Roda Golf Future

Hi 

We purchased an apartment on phase 4 last November from a Bank namely Caja Murcia. Does anybody know what future there is for Roda, i.e. all the barren land on which was supposed to be built a 5 * De Vere Hotel and shopping complex.  Also I believe another phase.  Is Roda now owned by a Bank or Banks, do they own the golf course?

Can the be forced to landscape the offending land

Are the banks resposible to pay the community fees for the property they own? I wonder if anybody can answer the questins as I love the place and wonder what the future holds.

Power

Hi, welcome to Roda, normally a friendly and enjoyable environment although I note not too many people have been able to answer your questions.

Perhaps because it is impossible to guess what the future will hold, no doubt before you decided to purchase from a distressed sake you did manage a lot of research about the resort and the area.

Briefly Roda/Calidona or related group companies, in theory, still own the hole in the ground that was the supposed hotel and commercial centre as well as the areas set out for development known as Phase 5 and 4B both inside the perimeter road.

They also own a number of unsold but built properties in all phases, some, because they were not sold, some because buyers refused to complete.

They own the golf cours, club house, as well as the building housing the shop and gym, most businesses other than golf have been let out to leaseholders.

I say in theory as it is entirely possible the banks or creditors may well have some influence on much of this property as Roda themselves have stopped paying Entity and Community fees on some of the property they own.

It is anyones guess whether the banks will try to repossess any property, unlikely as they have enough on their books.

Roda/Calidone will do nothing to develop or improve the site, everything that is being done is indirectly by all owners via the Entity or a Community which we are all a part of.

Socially, Roda is very busy and active, the summer was packed and the Roda Golf Fiestas appear to have been very popular and successful, golf organised by the members has regulars comps and social evenings.

A resort or community whatever you call it is made up and determined by its residents and owners, hopefully you will take a full and active part.

Contact your Community President for any local news

I agree with the previous writer. It is indeed impossible to say but with the Spanish economy so down and potentially with further to fall it is very hard to see any future with any resort in Spain even those which should do well in locations such as Roda Golf.

The reality is that the hotel will never be built as De Vere pulled the plug two or three years ago and the developer has walked away. The two large holes in the ground beside Phase 4 will be there for the foreseeable future as no one in their right mind would build there, with apartments in the two earlier phases in Roda for sale from 60.000 euro and there are properties being handed back on a weekly basis from people who can no longer keep them. Roda were trying to sell plots on Phase 5 but have had no luck at all as far as I know and it is not looking good.

IBI and Community fees are ludicrously high and with entity fees on top of that for most apartment owners the cost of keeping a property in Roda is now over 240 euro per month even if you don't have a mortgage so you can just imagine what it is like if you have. With some people renting for 240 eruo per week it is impossible to even break even in Roda if you rent out your property. We could not rent for this price and were happy to eventually get shot of our apartment in 2012.

As Hugh says the developer is not paying any fees now and the amount of monies owed by people who don't or won't pay is growiing daily with well over 1million euros in debt at this stage (lawyer's estimate on sight of Entity Minutes 2012 and Community information) so there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

We had two properties in Roda and now have one as we were able to sell (give away) the other but being realistic it will take 10/15 years for Spain to even begin a recovery and even then things will never be back to where they were when we bought (2008).

The golf course does seem to be still doing okay but the clubhouse is not well supported nor is the shop or gym so it is dubious as to how long they can hold out. The worst case scenario is that the banks repossess the golf course/clubhouse which is the only money maker in the resort and we will all be up the creek but hopefully this will not happen in the next year at least as it is hard to imagine what our properties would be worth if this happened.

We love our villa (which was a swap from a deposit on Corvera) in Roda and hope that the resort will do well but we have to be realistic at this stage and talking to our lawyer and bank manager last week ie people who know the real situation in Spain this is what we believe to be an accurate (if depressing) picture.

I can imagine that some people here will jump all over this posting but it is the truth and much as we all would like it to be different we have to be realistic.

No jumping from me - as I can identify with everything you say.

We do have a mortgage on our property and haven't come anywhere near covering our costs for the last 3 years. This year due to a long'ish booking in the spring we might JUST about break even.

I think the problem with the shop, and people not supporting it, is that it tries to stock too many things but not enough of the right food to be able to stock your fridge with anythinf sensible for a day or two. It's a shame, as I thought it was going  to be a great bonus for the resort.

The gym only tends to get used by residents - would you like to work out on your holiday when it's 35c outside?

And as for the clubhouse. Don't get me going on that. Last time we went in in April, we were waived away from the bar and told to go and take a seat as the bar was occupied by the usual crowd. We waited 10 minutes for a waiter to then take our order and another 10 minutes for it to be delivered. The clubhouse had a total of about 20 people in - including the 12 or so regular golfing crowd at the bar who were getting served immediately. I was getting very angry but I needed to be there to use the WiFi otherwise I'd have just walked out. And as for the food . . . this has gone seriously down hill imho. The once fantastic real steak baguette is a shadow of it's formwe self - with just a thin slice of preformed meat in it. YUK.

Despite all the problems I STILL LOVE RODA though - and I hope we can hang onto out apartment.

I think the key point is this is now 'our' resort and will be what we make of it, as a community. Ive noticed a little increase in holiday rental enquiries and some good rates in the peak months. Not so good off season, as without the sun there is really just Golf and nothing else. The introduction of arm bands for the pool has had a positive impact on legacy debts, and Im all for very aggressive action for non fee payers. The only way we can get the fees down is if everyone pays.

I cant see how anyone will get away with this unless they are just bankrupt and dont care either way. The massive debts are Calidona's, so to a large extent its irrelevant. Calidona dont pay for the maintenance of the resort and Golf course and clubhhouse. They are self funding business's, which seem to be doing pretty well overall. Even if the Golf Course and Clubhouse ended up in Bank ownership, as long as they are viable business's it doesnt matter a whole lot. Just about every high profile Golf Resort in Ireland is in Bank Administration and some are actually  doing better this way (more realistic fee's etc.)

Roda was thriving this summer, crying out for more facilites, so let the bank reposess the unsold lands and hopefully offer someone a realist proposition to build facilites in the future.

Could not agree more, I fail to understand why everyone is so paranoid if Calidona/Roda are declared bankrupt, there seems to be a view that they can separate all the associated companies such as golf etc. but I think it highly unlikely the banks would take the properties without the other assets and the resort would function as normal with new temporary or possibly permanent owners who may try to be more commercial on pricing the undeveloped land, after all Roda still has a popular and busy golf course and great location and a new face may well make a go of it at the right price.

So I agree Ray, lets end the reign of the developer and bring in some new blood it could not get worse as the owners NOT Roda are already running all the Community areas ensuring the gardens etc. still look good and the introduction of wristbands to use pools has certainly brought in considerable funds from debtors not wishing to lose out on rentals.

Roda say they have no money to pay and many of the properties were sold but not completed but they certainly kept all the deposits, now they just want the banks to repossess, as if the banks don't own enough already, a stalemate which does nobody any good.