 

It amazes me that most of the villas don't have their gardens sorted out.  The developer should have made sure that they could take over this responsibility - some of the places look like they have been abandoned.  Some owners need to get their act in order - they can't just wait for everyone else. 

I think it will be a great resort eventually - 5 years should make a big difference, but can they continue to sell the villas at such a rate?  It doesn't sound like they can.  Get the infrastructure sorted out and the sales will pick up, but carry on building without the infrastructure and the place will come to a grinding halt.