SPANISH DREAM HOMES ~ NOW ABANDONED!

 Comparisons to HRGR?

SPANISH DREAM HOMES ~ NOW ABANDONED!

They say every picture paints a story and never more so than the images I captured last year which shows in no uncertain terms how a Spanish dream home can turn into an abandoned nightmare!

I had joined my daughter for the last few days of family trip to the Costa’s.  My girl didn’t have much time, or indeed inclination to research the area, it was a quick getaway she was looking for with sunshine, and a pool for the kids being the only ‘must have’s. So she booked a villa through Owners Direct which looked as if it would tick all the boxes.

 The holiday home was on a development on the edge of the El Valle Golf resort, which is between Banos and Mendigo just off the Murcia-San Javier motorway.  The approach was lined with quite pretty houses of various sizes. 

Pink and crimson bougainvillea draped itself round trellised gateways, pots of red geraniums, blazed against the white washed walls, it was all picture perfect.

Pretty whitewashed houses, it all looked so promising! 

At first glance, the house really couldn’t be faulted.  It was well maintained internally, plenty of big rooms, nice out door area, all this along with the long hot sunny days, what more could you ask for.

But apart from one bar/restaurant, which was situated within the very posh club house, and one very small adjoining supermarket, there truly was NOTHING else within walking distance of either the villa we were staying in, or the hundreds of other properties in the area.

No friendly little café bars, no dedicated bakery, no place to sit and watch the world go by. To me, it truly was a place of nothingness!  

Of course this is probably not an issue for holiday makers such as us, who want to hire a car and go out and about to the beach and see the sights.  But on a daily basis for expats, there was no sense of community.  Nowhere to go where you might bump into friends for a coffee and a chat, as you would do in a friendly village.

Plenty of apartments for sale here!

At any time during the day, the only sound to be heard was the occasional gentle thwack of the golf ball as the players made their way round the course. During my daily walk to the one, tiniest of shops, I did not see one other person, ever. The streets were generally deserted and on closer inspection, so were many of the houses and apartments.   

This was in August, school holiday time in the UK and I would have expected to hear children playing in the swimming pools.  Shouldn’t there have been extended families staying in these large villa’s laughing and chatting, and whilst I know the Spanish often retreat to the hills in the height of summer, surely some of them would have been in residence?

Holiday home pool and patio, ticked all the boxes!

The design of the patio area at our own villa, meant it was very easy to take a peek at the houses situated on each side of our rented holiday home. They had both been abandoned. To the left, the swimming pool was home to frogs and mosquitoes, and a horrible green algae covered what was once the blue tiles. A family of feral cats had made their home on the terrace and the associated smell was overwhelming.

To the right, amazingly, the doors to this house were all unlocked, I actually walked into every room, and the property was full of quite expensive furniture, white goods, pictures, linens and crockery.  It was as if the owners had just left one day and never returned. The overwhelming smell inside this house was of damp and it was obvious the place had not been visited for long time.

Whilst my visit to El Valle was short and sweet, I realised that the original purchasers of the hundreds of properties on the development, probably had expected more, when they signed on the dotted line.  I wondered what clever marketing had resulted in the sales of many of the properties.  What had the developers promised ‘would’ be built? How had they ‘sold’ this dream to the purchasers?  I’m all for peace and quiet, but this was more like a ghost town.  

 

Sadly neglected garden home to feral cats!     

Even with my own personal quest to return to Spain, (and virtually anywhere will do!)  I wouldn’t want to live, even for free, on a community built virtually in the middle of nowhere, and I can’t imagine why anyone else would want to either. 

Perhaps THIS above anything the reason for the abandoned houses.

I recently wrote about the impact homesickness can have on the strongest of relationships, but surely WHERE you live can also be the making or breaking of any relocation dream.

On reflection, and with the benefit of hindsight, do you wish you’d chosen to live in a different town, area, or even just a different type of property in Spain?

Maybe you even know of, or live near El Valle, if so, perhaps you can paint a different picture.

http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/rosiewalters/13106/ONCE-SPANISH-DREAM-HOMES-~-NOW-SADLY-ABANDONED.aspx