Mar Menor Chitty Chat

Hi,

My wife and I are looking at purchasing an apartment on la terrazas de la torre. We have placed our deposit and are due to fly out mid-november. In the meantime we are trying to do as much research as possible.

For the apartment to pay for itself we would need to rent it out for approximately 18 weeks per year. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with renting their property and how the uptake was?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Phil

Very difficult to judge the expected rental weeks that you can expect as the market is really changing by the day in the Murcia. Its the usual case of supply and demand...and supply is mushrooming at a great rate on knots. By the time Terrazas is up and running you will be competing with probably another 10 or so resorts in the very near vicinity....not just Polaris. Other developments are in build or planning. In about 5 years there will be at least another 10,000 apartments and villas on the rental scene in the Mar Menor area. There will be about 1,500 rentals at La Torre, 1,000 at Hacienda, 500 or so at El Valle...then there is the rest of Terrazas, Condado etc.

However the region is starting to taking off as a tourist area so maybe there will be enough demand, but it will take time to build up. It's a bit of guessing game, but at the moment supply is far outstripping demand. Your rental needs to have something special to make it stand out from the others. A two bed apartment is competing with thousands of others as its the commonest property type..

A rough annual running cost of an apartment on a Polaris resort is estimated to be about 4,000 euros when you include all the community charges. local taxes and other of your mandatory Spanish taxes. It is definately not recommended to have to rely on  rental income to cover any additional costs such as mortgage payments...that is heading for a fall! Renatl income will certainly supplement your costs, but it is unlikely to cover them.

Hi,

I'm puchasing on La Torre, expected to complete next year and currently investigating renting through the Polaris management and rental facility.  Would anyone have any experience of renting through PW rather than an outside agency?  I feel that by using Polaris they can offer a good service by being on site and it's also in their interest to market the resorts to generate an income for them.  Would be interested to know if anyone has any thoughts on this? 

Thanks

Hi Sue,

I have not got any experience with Polaris as a rental management company, but I would be surprised if, a) They weren't very competitive in the marketplace and b) didn't provide a very high level of service. As you say they will marketing the resorts as holiday destinations, not just to buy from early next year with their vacation club.

I would expect rental demand to increase over the next few years, especially once more resorts have opened fully, and more of the facilities come 'online'. My impression when I visited was that the resort is still in it's infancy, especially La Torre with all of the building going on. As a golfer I wouldn't rent at PW as there is only 9 holes on Mar Menor and 9 (soon to be 18) on La Torre. I would want at least 3 courses to play if I was going on a golf holiday.

I think you are right in that the PW concept is still in its infancy...but it is growing very quickly. All the PW advertising is cleary aimed firstly at the golfing market. Their primary business strategy is golf orientated. And there will soon be more Golf Resorts and Courses on stream to push this harder next year.

The second 9 holes at La Torre will be open next month. The course has had very good resports so far.  El Valle will be open next year and maybe Hacienda too. That will give PW three 18 hole courses and one 9 (soon after to be 18). Soon you will see PW increase their marketing and advertising push for their Nicklaus Golf Trail. Rentals in the golf market will then be stronger than it will be up till then.

Remember that the main high season for golfing in Spain are the autumn/winter/spring periods. Low season is the summer. Great for rentals as you get the main golf accupancy outside of the main UK summer vacation period. Great for PW too as they need to have custom for their Resort Commercial facilities all year round not just summer vacations.

There are also many excellent golf courses in the nearby region anyway for golfers to mix and match with the PW ones.

I really feel that a 'holiday' market for rentals on PW resorts will be limited...and limited primarlity to UK school holidays.

Who are you using as your renting agent or are you doing it yourself. 20 weeks already sounds excellent!

Chris

Chris what phase are you on

Dave

Hi

Who are you using to get your rentals, 26 weeks is incredible

Carole

Can  anyone give me some advice of what sort of things i need to look out for if I rent out my apartment on la torre?