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Guys

Whats with the IFA bashing? (I am not one). Surely any property investment is long term. You will rarely make youre money overnight otherwise the sellers, not to mention the IFA's, would do it all for themselves, it is never that easy.

Keep your property for ten years and then ask yourself if it was a good deal, not after six months or twelve months of completing.

I know we all have had massive problems but winging is not the answer.

Raymond has listed the problems that we have all had, and for my own part have dealt with. Deal with them one at a time. If you have completed on your property your first job is to replace those locks that dont work anyway, for your security it is well worth while.

 Peter

I think you're missing the point. These properties were NOT sold as long term investment vehicles. They were sold on the basis that you could 'spin the contract' to use their terms, and sell for a profit BEFORE you completed. This is what many of us were told, and it was on this basis that we went ahead. For this reason many people signed up for five or more!

The alternative was to keep the property and '12 weeks rental would cover the mortgage' HA HAHA what 12 weeks rental? I can't even get my furniture and air con installed, let alone have an apartment in the 'select development' we were promised.  For two years all I've done is pay out on mortgage payments, insurance etc etc and guess what? the value has gone down so far, that I don't think I could sell mine for 65% of what I paid for it. My last reporter saw dogs in the pools, satellite dishes ever where, burger vans parked up at night using OUR electricity, wire fences creating that oh so desirable Colditz effect. So who on earth would want to book a holiday there? Are they taking bookings for this summer? How many years must I pay out before I see any return or even cover my costs?

I don't think anyone who bought on Manilva Beach is naive or gullible. the deposits were substantial and all the people I met on tours (I've been on four) were genuine, ordinairy people, and we are sensible enough to know that there is a risk to any investment. You win some, you lose some......

But, this isn't a case of an investment going sour. I feel like I've dealt with a company who have systematically conned me, right from the start, and that is something that I do not accept. I am not IFA bashing, but by using IFA's 'They who cannot be named' were creating a regulated environment to sell unregulated products. This is wrong. Many people believed they were getting authorised investment advice, when they weren't, and unregulated means no redress.

No- one is wrong here. Everyone is frustrated beyond belief, and I have yet to meet ANYONE who has had a good experience here.  I cannot afford to pay a mortgage and let the place return me no income. However, the surrounding area is a mudbath and hence a long term rent is the 'make do' solution.

I am attempting to make the best of a bad job. I have had a new kitchen and it is rented. I am livid at ***s lies but need an income from this.

The income is truly shit compared with the promises made - but I have no choice.

I should think myself very lucky in that I have had good use of the place since May, and its obvious there are people well behind me.

How come everyone is saying we shouldnt be naming them ?

truthteller

I appear to have upset you and that was not intended. I am sorry. I did purchase as a long term investment and yes the value has gone down but I think that can be said of just about every development on the Costa Del Sol.

I was not aware that I was dealing with an IFA when I purchased at Manilva. I simply purchased one unit with a view to the income from rentals covering the mortgage and perhaps in the future selling with a nice profit and yes maybe buying another later on. I dealt with a very pleasant young lady who did not suggest anything along the lines that you say. I have however no doubt that what you say has gone on.

I do have a long term tenant and the rental income is not anywhere near what is needed but I am grateful for the little income that it is bringing. The building work in the area will not allow holiday lets for some time I dont think, and that is dissapointing but who can we blame for that.

I am in no way trying to defend the people who we have purchased from as they clearly have made projections that were impossible to live up to.

I have just come back from a visit and am pleased to report just two satellite dishes were on phase 1, no dogs in the pool although the pool was not clear of debris. No burger vans were in sight.  I did not visit the later phases and can not comment on them.

I think that I will keep my head down now for fear of causing further upset.

Peter

This is my first posting on this site and as an owner from Phase 2 I thought that it would be useful to share our experience and to see how we could get involved in any owner action.

Our history with OVP is the same as everybody elses i.e. development running several years late, attempt to sell before completion met with a threat that we couldn't sell as it was near completion (that was > 12 months before actual completion), paid up far too early for furniture pack, trouble getting snagging done, mortgage amount less than expected, unhelpful solicitors etc., etc. 

However, after swaying between trying to sell the apartment and planning to keep it for the long-term we have decided on the latter and put considerable effort and time into trying to get things sorted out. We were pleasantly surprised to find during a visit to the site (and many visits to the OVP office in Duquesa) in late January that through our pressure: the snagging has largely been completed to a reasonable standard; the aircon was installed and working; the furniture pack was in place (a few items missing etc.) and overall our pessimistic expectations were unfounded. There is a major issue with storage space in the kitchen that we have decided to resolve ourselves with a bit of a refit - yes it will cost more euros but it is something that we are happy to do.

As with a number of owners we have decided we will take control from now onwards and get our property into a truly habitable state. I am back over again in later February (playing golf) and did want to stay at the apartment but do not think that it will be quite ready yet. We have found the UK aircon company and Villapac very helpful and it is only through direct contact with them that we have got to where we are now.

We are obviously alarmed to read the recent postings on this message board and have noticed some strange things going on with OVP in Spain e.g. no longer doing golf bookings and directing us back to the UK office - we can only assume that this is related to the activity that is mentionned on the message board.

Whilst we are fairly satisfied with our apartment it is the facilities on the complex and the surrounding area that is giving us most concern. We see no value in joining OVP's rental scheme and have decided to rent out to family and friends for the next 12 months at least as they will hopefully be a bit more tolerant of the bomb site to the left of our apartment.

With frequent trips planned to Manilva over the coming months we would be more than happy to be active in the Resident's Committee and to try and help out get this site into shape as quickly as possible. We appreciate that many owners have been sold Manilva Beach as an investment and that the lack of rental income and falling property prices will cause short-term issues but we see no positive way forward other than to work with as many owners as possible to progress things to the benefit of everyone.

Any thoughts/comments/questions gratefully received.

Kevin & Gaye

I'm with you Kevin & Gaye. I have pretty much followed the same path. Thanks to some great help from Nigie and GlenG I have managed to find a local management company who have helped me out no end. Again I went around OVP and contacted Villapac directly, they have a UK phone number and they were very helpful. I arranged aircon through my management company and this was a lot cheaper c2300 euros. With the money I saved on this I used it to upgrade my kitchen. The apartment was just completed before Christmas and looking really good unfortunately it got flooded out during the torrential rain over Christmas so we are still dealing with that e.g. Insurance to Consorcio to Community Insurance - a bit of a merry go round.

Once we are back up and running we will look to getting a long term let until the local environment has settled down and the site is ready for holiday lets. It does mean chucking a bit more money at it but I have always been in this as a long term investment, 10yrs or so. I think the Costa del Sol is suffering from an overload to 2 bed 2 bath apartments at the moment but I have read a report recently stating that there are less developments popping up. Large investors are starting to pull out of quick buck property development so hopefully over the next few years the property market will settle down a bit. There might be a bit of pain to come yet though. I think the area of Manilva may still see quite a bit of development though. There is a lot of activity in Gibraltar at the moment in terms of on-line gaming businesses and other IT type industry. As Gibraltar property is very expensive there are a lot of people living in Spain to commute in. Hopefully commercial services and infrastructure will be pushed forward over the next 5 to 10 years making our investment more attractive.

I agree that we will need to take control of the development soon so need to push on with AGM. If anyone finds out any more then maybe we should start a seperate thread to focus everyone in on when a meeting might be etc.

Cheers

John.

I agree with Kevin and Gaye and also Joe from Stafford.  Once again the only way any of you guys can move forward is to be proactive and make it happen.  There is no one going to hold your hand once you have completed.

Get your locks changed asap and make contact through private message with some of the owners that have already covered this ground.  Then you will have a reasnoble idea of what your options are.  People like stafford joe, Niige, Peter and Karen will certianly give you sound advice.

We are all fustrated with the situation but the best thing we can do now is to look after each other and move on towards making the place a going concern.

I am going to make a suggestion to owners reading this forum.  I think we should create a circle of owners that keep each other posted by e mail. Many owners like myself have their appartments let out long term but still need to travel to Manilva to keep an eye on things.  While we are there we need accomodation and I would prefer to give money to an owner whos appartment was free than lining anyone elses pocket.  It would  be so easy to put an e mail out to all involved in the circle of owners to see if your travel dates suit any owners.  If evreyone does that then we are all helping each other out by doing business directly.  I also know that there are many other times when this system may be advantageous.  Eg. when people travel with relatives and need 2 or 3 appartments for their holiday.  We will also be able to keep each other updated on progress and how we can best get community stuff sorted.

What do people think?

Hi everyone,

Nice to read some positive thoughts today.  We too have an apartment in block 8 and are going down the long term let route  inorder to get some income to help with spanish mortgage.  We are using the agent recommended by Nigie and others and have had a new kitchen installed in the space of a week!  (Can this be Spain?!)  Our agent says that workers from Gib. are keen to rent in the area.

It wasn't what we had initially intended , or hoped for.  But we are are going to try and make the best of it, and not put ourselves through any further stress getting uptight about you know who.    

We would be interested in joining an owners association as we have no plans to go out to Manilva in the near future.  Using each others flats is a good one as we can get a feel for the place.  There are many things going for the site:  It's proximity to the beach for 1.

We live in the Birmingham area, and  would be happy to meet other owners who live in the Midlands.  Keep posting on the site. 

 Fran.

Hi Fran,

Good to hear from you - we have a slightly different plan to yours and will be going out to Manilva frequently through a combination of my golfing and my little boy's love of the beach! We are just down the road from you in Warwick so it would be good to get all the Midlanders together.

I will be taking pictures/video when I am out there next week - although I am stopping in another apartment on the Ronda Road I will be making frequent trips down to Manilva to get the kitchen moving and to start sorting out some of the storage issues.

I have asked this question in the Duquesa office but do you know if the apartments have a specific car parking space allocated to them or is it just first come first served? Also, is there any storage space available outside of the apartment itself?

I will contact you and any other interested owners when I am back from Manilva on the 26th and provide an update then.

Kevin

I'm up for joining a circle of owners. Glen do you want to collate evryone's e-mail by personal message?

I'll send you mine right away

Kevin

I assume that the situation is the same for everybody with regard to car parking and storage. Certainly if this is the case on phase 1, we do have a specific numbered car parking space and two of the underground storage rooms each. I say storage rooms as they are a decent size and not just cupboards. 

Peter

Hello again Kevin,

When we visited in May last year, Ken & I combed the block 8 garage area looking for storage of some sort, as I had seen a previous thread on this site mentioning some somewhere  from phase 1 owners.  We couldn't see any, but that was 9 months ago.  If you see Raul when you next go ask him, unless someone else can enlighten us please.  If the other blocks have storage then so should we!

By the way, we live in Solihull.  Hope you have a successful trip when you next go to Spain.

Phase 1 have specifically allocated car spaces, which are numbered and the number is stated in the deeds. The number does not resemble your apartment number.

You will have one or two underground storage areas allocated to you. These are not necessarily adjacent to your car parking space.

Nige

Thanks for that Nigel.  Hopefully Wendy/Sue will find them.

Fran.