buying off plan

Well we finally moved in to our apartment at La Hacienda this week - and what a week it was!  We were one of only 2 or 3 families on the whole development and it was quite a weird experience, especially at night!  The grounds are looking really lovely and more trees and shrubs are being planted every day.  There is still a lot of building work going on though - particularly around the entrance area where they are laying tarmac for the pavements and the roads are also full of large potholes.  The old showhouse is still there and as it's the property of Eralia and they are no longer connected to the development it's anyone's guess when it will be pulled down.   There is still no certainty about what will happen to the land - we've been told anything from landscaped gardens to a children's play area.  We've also been told that the community will be consulted before anything is planned.  The pool area at our block was unfortunately not ready as there is a problem with one of the filters and it didn't look very healthy!  We used the large pool area in the centre of the development and it was excellent.  We were the only people in our block and in fact there was no electricity or water - this was piped through just to our apartment!  We had no satellite connection either so no TV for a week (no bad thing really!).  Ana is the main point of contact now that Fran Vega has gone - she's nice enough but quite vague and agrees to do things and then doesn't.  Oscar is one of the site managers and is very pleasant and helpful although he doesn't speak any English (sign language and Ana's translation helped!).   There are apparently 108 apartments still to be sold (including the new phase) - many, we are told, were bought by investors who don't want to move into La Hacienda and the worry is that there will be many empty apartments for a long time.    Maggie Wood did our furniture and I've got to say that we were delighted with the apartment when we saw it.   We chose the furniture and she added some soft furnishings for us (but consulted us by phone before she bought anything) - when we arrived, everything was ready - lights installed, food in the fridge and flowers in vases - it made the apartment feel like home!!   You are only given one security fob and I would recommend having another one made - there is a key cutting place in the basement of El Corte Ingles in Puerto Banus and it costs 51 euros - expensive but worth it if you end up losing your only one!   We are back out again in September when we will hopefully see a big difference to the grounds (although August is generally a shut down month for the construction industry).  Hope you are all making progress with your apartments and perhaps see you in La Hacienda one day!. 

 

Hi The Macs.  I was interested in your key cutting did you manage to get another fob for the main gate, if so did you try it out and did it work.  As you will see from my thread I tried at a hardware shop in San Pedro but it did not work so he gave me my money back.  They are also able to cut any key that you have.  I think we must have been one of the 2 or 3 families there at the same time (block 4) as we only left last thursday.  It will be intersting to see how they intend to contact everyone when it comes to making any form of decision for any changes on site.  I feel the more people that can be told about this site and forum the better as it seems a good way of keeping in touch with everyone.

Hi Kyleman

Yes we did manage to get two new security fobs made and they worked.  They couldn't cut our keys for us in El Corte Ingles so we'll try San Pedro for that.  I agree that this forum is so useful for updating everyone - I've found it a real help over the last year or so (Thanks Justin!) .  Some other good news is that I just found out yesterday that the old showhouse is being pulled down, which is great for us as it's right in front of our apartment (block 20).  I'm sure there will be lot of discussion for the community once people start to move in - particularly around security and gardening as there are so many areas to maintain! 

Hi The Macs,

I can confirm that they are pulling down the show flat as they were busy doing so when we were there last week. Most of it was down and they were still working even though we are in the middle of August. We were able to enter our apartment as there is no door on as yet and were very pleased with things so far. We are just above you but to the left (looking from the road) and we could see your red barbecue! The views are amazing and it was oh so hot. Perhaps we will meet you sometime in the future.

 

LunnB

Thank you for the update on the showhouse !  I am going over with my girlfriends for the bank holiday weekend so hopefully by the time I get there the showhouse will be completely gone!   We're on the first floor to the right (looking from the road) - but we don't have a red barbecue (unless some kind soul has delivered one for us!).  We look forward to meeting you at some point in the future and good luck with your completion and your move.

Isobel and Kenny McEwan