Buying an appartment in Almaradi

We are currently thinking of buying a 3 bed 2 bathroom appartment on the edge of Almeradi (partly to rent partly for holidays). We went out with ambasun and all was good whilst out there. On arriving home we really looked at the short term rental terms around the area and it seems that ambasun inflated what we could get by about 50%. Of course you dont beleive the claims that you can rent out for 20 weeks of the year. We estimated 12 weeks and could handle that, not needing to make a big profit. However when you see websites offering similar properties for this year, they have virtually no bookings.  Is this usual ? any advice would be great thanks, we're going to decide in the next couple of days. We are lending half the asking price of 140k euros. The appartment block is nice, great pool - all very clean and new. The flat has a view but across the road is some scrub-farm land. Of course ambasun assure us that it is agricultural land and wont be built on - but we cant check in time as we'd need to sign the builders contract in the next few days... hmm !

thanks for any help

Andy

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Hi Andy,

What you have to remember is that the guide that took you around may have been very nice and with all the will in the world probably used there best knowledge to find you what you were looking for.

Ambasun use people that have no or little knowledge of the property market in this area,they are just people that are trying to earn a living and fair play to them to,but they are not the best people to ask and trust to find you the right property.

Almoradi is a lovely spanish town and i have friends that live there but they are spanish!

In all honesty there is not a great deal of rental potential at all,golf,beach and location in this market will help you to rent out but not guarantee you an income and anyone who tells you that Almoradi has got great potential is telling a few fibs.

I know people that are struggling to get 8 weeks rental at the moment and they have prime location simply because a lot of people have been told by supposed agents that they will rent property out if they purchase and so there is a saturation of rentals.

As for the land that you say the property overlooks take it for red that it will be built on at some point,maybe not now but certainly in the future as Almoradi is a growing town.

I hope this helps

All the best

A "real estate agent"

Georgia

 

 

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HI ANDY WHILE I DONT KNOW THE AREA AT ALL I WILL CONFIRM GEORGIA'S VIEW ON THE LAND - WHILE IT MAY BE RUSTIC TODAY IT COULD BE URBANISED TOMORROW - WE WERE SHOWN A VILLA BY AN AGENT ABOUT 18 MONTHS AGO WHICH HAD BEEN EXTENSIVELY REFURBED AT ALLEGEDLY CONSIDERABLE EXPENSE - LAND BEHIND US APPEARED TO BE RUSTIC BUT HARD TO TELL EXACTLY AND THE AGENT SHOWING US WHO CLAIMED EXTENSIVE KNOWLEDGE OF THE AREA AS HE HAS LIVED HERE FOR A LONG LONG TIME INFORMED US IT WAS A FINCA AND WOULD NOT BE BUILT ON - ROUGHLY 9 MONTHS AGO THE DIGGERS MOVED IN AND STARTED BULIDING UP AND FLATTENING THE LAND FOR AN URBANISATION OF ROUGHLY 200 DWELLINGS - IT WILL DIRECTLY OVERLOOK THE BACK GARDEN OF THE HOUSE - NO WE DIDNT BUY IT - PERHAPS I AM NOT AS GREEN AS I LOOK!

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I don't know where the apartment you are interested is. But we bought at Luz de Almoradi a year ago and have not regreted it at all. The land in front of us use to be lemon groves, but a lot of it has now been cut down. This really worried me, but as my husband said the farmer would not be doing the clearing up if they were going to build on it - that would be left to the developer, so that makes me feel much better as they say that they are re-planting the trees.

We are not relying on rental to pay for our apartment, but apparently you get a better income if you rent your apartment out a few months at a time or even longer term, that is if you won't be using it. Algorfa Golf Club is only just a 5 minute drive away and the beach only 11 kms. which is a bonus if  you will be renting.

Ann

This message was last edited by dyfan on 3/8/2007.

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Thanks to all for this spot on advice - when we were out there I wish I had my laptop with me !!

Just saved us a fortune.

Signed,

Naive of Newcastle

AndyK

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Andy dont consider yourself naive - you are one of the ones who has bothered to look for information from a source other than the person who has a vested interest in selling you the property. No one on this site (in my humble opinion) will try and deter you from buying in Spain - after all many of us have done it to varying degrees of success and while there are a lot of horror stories on the site it is the nature of the beast - hence the majority of programmes on TV focus on the negative side of owning something here - important thing is to be 100% certain that what you are buying is exactly what you want - the only way to be certain that surrounding area wont be developed is to buy in an established area which means probaly resale or an urb that is being developed within a new community where you know everything that is gping on around the property you buy

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Andy,

I agree with Smiley,it's not naivety and you shouldn't put yourself down.

When you are here looking for property it is very easy to be lead into things and get carried away with the moment.

Don't get me wrong Almoradi is a lovely town and is a nice place to live but without a doubt the rental potential there is very low,you would probably get a long term let but i would say it would be Spanish clients and as you may know the laws here regarding rental are quite tricky regarding long term occupation.

When buying with rental in mind it has to be a decision based on listening to your head rather than your heart,which in my experience is one of the hardest things to do for clients.

You did the right thing by consulting rental agents via the web as the best way to gauge the rental market is to see what is booked up for the coming year.

Don't be put off any potential purchase but maybe base it on a more facts and figures.

Dyfan

I agree Luz de Almoradi is a lovely aprtment complex as we sell it ourselves and is ideal for permanent residence although not rental.

Regarding the golf course of "La Finca" and the beaches of Guardamar there are a lot of properties actually on the doorstep so being in Almoradi doesn't really class this as a pull for potential holiday makers.

It's always "horses for courses" when buying property what will suit one person's needs will not suit another.

Georgia

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I quite agree with you Georgia. We didn't buy ours to make money by letting. Don't  you think that investment of Spanish properties has gone out the window as there are so many and not enough people to rent them out for holiday rental or long term?

Why do they keep building so many? I suppose it's probably because it's cheaper to buy off-plan.

 

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Actually, I think that the market has just gone into a "lull" period.

More and more, we are seeing the usual travel agents trying more and more ploys to bring the market back to them.

They realise that people are buying their own holidays online, tailor made to their own specification.

I do a bit of market research online, answering quesionnaires and I am finding more and more of the research is asking, how do you book your holidays, from whom, private, online, travel agent, etc, etc.,

I think that the private rental market has had a lull, because, more and more people are choosing to rent privately, surf the web for the tailor made holiday and this has saturated the market, so much so, that because "us" private people do not have the marketing capabilities of the giants, our properties go "unnoticed".

In time, travel agents will become obsolete and the private market will become glorious.

Well, that's my opinon, right or wrong!

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Just notice how many time I said "more and more"!!!!

Sorry guys, I just was thinking of the vino, you know....more and more?

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This message was last edited by JeansSis on 5/19/2007.

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