Just got back from HDA yesterday. Weather was fantastic for November, sunny almost all week and in the mid 70s! Bit cold at night though but had a wood burning stove to keep us warm !
Resort is really progressing. The sports centre is almost finished and had a tennis lesson with David the new tennis coach. It is nice to be able to do something other than golf !
Played golf 1 day, the course landscaping is improving but still a lot of bare patches that need to be covered. The course is far too difficult for an occasional golfer like myself but I suppose that is what happens when you build a championship course ! Just hope the short course will be extended to 18 holes at some point !
Lots of planting in front of the ugly Los Olivos apartments now, even the sales advisor agreed these were a mistake. Why build something so high density when you have so much land to build on ? If you walk down between the back to back apartment blocks you get a feeling of being in an Eastern European housing estate. I did look inside an apartment though and the quality is superb. Racetrack still open though and far too near to these places for my liking!
Clubhouse just opened the day I left so did not get to look around. The opening had been put back about 3 times last week but looks very impressive from outside!
On the sales front I am told all the townhouses in phase 5 have been sold to one investor, they were officially priced from 390000 Euro but I assume they got a big discount on that!
The earth moving has started for the Oasis and the plans look very impressive. If I was an investor looking for rentals I would be very concerned about the cost of maintenance for the individual plunge pools.
I have instructed Resort Management to book holiday lettings for my phase 3 Coral, I previously had a long term tenant through another agency. The rent was ridiculously low and the tenant left without paying the last 3 months rent so it hardly made any money at all ! Resort Management seem to know what they are doing and there actually seems to be quite good rental demand.
The IT bar is apparently closing and the staff will move to the clubhouse bar/ restaurant. This means you will have to go to the clubhouse for a snack. I am told there will probably be a smart casual dress code and there are rumours about children not being allowed in. If this is going to be a family resort I do hope the rules are not going to be set by the golfing fraternity without regard to others using the resort.
Just about to pay my service charge for the Coral townhouse 1800 Euro per year seems a bit steep, plus also had to pay 500 Euro community charge to Fuente Alamo council. My parents have just been charged 1800 Euro back pay for their villa community charge, if you have not paid yours yet then try and pay it as there are penalties.
Not going back until probably May 2008 now so would welcome more news.