Buying an apartment on Terrazas de las Torre Golf Resort

Hello and thank you for reading.  We are hoping to come out on the 10/09 with a view to finding our home from home.  As this is our first venture we are extremely naive and have already run the gauntlet of being lured by prices which increase from €40,000 to €60,000 on enquiry.  An extremely helpful gentleman has helped us filter our search to Terrazas De Las Torre and a two bedroom apartment.

would anyone be willing to share with us any other information in relation to buying on your community, in particular who is best to deal with, what we should be aware of charges wise, the downside as well as the up?

we would be most grateful.

If you're buying from the bank (i.e. no builders guarantee etc), get the aircon guys to do a survey before you commit to a property as the pre-install quality varies from good to unusable (which means no chance of installing aircon in some cases).

I would recommend DFS for furniture, light fittings etc.

Cummunity charges vary from around €100/mon to €130/mon, depending on the property size and location.

Shameless plug now. Mine is for sale, all kitted out and ready to go. See http://www.rightmove.co.uk/overseas-property/property-53365445.html for details.

Not a shameless plug at all!  In fact we would prefer to buy a previously owned property.  Thank you for reading the post and replying.  I'm off to Right Moves to take a look if I can work out how to find it!

Hi there 

In Spain the buyer pays the estate agents fees and some times these are shown in the listed price and sometimes they are not.  I believe the banks list their sale stock with prices so you can know for certain what is being cleared by them and at what price.  Someone kindly posted the details of how to find those listings here a few weeks back - so you might want to search old posts.  

We we can only share our own experiences of buying - we brought a bank property through Blue Med Invest and paid no more than the price they stated - Infact they dropped it by €800 to reflect the fact the previous owner had taken the oven and hob.  We brought 18 months ago and the prices have increased slightly in euros but due to the strength of the pound they are cheaper for us Brits :-).  Community fees for us are £240 per quarter as we have a second floor penthouse on phase 12.  I understand they may rise next year though due to debts from Polaris World the developer.  

Polaris and they other trading companies are gradually finishing blocks and selling - so that is helping the resort.  I notice as we are over at the moment that they are working on a new block.  there are about 5 more blocks to be finished on the resort which are currently skeletons.  The resort is about 1/3 of the original planned size and hence will always be quiet.  The golf course however is excellent and since the new clubhouse opened its been busy with golfers out of summer so I think we will not loose our bar and restaurant. 

Come over and have a look - if it's peace and sun with great views you want you might just have found your place in the sun.

Tina and Gary

Hi Tina and Gary and thank you for your response.  It actually answers a few questions as we keep seeing the same property advertised with different agents at different prices!  Seems one thst we particularly like the look of is 6000€ more with one!

you have frightened us a little with the charges your paying though.  £240 a quarter and set to rise?

i will have a trawl through and see if I can find the post with th Bank sale prices.  Thsnk you.

I think a lot of the agents have out of date pricing online - they are no where near as professional as the agents in the UK, or as regulated. €240 a quarter is cheap - we're paying more like €380. However, you have to bear in mind this is effectively your council tax, as the actual council tax out there is more like €70 a year!

Terrazas is a private urbanisation and the community fee covers street lighting, communal gardening, communal pool maintenance, buildings insurance and most importantly 24 hour security which means you can lock up and leave with peace of mind.  

When and if you visit you will see how well maintained everything is.  You can look to buy with cheaper community fees but you might not get the security or well maintained facilities unformtunately.

Tina and Gary

Thank you for your response amardlin.  Being new to buying abroad the best we can do is try and compare it to buying in the UK and part of that process has been calculating the extras such as paying for air con, furnishing the property, although we would prefer to buy a previously owned one and then of course the monthly expenditure.  With help from people such as yourselves we thought we were plodding along the right path allowing 200€ per month for service charges, council tax or equivalent, electric etc.  we have then tried to factor in flights from London to Murcia and to start with car hire.

we aren't in a position to retire completely but saying that don't have oodles of cash to pay out for an apartment that then turns out to be too expensive to use.  I'm the cautious one where the other half prefers to jump in and.see how fast he needs to swim!

When we started this journey we were lured by an advert for a two bedroom property repossessed by the bank advertised for €40,000.  That cost didn't so much creep up as leap with abundance.

we still hope to visit on the 10th September for ten days which should be ample time for us to have a good snoop around and make a decision. I wouldn't say I'm 'sitting on the fence' over this one as much as still looking over the top, whereas Mr is already swimming in the pool!

In looking for the blog relating to the prices banks are asking for these properties (which I still haven't found) I came across a discussion relating to someone paying the estate agent the deposit who now couldn't get it back and another where the property they had purchased didn't have the necessary paperwork and they are now effectively unable to sell. I'm probably being overly cautious but I'm beginning to wonder who to trust when we get there!

For what I believe is a fairly accurate guide to prices, take a look at http://www.lavidaspain.com/terrazas-de-la-torre.php

I'm not sure you can actually get a 2 bed apartment for less than about €54,000, but I may be wrong. I think the headline €40k price is for a 1 bed apartment.

€200/mon is a reasonable budget, depending on how much you're using it, and what time of year. For example, if you're there in the summer or winter, you can spend quite a lot on electricity heating or cooling the place. October and April are probably the cheapest months as you don't need much of either.

Don't forget to add 11% to the asking price to cover purchase tax, solicitors etc.

Look at buying on a urbanisation as a posed to a holiday complex the high management fees you pay go towards the upkeep of the site good luck house hunting.

We bought an apartment very recently and based on the level of service and quality we received would have no hesitation in recommending the Golf Property Store (Catherine and Andy) as agents and Direct Furniture Spain in San Javier (Paul) for furnishings and light fittings.

We're delighted with how easy it all was and the Golf Property Store even lead you by the hand in setting up a Spanish bank account and put you in touch with a really good solicitor in San Javier who in turn links you in with the Notary.

Caroline and Brenda

Thank you windtalker.  We have earmarked all the Polaris urbanisations to have a look at when we visit but keep coming back to Terrazas on paper.

Everyone speaks well of this development and while we accept wherever we choose there will be a degree of derelict building zones what is more important is how welcome we would be should we choose to live here and so far Terrazas occupants have come up trumps with imparting invaluable information and advice.

I have noticed that everytime I look there seems to be more properties released by the Banks at reduced prices and I'm wondering whether the new airport and the awaited theme park will in fact make some of the Polaris urbanisations either go up in value, as in Florida and the Disneyworld for rentals or go down in value as they will be too close to the airport and the noise of the planes etc.  Are there any local theories on this?

Hi Caroline and Brenda and thank you for the reply.  I have scribbled those names down to being with us when we visit.

Its strange how you can look at agents photos and so on and not notice the blindingly obvious until someone suggests you look at the videos on UTube.  Now I have another question!  Having now noticed all the dangling wires from the ceiling, is there an electrician/handyman available in site who we can pay to fit light fittings or are there rules in Spain which mean you have to have a cetified local trade?

The more I learn, the less I know!

polly

Hi

Prices have already started to rise again from the low point of 2 years ago. If you purchase your light fittings from the electrical store in Roldan they fit them for free, they also do same day delivery on white goods including free installation .

I wouldn't hold your breath of the paramount park or airport.

The resort is a we'll run and security is second to none. We have made some fantastic friends and after 2 years we have no regrets. 

Most electric lighting shops will install the lights in the price of the fittings or for a small charge. 

I would recemmend Electro Regalas (Tien 21) in Roldan for all your electrical goods, light fittings and Air Conditioning. They can usually deliver and fix the same day or next day at worse. They are usually very competitive on price and you have the peace of mind that should there be any problems either within or out the guarantee period they are close by to attend to it.

Shropshiregold!  What a fabulous name.  Had I gone along the same thought process my name would have been PG tips :)

Can you imagine popping into Marks and Spencer and choosing light fittings which they then come and fit for you?  Well, I have to say the Spanish way is extremely civilised.  We were wondering how two budding OAPs would get a fridge freezer up the stairs as they regularly in the UK refuse to deliver to apartments.

we hope to choose an apartment that will serve us for years to come.  We don't want to get ourselves into a situation where the area becomes busy busy or passengers from EasyJet are able to watch us as we sit in the garden!  Other than that community is everything to us.

Security is also another reason we are drawn to Terrazaso as the dream is for our grandchildren to pop over for a few days to visit as well as family and of course for me to feel safe if I stay here on my own, things that I am lucky enough to take for granted where we live now.

i said in an earlier post that I wasn't even as far as sitting on the fence in my decision to buy whereas Mr is already swimming in the pool.  I think the more friendly responses I get the closer I am getting to sitting on the fence and Mr is now chatting to the locals lol

Thank you KJL.  That's another name for the book.  I have noticed, looking at the apartments that are for sale, that the furniture in many of them looks like it's from IKEA.  Is there an IKEA near?  

Another thing which is concerning me is neither of us speak Spanish.  We are hoping to at least learn a splattering to enable us to be courteous but how much of a barrier has anyone found this when shopping etc?  Should I be ordering my phrase book in advance?

thank you.

Polly

Hi

If you buy light fittings from Paul at DFS he organises for fitting for a small fee. We would also recommend the local electrical store in Roldan Tien 21 as we bought all our white goods and AC from them. The prices are reasonable and service excellent. I watched their AC engineers do the installation and I was delighted with their professionalism and quality of workmanship.

In terms of security we feel very happy with Terrazas as the security guards seem to be very on the ball and we are very comfortable in locking up and leaving in their capable hands.

best

caroline

The Ikea store is in Murcia about 25 miles away.

St Javier and Corvera (if it ever opens) airports are both about 12 miles away from TDLT so there is no problem with aircraft noise.

Thank you ccbg and KJL So much information to add to the notebook.  Today we are looking at employing the services of a broker to get the best rate for our Euros as we are told they can then hold the Euros in their accounts until we need it send to the lawyers in Spain to complete the sale.  Is this how everyone else did it or is there a better way?

many thanks once again!

polly