Standards have lowered on CDA

After 18 months of not coming to CDA we noticed a certain drop in the standards on CDA. Seems there are many new owners who bought with the banks at full mortgage, meaning they could not afford to buy if the banks would not lend them the money. Outcome is that the resort seems to have lost even the four star caracter and is getting closer to Benidorm, anyone on this forum shares this impression? We have bought off plan and have our apartment furnished at top spec but as we see it now we have maybe invested in the wrong place. Are there any plans to improve the services, especially the dining facilities seem to be tailored now to low income/low quality level?
 

Hi Rob & Bev

I was speaking to a group of Adults outside the Condado Club in July & they were saying exactly the same as you. I dont think it is fair to judge everyone that has taken the opportunity to buy now with the same brush but there is one appartment overlooking Condado Club that makes you wonder where they are coming from. I believe the owners are English. Glad they are not next door to us.

Jan 

When you & I bought on Condado the cheapest property was over 126K and there were plans to build villas of several hundred thousand Euros. You also needed a decent deposit to buy a property, back then.

Now you can pick up a property for half that, with no deposit at all! So now pretty much anybody can own on Condado, many of which would never have been in a position to buy previously. I am not saying this is entirely a bad thing, it does make the resort busy and does help support the business'. However, it does detract from some of the initial perceived exclusivity.

I think Condado in the future will have more in common with places like Camposol, than more exclusive resorts like La Manga, purly because of the low price of Condado Ownership. In fact most of the properties on Camposol would actually cost more than anything on Condado, yet many on Condado, feel they are superior, strange!

For things to change and Condado to become up market, they would need to build more expensive properties, however I cant see that happening.

I realise this will upset some and I am sorry to be negitive (like I was back in 2008), but I do agree with the other posters (Still love you Jan, by the way x)

Love you too Daren and I agree with your comments about Campasol. We know of  three couples who have sold on Condado and all have bought on Campasol.  The first because they thought Condado was becomming down graded by new owners and the second because they did not want an apartment in a second Benidorm.

I,m more bothered by how tired and dirty the apartments, paths and road markings look. Needs a good paint.

We had both indoors & out doors painted earlier this year. Worth every penny but it does make the others look grey now. Cannot remember the guy`s  name but adverises in the Condado Club

Jan

I've painted mine but the resort as a whole looks dirty and in need of tlc. Remeber how nice it looked at the start.

Hmmm, know what you are saying about buying 'cheap' but this is very much in the minority overall. The benefits of a fully occupied resort paying their community charge far outweighs the odd family of 'chav's' shocking the rest of us maybe once or twice a year.

Someone metioned on another post about a certain IRM owing over 160K in fees, which would more than tart the place up a bit. Might even be enough to put in the foundations for the 3million euro club house !!

Take a drive around Camposol sector D (along the roads that are passable............but only in daylight as there is no street lighting !) and see if you hold the same opinions about overall appearance.

Regards,

All the fees for all the properties are currently being paid, apart from the owners that don't pay and haven't done for ages, The banks are paying their share for the unsold apartments so more sales will not bring in any more money.  the money owned by IRM was to the urban entity, which is money owned to the service companies so wouldn't of made any difference. it also appears that IRM paid it at the start of the month.  IRM now seem to only owe €21,000ish to the communty.

while i agree the resort is badly in need of painting I do not believe it is the responsibility of the owners, where there is a percentage of the community fees allocated for same. possibly this is why so many properties are not painted as people are waiting for the administrators to commence this. the ones that are done look fab but each garden now looks like a  patchwork quilt.  as far as the overall conduct of people, i recently witnessed on our garden [a large group of people who had a number of rented appartments all in the garden] the children, whom were teenagers jumping up on and over the pool fence and inevetibly some latts were broke and then until repaired were climbing through as were the adults, and then when repaired proceeded to force latts out again so they did not have to walk the long distance to the gate. on another occasion one of the teens was swinging out of one of the palm trees which was not very mature trying to break off the branch when we challenged the large group they moved on but on our return and on checking the next morning, three of the branches were broke off and on the ground and was left vertually bare.... unbelievable..... I can understand why people let out their appartments, but this is what happens when people/renters who have not got a vested interest in the resort, and maybe why the place is not getting a lick of paint as all our monies are going into repairing said damage.I undestand children need to have fun and games as I have children myself but also need to respect people and property

regards

Hi Jake. I admire you for confronting one of the culprits. I m sure many would not have done so but did you report them to security or to the office. Unfortunatly as you had no powers they would ignor you. Had someone in authority  confronted the group it might have had a better result and I presume the owners would have received notification or a warning. 

I think you will find most of the problems caused are notfrom so called "chav owners" but from owners who rent out apartments, they have to rent apts cheap and therefore you will get always get certain people looking for a cheap holiday, and the problems that evolve from that. I seem to remember when Condado first opened and it was this exclusive resort, with prices to match, the Clover, and sports bar was generally empty, no units in Al Kasar open, and people posted on here moaning about the ghost town. Now things have opened and you are calling it Benidorm. What do you want! The apartments need painting, but at least a vast majority are now being used, and a majority of people look after there apts. And remember the Brits etc who own, these are generally second homes, so they must have a income, we are not talking benefit street. So all you renters, are you checking who you rent out to, and why not put up your prices to deter this percieved lower class!!

Jake,

Well done for intervening - I would hope we would all do the same until you could get security on the case. Pity about the parents of said teens then.

 You and Andy are also both probably correct, in that it would more likely be renters than owners who disrespect the facilities and fellow occupants. Problem is that quite a few owners will be under financial pressure to rent out their place at cheap rates and become involved in a 'bidding war'.......... and cheap rates sometimes attract cheap people. Thing I can't fully understand though is who would come to Condado other than freinds or family of existing owners so there is a bit of moral responsibility there to keep your guests in check if you are there at the same time. If you are renting to friends or family when you are not there, then you would hope that they would automatically show some respect to tour apartment & your common facilities ?

On the painting issue, was there not something metioned in the AGM that this was something that was going to be looked at/taken on by the community in the near furure as finances allow ?

Regards,

Having been an owner on CDA for over 6 years I can only say the resort has come on leaps and bounds since the days of only having a small supermarket where the Condado Club is and no bar for several months.

We own 2 apartments one of which we rent out. We have had many Spanish, French, Scandanavian, as well as British guests all of whom to our knowledge have behaved appropriately during their stays. These guests bring trade to businesses on CDA which might not survive if they just relied on owners custom. Rental rates are cheap due to the abundant supply of rental properties but don't tar all renters with a bad reputation, as wherever you live or stay there will be problem people / families..

Dear Andy

Firstly can I say that we rent out our apartment but believe me it is not a cheap rental. We do not rent out because we need the money but do it because we believed it would be stupid to leave a home empty for most of the year. We bought as an investment for when Ham retires which is a long way off yet. We rent out via a very prominent company & we too have many families & couples stay mainly from scandinavian countries. We have a good relationship with our Spanish neibours who keep us informed by email or text if anything that is not exceptables happens so we are aware of anyone not being the ideal renter.These people would be removed by a representative of the rental company should the occasion arrise. We do on occasions rent out to friends & family`s of other Condodians.@ a reduced rate when there is a gap in our calendar but that is the only time our prices change. We also rent out to our own friends & their families & our adult son`s use the apartment too but would not consider a group of youngsters because they can be noisy (but then most youngters are when there is no adult around to supervise). We did rent out to an English family via EOS a few years ago who were not related to any owner but said they were looking to buy. I hope they didnt,  they left the apartment in an awful mess & there were breakages too . I would never rent out that way again. Please do not judge every owner as being the same, most of us are very responsible.

Jan

The opening post comes across as outright snobbery. Condado is now what it is, a failed Polaris project that will now probably never deliver on what it was originally meant to be and to a degree we should be thankful that the community is growing and evolving into something of it's own.

Although I have no idea what it was like before we bought just over a year ago I am happy with what I've seen over the last year - businesses opening on the doorstep and people buying property and coming to the resort to enjoy their holidays.

What use is an exclusive resort where most of the property is empty and it is pretty much void of people?

Although I understand why you may feel the way you do (Condado probably isn't what you bought believing it would be) I think it's a little unfair to criticise people for chasing a bargain when that is exactly what you yourself was doing by buying off plan, everyone who buys off plan is sold on the idea of it being around 30% cheaper than when it completes. And the dining facilities are fine and offer a good range of food to keep people eating out and the businesses trading.

I really think that if you wanted exclusivity and fine dining you really would have been better paying the extra money and buying in an aleady established area where those facilities already existed and exclusivity was guaranteed by the hight cost to 'join the club'.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

I have to agree that charging £150 for 6 in the height of summer is down right stupid. I doubt if it would cover aircon and cleaning charges let alone the wear and tear. I think that if owners broke down all of the costs even the hidden ones like wesr and tear they would realise that they are not doing themselves ny favours. Over the past twelve months we have replaced the outside seating and beds in both bedrooms because they were becomming shabby. No way woould we rent out at duch a stupid price. Even if you do not see any profit at least you need to know that you sre covering your overheads. We had concidered advertising via facebook but changed our minds because there is no way of knowing what people are like and no one to sort out problems like unwanted behaviour that way.         Jan 

I spoke with Mileniun when we were out last week regarding painting. They said there was not enough funds in the community and the presidents were meeting soon to discuss painting but that this would be at an extra individual cost to each owner and even if you have already painted it would have to be done again to give a uniform finish. I was going to get ours done but will now wait for the outcome as I will end up paying twice else.... The arguement is then obviously that all apartments will be painted even those of owners who are not paying their community charge which is unfair. Maybe Mileniun ought to look at a way of putting notices on those apartments telling anyone renting there that they are not permitted to use site facilities, in particular the pools....That may put a stop to those that are taking the benefits of rent whilst not paying their way???

Dionne

Better still

 Millenum change the locks which admittedly costs money which would prevent owners & renters access

Put a warning notice saying that Entrance to this porperty is not autherised & faiure to obey will incure a large fine

To gain entrance millenium has to be notified. If the owners of said property is notified of the notice maybe they will not attemp to rent out for fear of riddicule & will not go in themselves as I am sure some one would warn Millenium of the fact.

The only negative though is that it does not give outsiders a good impression so changing the locks is the best option i think.

I personally love the place, Benidorm it is not. I just want the dam thing painted to make it look as good as new.