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Hi ,
We were thinking about re-locating from Scotland , I am 40 my wife 38 and we have a 12 year old son , we have been in touch with polaris world and are thinking of going out on a inspection tour .
Would this be our best option ie a new build or is it better to buy a property already built ?
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It depends on how long you want to wait!! If you read on here and other forums, you will see people that have been promised properties in (for example) Jan '06 only to find the build hasn't even started yet!! to be fair, that probably isn't the norm, but there are plenty of folks that are having to wait in excess of 6 months from the given completion date, not good if you are looking to tie in with a "lock, stock & barrel" move" and selling your UK home.
It is always difficult to imagine what any flat piece of land, or building site will look like in the future, you can guarantee that the architect has a more artistic flair than the builder when it comes to the finished product. Best bet if you are looking for a new property is to go for one that is key ready. Basically, you then know it will be built (as it is in front of you) and hopefully others will already be living there to have taken some of the guesswork out of legality, although this is of course no guarantee.
The best piece of advice to give is DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES be pressured into using their solicitor, make sure you get someone independent.
Mark
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Thanks Mark ,
To be honest we have'nt set our hearts on a new build and any advice re best value and course of action would be greatly appreciated , we would prefer Murcia though .
3 bedroom villa with £100,000 to put down in roughly March time , I have a monthly income of £1,200 via a pension so would probably require a mortgage to secure a decent place .
We are still both young so would be looking for part-time employment as well , schooling for my 12 year old son is a issue as well , thanks in advance Neil & Michelle .
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We went on an inspection trip (not with PW though) and it was very interesting and informative. We also thought we were going to be looking in the Murcia region, but found ourselves further down, closer to Almeria. It is a beautiful part of the country and the scenery is breathtaking. We also checked prices being offered to us from our agent to those in the local estate agents and they were very comparable/ favourable.
If I was looking to move out permanently (which we are in the next few years), after advice from others I would choose an area and then rent there for 12 months or so to get a feel for the area. We moved to Leeds from Bedfordshire 6 years ago and bought a house in haste because the Wife's employer was footing the bill. It is a great house, but 6 years down the line, we realise that if we had rented for a few months we could have bought somewhere we preferred. It is a lot more hassle once in Spain to realise the area isn't what you want and that you would like to move!!
For a permanent move as well, I would consider approaching some of the agents on here and asking them to put together some viewings for you and taking a holiday. Whilst not as cheap as an inspection trip, you know (hopefully) that you will be offered many different properties by many different builders and on many different sites, not just on a site that the agent needs to sell at that particular time!!
I don't know much about PW to be honest, but from their adverts in the UK, don't they do mostly golf resorts? We thought about buying 2 apartments and living in one while renting out the other. We then decided that although where you go on holiday is probably very nice, is it the sort of place you would like to live 24/ 7/ 365?
Mark
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Where ever you decide to live you need to find out what the extra expenses are going to be. If you are going to live on an urbanisation then what are the fees, I would imagine that PW will be very expensive as they properly have a tri annual painting scheme. There's also the communial gardens and probably a life guard as well. Quite a dent in your pension.
Also because of your ages then you will not be entitled to Spanish Healthcare at the moment in Murcia so you will have to pay for private healthcare, another expense.
You will need to work out how much this going to cost you, you may be lucky and get part time employment but what would happen if you don't.
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Hi Neilyb,
If you have an inspection trip in mind and are not 100% sure you want a polaris Development then you may be better off using an agent that will show you a bigger spectrum of properties from different developers both new and resale.
The best thing you can do is look at Polaris and then make your own opinions on whether it is suitable for you.
There are many schools to choose from in the Murcia region both state and Private as with a 12 yearl old i would imagine this is a major influence on the area you settle in.
Whether new or resale is dependant totally on your timescale,if your move is imminent builders promises of completion may not suit you as much as a property that is already built and key ready.
If you need more info on an example of what your money will buy you and a rough guide on mortgage payments to match your salary then PM me.
I can put you in touch with a cracking agent 
Regards
Georgia
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www.taylorlandandpropertygroup.co.uk
still here after all these years!
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With a £100k deposit you should be able to find something nice around Mercia with a top up mortgage
As suggested a visit and be shown around may be your best idea just now even though Inspection Trips are very tempting
Also if your funds are going to be ready circa March 2008 now is the time to start looking and you may be able to reserve a ready now or even a new build which is due about that time
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We went to Sapin to look at PW a a mate reserved one and we were thinking about taking it off him, it was at Hacienda Req. which seems to be one of the better ones , not so built up. We looked at the site and you are very much in the middle of nowhere, great for golfers but not so for the rest of us. I was concerned that service charges, restaurant prices etc would be hiked up with no competition.
We visited a site that was up and running (as Req is far from being operational as a gold complex!) but were really disappoined, the finsh was really good, but the gofing areas did not look great and one of the pools was really dirty, we decided on another area where the infrastructure is in place , Quesada. I am sure these PW sites will be great in a few years time, just not for us.
Have fun everyone.
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We have properties in polaris and in Almeria..if you would like any advice on areas/schools (we have a 4 yr old daughter), which companies etc to use drop me a mail. We lived in Almeria for a while, and although very pretty it is also very quiet with limited shopping/school choices. Ok for a hol but we found it too quiet to live there!
We now live in La Torre (polaris) and our daughter goes to Kings College British school. We can walk to school every day, we are 2 mins drive from the town of Roldan, and about 15 mins from the beach. Also only 10 mins from murcia which makes a big difference! Unfortunately we are only 15 mins from the big shopping malls of Murcia (not so good with a wife like mine....!).
We find it great but like everything, it has pros and cons. If you want any advice let me know..we've been here 6 years now and lived on 3 different costas so we've gone thru just about everything now!
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I AM IN PRESTWICK AND MOVED TO ROLDAN LAST YEAR PREVIOUSLY ON THE COSTA DEL SOL, DONT BUY OFF PLAN. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AN ENGLISH SPEAKING SPANISH SOLICITOR. STAY CLOSE TO AIRPORT,BEACH, AND IN A TOWN. YOU CAN CONTACT ME IF YOU WANT ANY FURTHER INFO. WE HAVE USED THE SAME SOLICITOR FOR 10 YEARS
REGARDS
TOM
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And now there are some deals of the day which does show that even Polaris World react to the times!
But long term I suspect that all will turn out a good buy as more and more people look to Resorts for their holiday or part/ full time homes in Spain
In fact if you want a Resort home ,Spain has the best!
On offer are 2 bed 2 bath apart at El Valle 78.65 m2 ahora 235.040 € and if that is a touch expensive for you then similar at Hacienda Requelme at 187.565€
Even a deal of the day on villas at El Valle 3 bed ahora 507.235 €...but only one of each!
And that is just for starters...perhaps just now is a good time to get in.......
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"On offer are 2 bed 2 bath apart at El Valle 78.65 m2 ahora 235.040 € and if that is a touch expensive for you then similar at Hacienda Requelme at 187.565€
Even a deal of the day on villas at El Valle 3 bed ahora 507.235 €...but only one of each!"
Brian,
You can walk in to the sales office at Polaris and get 30% straight off any of these prices with very little resistance.
They have been doing "offer of the day" for a good six months now which is basically a hook to get people in the door,how can it be an offer when it is avaliable any day to everybody.
Anyone that didn't like the way Parador sold property and dealt with people will be pleased to know that two directors of Parador are now running the sales side at Polaris Ventas,
Polaris are making a lot of redundancies since the new sales team took over.
They owe a lot of agents commision up and down the coast,some good friends of mine,in fact in one case the lack of payment actually put one guy out of business.
The villas you mention at 507k were put out to all agents on a promotion at 350k six months ago.
I have no problem with Polaris as a resort but as an organisation they are a nightmare,ask around the agents when you are over from the UK??
This is not a dig but people want transparancy,as an agent in Spain you live by the sword and die by the sword,be very careful who you plug,with you not being at the rock face as it was you can lose track of what is happening with the promoters here.........
Your prices above could make you look very silly if someone goes to Polaris and is offered one 50,000€ cheaper....
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www.taylorlandandpropertygroup.co.uk
still here after all these years!
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Hello
I would agree with everyone else about off plan. There are so many key ready places available and a lot of choice. Personally PW was not for us but that is my personal opinion, and yes, we have stayed on a PW development. Have a good look around the areas and if you narrow down your criteria and let the agent know what exactly you are looking for in your Spanish home then that does save a lot of wasted time for you too. An important thing to us was being able to walk to amenities, bars, restaurants and beach, so this was a good help for our agent. We normally have a car but if we don't want one it wouldn't be a problem 
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Wow - not many people like parador it would seem! Strange..bought my place with them and i thought they were excellent!
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I treat these offers as a guide price and naturally I will expect anyone going over to look at anything in Spain to make an offer!!!
That is why just now is a good time to buy
Any client able to buy now is savvy and I think that applies now to most of the people who come to EOS to find out information about buying and living in Spain
Even in UK , 30 % off list price is now becoming common and one large builder around London was quoting 'buy one get one free'!!!
Entire empty block was sold in an afternoon!!
Interesting what you say about Polaris World but there are a lot of happy buyers out there!
This message was last edited by rowlandsbb on 10/16/2008.
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Hi Brian,
I think you mis understood the gist of my post.
My problem with agents is not so much the product they are offering it is generally the lack of knowledge regarding them,this can be very dangerous in the long run.
As they say "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"
My point was....
In one post you made on here you lambasted Parador on the way they did business with their payment schedule,you said they were way behind the times and needed to keep up with current trends,i think you pointed out that they were out of touch with the market in Spain.
The issue with you pushing Polaris is the fact that Parador Directors now run Polaris Sales directly from the Polaris head office.....you cant have it both ways...you either dont like the way they work or you do....the dangerous thing is that you didnt realise this fact.
In another thread you said the most important thing is to get a bank guarantee (very true) but then there are a number of people on here clearly stating that Polaris are not givig them their bank guarantees,,,,,again,you have to go one way or the other,if you encourage people to use companies that offer bank guarantee without quibble then how can you promote someone that clearly doesnt? is this because you didnt know again??
Concerning the pricing issue that we had,the prices you issued were not guide prices to be haggled with,they were actually wrong,Polaris issued a statemnet 6-9 months ago stating that any property on Hacienda Riquelme could be purchased now for 30% under the old list price and would all agent s pass this onto any prospective clients....again did you miss this email or did you simply not know....
The point i am labouring to make here is that hundreds if not thousands of people that in essence fuelled the flames of forums over the past few years have bought property from people who only had some of the information to hand and therefore suffered as a result.
In fact the biggest problem over the years is that people have bought property form people who are not Estate agents at all,they were just able to read a price list and could remember the way to the development.
I know you mentioned you purchased at Almanzora Country Club (Another Parador predominantly run development), my question would be,how does an agent, who's first job is always to check for licence for his clients on a development manage to purchase something for himself where there was never any licence or chance of being one,again i would imagine this was because you didnt know....
I thought long and hard before posting this but the point of the forum is to make people aware of the pitfalls both past and present and to perhaps give them some understanding how it all went wrong.
This is not a slight against you,i am sure you are a fantastic Chartered Surveyor but in this day and age please be very careful on any advice you give.
Being a Foreign "Proerty consultant" based in the UK can be fraught with danger as you can be too far removed form the action, in these changing times you have to be very careful of who you use,its not like the boom times when you closed your eyes and there was another 30 builders appear from nowhere,now if you blink you lose a couple.
As i say, iam sure you have the best intentions at heart.
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www.taylorlandandpropertygroup.co.uk
still here after all these years!
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No intention of getting into a slagging match but!
Everyone knows who runs PW sales and you know just because your business goes down does not mean that you are banned for life from working in the same business and do not learn from past mistakes
PW in general will now accept 25% deposit so I think are up to date with the times and keep agents well informed
Bank Guarantees have been notoriously slow in being issued in Spain but if you search my posts you will see that I have frequently advised that in today’s world buyers must insists that they receive it when they pay their money, not afterwards
Some will say this is not easy in Spain but that is not so, done all the time in general business
Past practice is history and one of the benefits of a buyers market
ACC is complicated, not simplistic, and will I suspect be subject to much litigation It has been well aired, but at least the buyers have had an option of mitigating their situation much better than for example at San José and the more recent administration of a couple of big developers in Spain, and others
Everyone knows how it was and there is no harm in reminding everyone from time to time but life moves on, with lessons learned and a buyers market is a hard taskmaster for Spanish developers, which is good for everyone
Assist those who have fallen fowl to the problems of the past and hope that their problems will be resolved: the Junta of Andalucía are now looking for a solution to their illegal builds and lets hope that for many this will have a positive result and other regions follow
Perhaps the current market will help motivate the authorities in this direction
As I have often stated, if you treat buying in Spain with the same care as you do in UK then you should be fine
Well, we have both aired our views and may well continue to differ on one or two points, and why not but learn form the past and move forward
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5 good reasons for not buying Polarisworld:
1. They are having financial difficulties paying debts especialy after Mar Menor scandal when ex owner was put in jail and current president appeared in court. (they owe torre pacheco council few millions and are selling everything to try and recoup this.
2. They fail to communicate with customers especially over bank guarantees check many sites ref this. Some customers have been waiting 8 months and are busy with sollicitors as we speak.
3. The promised facilities especially at Hacienda Ricquelma and Condado have not been built whilst poor owners are sat there with nothing to do.
4. Some phases on resorts have been cancelleed causing customers to buy other properties which have also been cancelled (Condado, terrazas!!)
5. The rental situation is very poor with customers on the polarisworld forum site complaining about rebtal at El valle Euro 150 per week being offered this is not a good reurn for investment.
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Regarding the last post i totally agree i find the fact that they have not built facilities on the resorts leaving customers stranded amazing, and the promises about bank guarantees are true i put o post on the blog " eye on spain parador properties tonight i am so angry my friend is in tears over the fooling around with her appartment, if i buy a property it will be in France not Spain my trust has gone forever.
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