Property Management/Rental Scheme

Hello everyone,

Has anyone used Calidona's property management service, say at Roda? If so, please can they share their experience? Are their T&Cs onerous? We are considering if we should ask Calidona to provide this service at Corvera as we have bought an apartment in Phase 1.  Does anyone know of other companies or individuals?

Thanks

JR

Hi JR,

You'll find a lot of information about property management companies, including Calidona, on the Roda forum under the "Property Management Companies" thread.

Hi JR,

Not much help but I recall someone writing in to the forum a month or so back, saying that they were not going to proceed with Calidona's scheme as the terms and conditions were so restrictive as to make you feel that you would no longer be the actual owner!

I can't recall the details but they quoted something along the lines of their being able to only book for a fairly short summer period and with very low returns to the actual owner such that the concept of covering one's annual running/ownership costs, would be totally out of the question.

Worse still, this person also stated that the owners were not permitted to let the property themselves during the rest of the year, as a private and separate venture.

I'm sorry that I cannot validate this but as one who's very existence almost hinges on "survival by letting", it put me off, even though I have just been advised that our property has been accepted as a qualifying entity.  I decided for all manner of reasons, to wait until they come out with more info but if the foregoing IS the case, they can forget it!

I'm not scaremongering and I'll be glad to be put straight if I'm wrong........ usually no smoke without fire though.

All the best,  Fizzler.

We are going with Ready Rental Property SL. They maintain that they are able to put your property in their Home from Home collection which goes into 15000(their numbers) of the UKs high st. travel agents and 135 online booking agents. The T&C of their contract are also harsh and slanted towards them, but i fear that all of the big boys will have the same format. They maintain that they will guarantee their initial fees will be covered by your first years rental wether you actually have any rentals or not. Time will tell. We have signed with them for Corvera apts and two in Cyprus as well so i hope we have not made a mistake!  On a different tack anyone out there been contacted yet regarding the developers mortgage, we have tried again today to get info from Banco Popular. Please post if you have any info.

Paul C. 

Hi Paul and all,

Good luck with your rental company choice.  Strange how they can "guarantee" to cover their fees etc even if they do not let your property successfully!

The whole rental thing is up in the air and none of us really know what to expect. When we agreed our two Corvera options back in the mists of time, folks were on the crest of the wave and that's when we got sucked in. people were selling their properties at twice and sometimes three times what they'd paid off-plan a few years earlier.

Also, when we bought another apartment even before this, we were "guaranteed" that we would be able to sell it upon completion and could fully expect to be able to sell it for about 45,000 Euros above what agreed to buy it for off-plan.  We were never able to let it and we were 'lucky" in being able to sell it about four months ago, at a further loss of Euros 35,000 on what we paid, plus the upkeep and running costs over a four year period of it standing empty.

It was at Ribera Beach along at the Mar Menor/Mar de Cristal nr. La Manga. Our sales agency promised us that the accepted measure of things at the time, meant that if you let your property for just ten weeks during the summer season each year, the income thus derived would have covered EVERYTHING including running costs AND the mortgage and would have even generated a small profit in excess over the top.

More squadrons of pigs flying over!

As far as our offer of a builder's mortgage is concerned: We were directed towards "another" very large and well-known Spanish bank by Corvera/Calidona but the character there with whom I tried to set up negotiations etc, was so rude and abrupt and unhelpful that in the end, I had to advise him to change his ways and I gave him a few constructive suggestions, in the nicest possible way of course, but I think that he saw it as a challenge because he'd riled me and he persisted and in the end, I took great pleasure in advising him that I wanted nothing more to do with him or his bank, Good Day!

I think that there are a lot of people with a rather arrogant mind-set who are going to need to change their ways and attitudes if the Spanish property market is ever going to stand a chance of recovery. Having said this, I do not wish to imply that Esther at Corvera/Calidona is included in this observation as she is as helpful and honest as she can be with the information and advice which she has available to her. Thank you Esther.

I advised Esther of all of this at the time for her info and only the other day, out of the blue, I received a notification from Corvera/Calidona that my business had been transferred to the London office of the same bank.

BUT, I'm doing nothing at present in respect of rental or mortgage arrangements because of other major pressing considerations which I have to take into account but thought it worth mentioning all the foregoing to you.

WHY is this forum so quiet when up until recently, it was populated by so many folks with so many pressing concerns: unable to sell UK properties, unable to obtain mortgages, issues with the developer and related concerns and so on... but now it's as quiet as the grave. Where is everyone and have you all resolved your overall issues and concerns?  How lovely for you if that is the case but please don't leave it to just a few fellow "owners" to sort it all out.

Don't forget everyone, all our earlier discussions led us to try to get together and to this end, Lisa Mona (forum member) has some good advice to offer.

Good luck, Fizzler.

hi fizzler .

i am on phase 4 of roda , may i congtatulate you on a factual account of property ownership in spain . the roda forum is also quiet on the matter of delays etc are we to take it that everybody is happy with the situation we find ourselfes in due to calidonas delays ? the fact of the matter is that everybodys wealth is decreasing in the current climate ie low interest on savings - poor stock market performance - house price deflation etc . owning a spanish property bought off plan in boom times will only compound the situation in the short to medium term and by medium term i mean 10 years .  anybody looking for capital growth and healthy rental returns (short of family and friends ) will be very dissapointed , check earlier posts regarding ACTUAL rentals being achieved and being driven DOWN by competition this situation is only going to get worse as more units are completed and become available . the future for any sort of income or capital growth from these units is very bleak indeed as i have said before if you look at the situation through rose tinted glasses you will be very dissapointed . the fact of the matter is spanish property prices will be hard hit in the coming years and rentals will be driven down by desperate owners trying to cover costs . i wish the situation were different but do we really believe that  murcia is immune from a global downturn ? .

Hello Searay and thanks very much for your message and kind words.

As we agree, what on Earth is happening with everyone else....where are they all and what happened about all the very valid concerns which were/are besetting us......what do they know that we do not? There will be a very heavy price to pay for complacency and leaving it to everyone else and it's going to become very COLD financially after Christmas this year!

I worry about the fragmented style of this forum because despite all the foregoing discussions and inputs and suggestions made thus far, it's obvious to me that unless you happen to stumble upon one of these "threads", you would not simply be able to open up the whole forum and be able to see what had gone before or is going on at present on other threads. MIND YOU!...... I'm the original Computer Dummy!

To bear this out though, I just received a message today from another EOS member making his first visit to the forum and he obviously, through no fault of his own, has not seen the earlier inputs and is already suggesting that we try to get together and form a cohesive interest group. So I have suggested that he tries to go to the main forum and then the various threads.

May I ask if you have contacted LISA MONA in accordance with her earlier suggestions on this forum?  It's the only cohesive way forward. Please do so, as should everyone else who has concerns and it's the only way in which forum members can discuss matters in relative confidentiality in that "membership/access" is only open to bona fide Corvera purchasers and thus restricts access by developers and those with their own commercial or other agendas from "eavesdropping" without their presence becoming obvious.... apart from the activities of "moles" of course!

For those who have the time and financial resources on their side, good luck to you, ride the storm for now and I wish you all the best with all sincerity.  Goodness knows, I DO KNOW what financial collapse feels like and the consequences are very harsh, especially when fate has made it happen at an age when there are not the life span/career options available upon which to build yet another recovery. DON'T let it happen to YOU.

With kind regards to all Corvereans. Fizzler.

Hi Fizzler and Everyone,

I too am a purchaser at Corvera and have signed up for two apartments on Phase 2, primarily as an investment as I'm nearing retirement. I've not previously posted to this group, but have been lurking here for some time. I've been reluctant to do so because of the very reason Fizzler gives in the fifth paragraph - that of confidentiality, and the fact that forums can be infiltrated. While I think that an open forum is a good thing to have, - it's difficult to imagine, for instance, that Calidona are not aware of what's going on, and our general predicament - there are certain matters I may prefer to discuss within a closed user group. I wasn't aware that one existed until now, but I shall PM Lisa Mona as suggested.

It seems from what I've read that I'm in the same situation as many of the participants on this forum. I over-committed myself at the wrong time, and have been caught out. It's been compounded by two previous purchases in other developments which have both gone badly wrong, for different reasons. I'm not able to sell either of these at present, the net result being I won't be offered, nor can afford, any further mortgage. I'm left with a few stark choices all of which will result in heavy financial losses - the question is, what is the least worst option? The problem is there are too many variables and unknowns, so what might seem the best course of action today may not turn out to be so in the long run.

I'm still hoping to complete on at least one of the properties at Corvera as I believe like most of you that it will be a good investment in the long term. To do this I would have to raise capital by selling my only unencumbered asset in the UK, the income from which is supplementing my salary, and this would expose me to further risk as my mortgage is on my own home. Of course, it's the worst time to have to sell anything, but there aren't many options.

The other property will almost certainly have to be sold on before completion, and luckily my contract allows me, in theory, to do that. I'd be interested to hear from others what recommendations they have for marketing their properties, which companies they recommend (or not), and whether they have had any success in selling. And if so, what sort of prices they achieved. Probably these things are better discussed in the closed users' group.

I will be happy to participate in any collective action deemed necessary to solve our common problems, but I think we have to recognise that we may have differences as well. We all have a slightly different perspective on things depending on our personal situations.

With best wishes to all,

Peter.

Hello Peter and welcome aboard!

Thanks very much for your welcome input and I'll reply to you privately as our concerns are pretty well aligned but I've already related my tale on open forum a few times and bored folks stiff with it.

Incidentally, I've mentioned that I have been concerned about the (to me) fragmented style of our forum because it seems that in order to be able to read all inputs, one has to access all "threads".

For instance, today I received a private message which drew me back to the thread "Legal Position Update" (please take a look everyone) and I was very sad to see that a disreputable respondent has taken the trouble to make disruptive comments and inputs, which, I hasten to add, have been smartly put down by our fellow Corvereans.

He/she has even gone to the trouble of adapting my forum name FIZZLER into TWIZZLER for some obscure reason. Maybe my observations which seem to be taken in good faith by all forum friends, has his/her own agenda or vested interest!

Anyway, the point is that by simply reading Peter's message today, I was not aware of the posting on the other thread as detailed above until I read the other private message and while my point is not to dwell on the abuse of the listings by this character, it serves to show that unless all threads are read, we can all miss pertinent (or impertinent!) messages.

Any suggestions to lighten my darkness please or suggestions as to any forum streamlining which can be implemented?

Private message follows Peter.

With kind regards to all, FIZZLER/JOHN.

I really think that for the short term the best option may be to look for 6 month plus lets from local workers.  The construction of the airport at Corvera could be promising.

Does anyone know of a local letting agency?

Hi Russ and all,

Yes, I've long held the view that the airport construction programme and the many PROFESSIONAL (not hole diggers!) people there, are our best bet but as someone responded some time back, all the "big boys", ie: the established letting/rental agencies are rip off merchants and although you MAY be lucky and secure some kind of letting with them, your return would be pitifully low and they place all sorts of restrictions upon the owners and the final income would not be very much at all and certainly not enough to cover even running costs, let alone a mortgage, if you are "lucky" enough to have one!

All this came about because one of our number went into detail in connection with the Calidona related letting scheme and their conditions are really prohibitive and they even dictate that you, the owner cannot "sub-let" to anyone else during the time for which they are not directly occupying the property with one of their clients.

As with all Fat-Cats these days, we need to wheedle them out and expose them for the greedy so and so's that they are and we need to find a new representative letting body of integrity and who acknowledges all the advantages of an ongoing, fair play arrangement which is beneficial to all.

As a retired aviator, I have had, as you can imagine, a life-time of airport lettings and hotel accommodation and all shades in between. I have tried everything that I can on the 'Net, to try to even find an airport website where I can contact the major contractor direct for this very purpose.

I'm sure that everyone will be aware that this airport, despite all other considerations, IS going to happen and for a change for once for Spain, pretty much on time, now that things are moving ahead at last.

All airport related operations have to be implemented and thoroughly planned YEARS ahead, particularly once you become involved with the actual aviation/operational side of things.

The establishment of airways routes, arrival and departure procedures are incredibly complicated and costly to establish and coordinate and they cannot be started and dropped upon a whim, believe me!

The planners at the airlines themselves have to work very far ahead with their scheduling and determination of flight crew requirements, engineers and traffic staff, not to mention the numbers and type of aeroplanes needed.

There will already be whole "air forces" of skilled professional aviation related and highly skilled, and incidentally, highly paid folks waiting in the wings (sorry about the unintended "wings" pun there but it's a goody, isn't it?!).

As things develop, they AND in many cases, their families, will need to descend upon the new airport site in order to carry out their tasks and they will all want to be living somewhere close by and not having to waste time and money in commuting, except possibly at weekends/holidays etc.

This is where we at Corvera and the local villages and towns, have the edge on other developments. The whole infrastructure with schools and hospitals, restaurants and bars and other accommodation of an off-airport nature, will need to become established in our immediate area.

THAT is where we should all be concentrating our letting/rental efforts and if I was clever enough and not 65 years (young) and broke because of the overall Spanish situation which has cost us pretty much everything and not living down here in Oz, I would be thinking VERY seriously about setting myself up as a diligent and reliable Corvera owner, directly with the main airport contractors and establishing the aforementioned letting agency, to whom we would all flock........ and damn the Fat Cat types.

Building the airport is not just a matter of holes in the ground and eventual runways and buildings etc. The specialist skills and staff required to install, test and bring to fruition and THEN maintain such incredibly complex systems as the advanced instrument landing systems, the radio communications suites, the fuel "farms" etc, without even thinking about such things as the terminal buildings and all related requirements, mean that, in all reality, we are soon going to see a massive influx of professional staff requiring good quality adjacent property to let and for a good few years to come...... not to mention re-sales prospects.

I am at rock-bottom because of circumstances but, because of my past experience, I can see that provided that I can get through the next couple of years, we'll all be reaping the benefits. It won't be immediate, worse luck but WATCH THIS SPACE !

"Clear to Land".  Good Luck and Best wishes to all,

Fizzler/John.