Thinking of buying

Hi, 

We are thinking about buying on Roda Golf and wanted to get some advice from current owners please.

The place looks lovely but we would have to rent to help cover the mortgage. Do people do long term rent in the winter for 6 months and is it easy to rent in the summer? 

Any other advice on the resort would be appreciated.

Thank you

Hello,

I own an apartment on Phase 3 ( around the other side of the golf course from the main entrance). There is a demand for winter rentals but rent levels tend to be lower for winter/lomger term rentals. If you need rental income month in month out  to cover mortgage  the location of your chosen apartment will be important. I don't have any scientific research to support this but i think apartments closer to the main entrance and road acess ( ie Phases 1 and 2) might be easier easier to rent out as access to a car is fairly necessasry  in phases 3 and 4.

Good luck!

Thank you so much.

We have seen a property on phase 1 which is a bit more expensive, but the benefits in terms of location makes sense.

Don't do it...

Jani...why?

Burnpark

I am not an owner on Roda golf, however If you are relying on rental income to help to pay the mortgage you are leaving yourself in a precarious position. 

What happens if you get no rentals or not enough to cover the mortgage? Have you factored in the Spanish Income tax that you would have to pay on your rental income?  Not sure about Roda but some Golf complexes are like ghost towns in the winter months, and I would check to see if the community is in debt, as I know of one golf community that is 1 million euros in debt and I think that all community owners are liable. What would you do if the community fees increased say by 25%? (ours has just increased by 50% due to bad debtors)  I am not trying to scare you, but you need to go into this as fully informed as possible.

You need to do your sums before you consider renting out.

I have lived on Phase 1 for 14 years and  there have been many repossessions because the owners couldn't pay the mortgage.Long term rentals are usually ok from October to May.In the summer months you could get a lot more..I suggest you read the rules regarding how long you can stay here yourself after Brexit,if it ever happens!!

As the other person said you have to pay tax and probably management fees out of the income and on top of that it is approx 2000 euros per annum to live here in maintenance and property taxes without your utility bills.

Beautiful apartments but be wary.There are cheaper places and these are uncertain times.

Incidently the Community is not in debt and Roda Golf thrives in the winter. Roda is a lovely Spanish village.

I hope this of help.

Thank you. We are looking at a property around £100k, so the mortgage after deposit is quite low and we are hoping renting will cover most of this, but we can afford a few hundred a month if not. Hoping to use 2 or 3 times a year and then move permanently when we retire

Hi Burnpark,

Your idea is exactly what our plan was but hopefully you wont have the crash of 2008 that we had to deal with!!

However, having said that its imperative you cover ALL possibilities if you are not buying outright but mortgaging. We purchased off plan in 2004 put down a large deposit and also got a Spanish mortgage for the balance. Back then the price of a ground floor 2 bed 2 bath was around 225,000 Euros so these days you are getting a bargain as they have dropped through the floor and as far as I am aware have not recovered and dont look likely to in the near future. We hadnt originally planned on renting out but it soon became apparent we would have no choice, almost immediately the Eurobor started rising year on year until our mortgage payments had more than doubled to around £1000 per month, on top of this the value of our apartment was steadily decreasing. Along with extortionate community fees and various bills from the local council and general utilities the place was an absolute money pit.

To be fare our situation was worse case scenario and hopefully the economy is more stable (Brexit withstanding of course) but also your outlay is lower. What I am tryimng to say is that we thought we had crossed every T and dotted every i but we couldnt have been more wrong. After 10 years of sleepless nights we eventually managed to off load the apartment and the relief was amazing even after losing a lot of money along the way, every spare bit of cash we had was being transfered to Roda for one bill or another. We did manage to hoilday over there and use it ourselves mind you but even then the thought of what it was actually costing is on your mind.

Renting out is another time consuming past time, you have to be constantly on the ball updating website, repling to enquiries, dealing with managemnet company (some unscrupulous ones by the way) and evn after all this we found there was only about 3 months per year that were busy and I think we were ones that were doing quiute well at it. It may have changed now but I am not so sure,  owners still barter with each other for busines I have noticed when renting recently. Once we had got rid we realised waht a luxury it was just to rent at Roda and have no connection other than that and also get a penthouse really cheaply, there are also some amazing long term rental offers.

We are know back to having 3 or 4 great holidays a year with no mither of our property in Roda hanging around our necks. We still visit Roda and get one of the great rental deals from owners direct so this does prove how much we like Roda,  its still a lovely place and in our hearts even after our experience which says a lot for the complex and the area, but in our opinion it suits us now just to rent and have the chance to visit other places in the world as well. We still have plans to spend longer weeks/months at Roda when we retire next year but will definitely be renting only.

I hope this helps rather than just puts you off, it is only our experience and I am sure there are many people who own at Roda and are living the dream so good luck in whatever you decide.:-)

You would need to be crazy to think you are going to pay the mortgage on a property ..by letting it out to holiday makers...it's this sort of thinking that has got thousands of holiday home owner's into financial trouble ...it really doesn't take to long to work out what you are proposing ...if it was that easy wouldn't everybody being doing it ..think about.

Hi - I agree with comments made against your plan.  We are completing on our sale today!  We bought the two bed penthouse apartment at the height of the market in 2008 and have now sold when prices are down (we bought for £185k - sold for £83k) So the only financial advice I am qualified to give is -"don't buy!!'.

Roda - when it's not flooding - is lovely.  So don't buy, rent every time you want to go!  Let someone else have the hassle.  We have had the 'renting out' hassle every year and have never earned enough to pay all the bills, expenses and taxes!

Hope this helps!

Utrinque Paratus!

This thread is almost 1 year old ..I wonder if the original poster ..has taken in the advice given.
 

Your will struggle to rent out an apartment for most weeks ( to much competition on apartments ) I own a villa on Mar Menor Golf ( I don't rent out ) buy I know people that do, and the villas with pools rent out first and they full all summer ( normally but not this year because of the virus) with apartments on Mar Menor some do get rented out but they are not full all the time , to much competition with each other (apt's )  I used to own an apartment on la torre and is was exactly the same as what I have just explained.  You will not fill enough weeks to cover all your out going cost, and especially if you have mortgage repayments to factor in. My fees on a villa are around 100 euros a month apartment fees are a lot more .