Murcia Property Snapshot

Interested to receive the below update from the moveworldwide.net - with a concise snapshot and thoughts on the Murcia region and property profiles..starting with....

La Manga Most people would class La Manga is the strip of land between the Mediterranean and the Mar Menor, but that strip is divided into two. One end is like Benidorm, the other is more like San Javier.  At the far end of La Manga, apartments are as little as 100EU but because it takes so long to travel down it, property at the near end costs double that, with luxury flats priced around 250EU. Locals would go for the cheaper zone. Overseas buyers tend to stick to the more expensive area, where front line beach properties are standard. 

Cartagena is a strange place for Brits - it's like a little London! The second city in the Murcia region, there's a lot of good stuff going on here, with a new deep sea marina being developed. The aim is to build properties around the port and turn it into a Dublin-like high-end area and attract the luxury cruise liners. There's not much space left in Cartagena to build, so instead a lot of old buildings are being redone into modern apartments. Still, not that many holidaymakers are buying, especially not Brits. 

Los Alcazares Lots of Scandinavians and Germans buy holiday homes in Los Alcazares because it's close to the Mar Menor. Holiday homes here are a bargain because of the price - it's opposite the more upper-class La Manga, but it's far more affordable. Los Alcazares was a typically Spanish town, with narrow roads and a good local market, but it has since been extended. There are not many new build properties in the area, so you need to go outside of the town to find new developments. 

San Pedro -  If buyers could get a place in San Pedro, they would. When I first moved to Murcia, I lived here. It was great, but parking was a nightmare in the summer because Spaniards would come from the North for the beautiful beaches! Overseas investors tend to find that the places are smaller than they expect because they have been built for Spanish buyers. It's only a 1km walk to the beach so homes don't tend to include swimming pools - one of the main things Brits want. There's not a supermarket in San Pedro as such; it's a holiday destination so if you live here, it's quite a drive to the shops.   

San Javier is very similar to San Pedro! It has the current airport, which gives it an advantage, but when Corvera's International Airport opens, that will change. Still, there are some lovely beaches and bars. 

Águilas is a beautiful place. Really beautiful. The beaches are probably the best in Murcia - on a par with the South of France. There are new properties here, but the developers are naive, so the resorts don't always have facilities such as bars. The town is lovely but it's mostly undiscovered by the Brits. That could be because of the roads - you used to have to drive all the way around to get here - but the new motorway means it's only 20 minutes from the Paramount Theme Park, so there's a lot of potential for things to improve. When the park opens and the facilities are added, Águilas could become one of the most in-demand hotspots in Murcia. 

Mazarron is a bit of a myth place... There is one development called Camposol, which has been there for years, but that was basically a bog land. Because the developer, MASA, was well connected, they erected these quick, pre-fab properties and sold them at low prices. They were featured on TV shows, such as Holidays from Hell. People still come out looking for these cheap detached villas, but they don't always buy them. It's 15 minutes in-land from the Murcia coastline, so they're not exactly beachfront, although there are several nice golf courses. Otherwise, Mazarron has got some great views, lovely mountains and nice beaches, but the properties on the coastline can be quite pricey.

Sucina - a typical mountain town, a nice little place with a couple of golf courses. It's popular with overseas buyers - quite a few Brits go to the Spanish schools there - but the market has got room to expand. Sucina seems to be at the centre of all the new motorways in Murcia. It's connected with the new shopping malls, the new airport, it's just 10 minutes to the coast, 10 minutes to the city... It's really well linked up. When Paramount Theme Park arrives and Murcia starts to see an undersupply of property, all kinds of developments will spring up around Sucina. 

Alhama de Murcia -  15 to 20 minutes inland, Alhama benefits massively from being the nearest town to Paramount Theme Park when it opens. Everyone wants to go there, it's popular, but I've never sold a house there. It's a nice town, but the property tends to be Spanish-style housing, situated above restaurants and bars. Existing developments that do appeal to overseas investors tend to consist of identical units of white houses. But most people in the know are buying property here now because of the location - in a few years, more developments will appear and demand will soar.