To buy or not to buy....

Hi all, my husband and I are coming out to spain in december on an inspection visit in light of purchasing an apartment on corvera golf and country club resort. From what i can tell on various websites, it seems that the resport is very quiet with little facilities. We are both very sociable people and was planning on buying a property to live in (part time), so would very much like to make friends with other expats. Could anyone advise whether this is the right place to buy and if there is any expat social life going on in the resort?

Thanks

Louise

hi louise,

i bought there in 2005, a 2 bed for 225000 euros, although i have not completeted?

But at todays prices there are some bargains? it depends what you want.

For me NOW is the time to buy in spain, there are some bargains to be had on corvera and many other places.

Corvera is quiet and peaceful,, it depends on what you want? 

If its corvera, give roy a shout he is very helpful.

Rgds

Noel

Hi Louise, i would advise you research very carefully about this resort. There have been and still are numerous legal challenges, the finances are very fragile, the management and maintenance of the resort are in a poor state and in dispute, and there are about 300 people who have not completed on purchasing their properties due to the lack of promised facilities never completed by the developer. This has been in Limbo for several years and there is no sign of it changing soon. There are fairly large risks associated with the future of this resport, if you can buy cheaply enough and are prepared to take that risk good luck. No doubt you will receive a number of positive responses from owners living on the resort, who quite rightly are trying to keep a positive spin on the situation, but you need to take a balanced view. Have a read of Roy's latest report and you will get some more info on some of the ongoing issues.

Everything that Noel and Roogy say I would agree with

Corvera Golf is a lovely resort now with club house and golf course but being honest it is an inland, quiet in The Winter months but yes there is a strong expat community

I.lawson if you mail me directly I would be happy to provide you with what I hope is a well balanced view, off forum, yes the ban repossesions are selling well but we are VERY CAREFULL to give people all of the information

All the numbers connect to Spain even the UK one, starting 6 is mobile

Roy, Where would you recommend to buy for long term planning, retirement in 5 years time if the choice was a Polaris World site,  Corvera Golf, Roda Golf or United Golf ??

Thank You

This is such a massive question because at the moment with everything that is happening, with the management group at Polaris, IRM, Corvera and United, I would I owuld say that there is a risk associated with ALL of these sites and the most established one remains RODA, but the prices here are far greater than the other resorts

On RODA the prices for the bank repossessions are much higher that the other places and the community fees as well, still over €100k for a 2 be apartment

The next question is if this is for investment to then sell in 5 years and buy something to live in or to move into in 5 years time, because personally I would not be happy permantely living in some of the apartments in all f these resorts

I know that probably people will shout at me but because the course is now closed with no real chance of it re-openning soon so I wouldn't consider United and we are not promoting there, even with the great value properties

Corvera it is common knowledge that the resort is suffering because the developer has not paid community fees and the banks are taking back properties and paying the outstanding fees bt e have now sold a number of the available properties and are expecting villas next. What are are doing is making people aware of all of the risks

Polaris resorts I think that we are all waiting to find out what impact the filing of IRM for bankruptcy protection will have on the resorts and more importantly the golf courses

While now, as far as the prices are concerned and the mortgage rates, it is a good time to buy and we have some properties, with 100% mortgages available,

ALL of these resorts have an element of risk but some of the banks are more confident about Corvera openning and are holding off releasing properties till after the airport opens

Although I agree with Mr Howitt about the potential of all of these resorts please don't disregard La Tercia.

It is a fabulous place - I know we have an apartment there so have a vested interest.  We are on top of debtors and can offer great value properties on what will be one of the nicest resorts in the area - in a few years time!  If you want absolute value for money, cheap golf nearby then you need look no further.  You will be welcomed into a great community that is run efficiently and well.  If you want more information about the resort then please do get in touch and I will be pleased to help - and point you in the direction of some stunning bargains!

Sandra

Hi Sandra, please can you give me more details about La Tercia, as in, what facilities etc there are and the expat community please.

Thanks

Louise

La Tercia has a fabulous ex-pat community - made up of Brits,Dutch, Swedes and Spanish.  There is a good social life with events being held at the community bar area which is adjacent to the green bowl rink, tennis courts.  In the village is a great social club open to all with a good spread of a activities as well as participation in traditional Spanish fiestas.

There are plenty of local restaurants in the surrounding towns and villages including Roldan,Sucina, Balsicas, Val de Sol and of course in Los Alcazares and San Javier.

On site we do have green bowling, tennis courts and some beautiful pools and well tended gardens (always a good place to meet up).  What I love are the beautiful views to the mountains, the tranquility and the openesss of the resort.  We have security as well as a great management team led by a very adept President.

Yes as Mr Howitt has indicated the golf course is currently closed but its only minutes to other golf courses in the area.

Please pm me if you would like more information and hope the above helps.

Sandra

I believe that everybody hopes for the sake of the whole area that somebody comes into UGR to rescue the course but I suppose there are a couple of problems, the first is that there still doesn't seem to be enough golfers around to sustain all of the available courses in the area with La Tercia and Mosa Trajectum closing the courses. La Tercia is a 9 hole course which typically generates less interest for soceities and competitions, which perhaps is why the banks didn't come in and take over like on the Polaris resorts

Yes I agree absolutely with the community spirit but the next problem is that there are no bar or restaurant facilities onsite now, again like Mosa and yes with prices on now around €40k for a 2 bed apartment is great value and we had plenty of people view the banks properties, but the biggest problem was the lack of any facilites including the deserted commercial centre and no local public transport nearby or shopping and facilities, within walking distance

ALL of the resorts carry their own level of risk and medium to long term reward with people, me included, gambling on tings like the airport and The Polaris Resorts, Corvera and not to forget Hacienda De Alamo will be well placed to benefit from these developments, in terms of price increases, and rental customer, if of course we get the airport open

People need to just come over and look

I think Mr Howitt is correct - come and look for yourself and make up our own mind but do ask searching questions - when visiting any of the resorts -   about site adminstration, the level of debt both from owners and the promoter, the viability of the golf courses, see if they are in good condition (i.e. being watered) with plenty of golfers.

It is such a shame about La Tercia - despite being a 9 hole it was well used by lots of golf societies, other golfers and of course residents. 

Sandra

The course and club house facilities closed months ago and I believe that many players have moved to the 9 hole Sierra Golf course which is close by

We had a lot of rain last night, hooray at last, all of the local courses need the water badly, grey today so looks like more today

The course and club house facilities closed months ago and I believe that many players have moved to the 9 hole Sierra Golf course which is close by

We had a lot of rain last night, hooray at last, all of the local courses need the water badly, grey today so looks like more today

I agree with all of the other posters on this thread. The most important thing that you can do is to come down to Spain and view the various resorts and talk to everyone from the bar staff, the golf club staff, owners, management (if you can find them), administrators, local solicitors and banks. You will get a more rounded view of everything this way and not just the views of someone who is selling a property as these tend to be somewhat optimistic.

The recession in Spain is probably worse than anywhere else that you know of and the outlook is not good. Properties on golf resorts which were sold for in excess of 200K euro are now changing hands for 40K euro and even in Roda Golf (where we are) a three bed apartment recently was sold for 90,000 euro and that was on Phase 1 and near all of the amenities.

I still believe that Roda Golf is the best resort around and mainly because of the following:- proximity to a fabulous beach, beside a nice little town, 5 minutes from the airport (for now), a very good clubhouse and reasonably active community and a really excellent golf course. Like everywhere else there are issues with the properties needing to be repainted and community fees in excess of 220 euro per month for even a two bedroom apartment. There are some structural issues and there are also large plots of land unattended and which will not be built on for a long time to come. So everywhere has their issues.

The developer is no longer paying fees and the owners can only sustain making up the shortfall in the short term so expenses like security, road cleaning etc could suffer in the future although they haven't to date but who knows what will happen as over 50% of owners are Spanish and their economy is so bad that their priorities are unlikely to be fees etc.

Murcia has a lot to recommend it but the economic problems have not even come close to bottoming out yet there and you might do better to consider other areas such as the Costa del Sol where the recession has not had such a devastating effect on property prices and you will get a lot more for your money in relation to facilities.

If I were you and with the benefit of hindsight I would not buy in Murcia or in fact anywhere in Spain for now but if you are determined to buy, rent a place on a resort to see what it is like as that is the best way to see what the issues are, from getting around, cost of living, to general upkeep on a resort as it is very different from the brochures and what you will read in the glossies.

Good luck whatever you do.

Mandy.

Hi All, There are definately some bargains around at the moment, even if you bought your original apartment or villa at the top of the market, if you buy another one now you will probably halve your investment unit price. For example if you originally bought a tilo apartment for 200,000 and you buy another tilo apartment now for 60,000, your investment unit price is 130,000 per apartment. If you could afford to buy another two apartments now at 60,000 each, you would own a total of 3 apartments for a total of 320,000, a unit price of just under 107,000. It is certainly worth thinking about, if you have the money of course. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone at Corvera !

I am afraid that for many people that they may have missed the early opportunity to but the low cost properties on Corvera because in the new year the banks are planning to increase, and one bank have already increased the prices

Sabadel via their agency agreement were selling Laurel apartments starting at  €57k, they then increased to €71k. The properties were widley promoted with 80% mortgages but didn't really sell and I cannot understand why as they were great value

A number of the Tilos on M30, which start at €55k, have been sold and there are very few of the better properties left and we understand that they will be increasing prices in the New Year and a number of these have been sold to existing owners who are averaging down the value of their investment, as explained by Simongolf

Santander who recently took back properties from the developer have a team working hard getting these properties ready for sale, including villas, but again  we understand the prices will be higher than the first batch at €55k. it doesn't mean that they will sell

The golf course on Corvera is however still in poor condition, the greens and bunkers are fine but the fairways non-existant, very dry and desperately need water, so as I said in my original post if you are buying on any of these resorts you need to do all your due dilligence and be cautious

Because of the situation with IRM, the company that took over Polaris World, trading in adminstraction, there are even rumous locally that they are planning to close one of their courses, realistically there just isn't enough business to maintain all of the available courses, nobody expected the hotel to close on La Torre