Paramount Murcia - Land Purchase Delayed !!

Monday 7th February was supposedly the day that PREMURSA stumped up the 15.8 Million Euros to purchase the scrubby parcel of land adjacent to the A23.

Alas it seems that there is a "technical delay" and the purchase has been delayed until 7th March 2012....we all know from experience what it's like in Spain, when you are waiting to complete,  its probably something to do with missing habitation certificates !!

See the full details here from simplynetworking.es

We await further good news...

What's going on in Condado ???

With my thanks to Phil Tann for all his hard work on half of the community I enclose below notes from his recent meetings with Milenium and IRM - makes interesting reading !!

Al Kasar

Over the past year or so there have been many rumours regarding the possible leasing of units within Al Kasar, there has been talk of new restaurants, bars and a Bakery etc.  IRM have confirmed that the only unit that has a concrete lease is the Clover, the new lease holders are expected to exchange contracts this month and hopefully open for business before Easter. There has been a lot of interest in other units but at the moment none are at the stage where IRM are prepared to make public that there will definitely be a new business opening.  

Golf club house

IRM have no current plans to build a new permanent club house, architect plans have been drawn up for this but in the current climate no timescale have been set.   As others in the know have already stated there are plans to move the old show room building over to the area between the driving range and the 1st tee.  Enrique has confirmed that this is the case and that IRM are awaiting approval from Alhama council.  Approval is expected within the next few weeks and once this comes through work will commence.  IRM are hoping to have the building moved during February and completely refitted to provide a Pro-shop, changing facilities and a bar and cafe for opening before Easter.   The temporary club house will be open during course times and a number of local businesses have already tendered to run the bar.

Golf Buggies

A number of owners have raised concerns regarding golf buggies being driven on the road ways between Al Kasar and the course, some have been driven on the wrong side of the road and have resulted in some near misses with cars.  Whilst this problem will be resolved once the Pro Shop and buggy store has been relocated to the temporary club house, IRM have confirmed that they have full insurance, it was also stated that due to this problem no private buggies would be allowed to be used on the course.  Buggies are for use on the course only and should not be used on the public roadways.

Visitor Access 

IRM and their agents raised the issue of the difficulty that their customers were experiencing in gaining access to the resort.  Enrique stated that Condado was the must difficult resort to access, all other resort had number plate recognition systems that allowed quick access and that the level of security at Condado was putting people off coming.  He also stated that the commercial units within the resort could not survive on residents alone and relied on outside visitors.   The situation with the recognition system was explained, we are still awaiting Polaris World to fully repair the system as it had never been fully operational.  Whilst the community understood his concerns the level of security at the resort is that expected by the owners and that we would not allow open access.  Until the number plate recognition system was fully operational all visitors would need to undergo security checks.

To speed up this process it was agreed that the old temporary card system would be resurrected for visitors to the commercial areas within the resort.  Security will take the vehicle details of all visitors and issue them with a numbered Visitors yellow card to display in the windscreen, a note would be taken of the area being visited ( golf, Al Kasar, Sports etc ) and the number of visitors.  These cards would be returned on exit.  Security staff, with the vehicle registration details, would perform checks to ensure that all visitors remained within the public areas of the resort.

Landscaping of un-built plots.

The success of the commercial units within the resort relies on both being able to attract return customers to the existing facilities and to attract new businesses in.  First impressions count and currently the state of the barren plots around Al Kasar and the Golf course entrance will not give that required positive first impression.  IRM were asked if these plots could be tidied up and possibly screened with hedging in the same way as they are on the inner road around through the Jardines.   IRM agreed that this is something that they could do and will liaison with Mileniun on this.

Festivals

Last years summer festivals brought over 4000 people into the resort and resulted in much interest in the commercial units.  The community are planning to hold similar festivities this year , so we asked IRM is they would like to sponsor events or contribute towards the running costs.  Enrique replied favourably to this and requested that Mileniun contact him nearer the time when specific details had been arranged.

Murcia - THE place to invest in 2012 !!

Interesting upbeat "selling" article online article today from a property investment website....

2012 is the year to buy in Murcia "allegedly,",  the big date for investment interest is 6th February this year when the consortium behind the Paramount park (PREMURSA) has to stump up the 15.8 million Euro's to physically purchase the barren 1.8M sq meters where the Paramount Park will be built - we all wait with anticipation for the site to break ground and open in 2015 - maybe ????

Marbella and Murcia Property

Forget the sunshine, and the average 300 days of it, basking in the investment potential of these red hot contenders would give you a tan and a healthy glow to your bank account....

If Five Star luxury is your mantra to life then Marbella is the place to invest. You will be following in the steps of Sheikh Abdullah Ben Nasser Al-Thani of Qatar (a.k.a the owner of Málaga Football Club), who recently announced plans to expand his empire by investing a cool £80,000,000 in a massive marina development there. Construction begins this year and the plans promise a marina with the capacity to take cruise liners, along with high end shops, restaurants and hotels. It doesn't stop there. In total, £330,000,000 is being invested in Marbella at the moment, creating new rail links, a new underpass to cut holiday traffic jams, and even a second runway at Malaga airport which is due to open this year.

Now for the icing on the cake; property prices remain low at about 20-30% under the original asking price, something which will definitely change as all the developmental projects come to fruition over the next couple of years, leaving you with a massive grin on your face should you choose to invest.

If a shiny new marina doesn't take your fancy, then maybe a reconstruction of the most famous cruise liner in history might? Or even the Lost Valley, Woodland Fantasy or Plaza Futura? 

I have just described some of the main attractions of the new Paramount Pictures Theme Park which is due to open in Murcia in 2015.  For you not to be left at the back of the queue, 2012 is the year to invest.

Described as the 'Envy of Europe' and expected to draw in some 4 million visitors in its first year alone, Murcia is guaranteed to explode into a hive of activity.

Not only that but the upgrade of Corvera International Airport which is opening later this year is also expected to attract a further 3 million passengers from neighbouring San Javier and El Allet

Still amazed? Asking prices for property in Murcia stand about 62% below the national average, proving that a property investment here would be the best bargain you've ever made.

Condado is on the Map !

Its amazing to see that for the 1st time you can see Condado on the map from on high and this "Bing" map allows you to scroll and zoom around the locality

Great to see also, if you pan slightly to the right you can view (just before the A30) the new Corvera airport site, the runway and approach roads are clearly visible

Lets hope that one day soon we might even be able to fly into here !

Map location of Condado - scrollable as well !!

Drains Update !!

I know it's not a very sexy or interesting topic BUT an update on the drains before the season opens.....

The repair work has been done with a hole being punched into the floor outside the ground floor apartments 1601 / 1603 and the damaged pipe has been exposed and repaired.

On the back of this work, the camera team isolated the damage further back under the parking area and I understand from Phil Tann in Jardines One, that today there is excavation work going on in the car park - so progress is being made  - indeed check out the work being done !!

Service Charges...a cautionary tale !

In 2012 the individual presidents have been alerted to any outstanding service charge debts for each of their blocks,  its a sobering fact that there is over 415K EU of unpaid community fees and these debts will be aggressively pursued in 2012.

Its a tough financial time for all but please read and note the details as enclosed.


Outstanding Service Charges 

Do contact me if you have any questions

Block 16 Maintenance

Many of you are aware of the issues we have had in the block recently over waste water drainage. Indeed some owners on the ground floor have suffered "backing up" and leakage of sewage into their apartments,  this is clearly not an acceptable occurrence and I have been working to resolve this problem with Mileniun.

Investigations have confirmed that of all the Penthouse blocks built on Condado, one of them was built without any access manholes to allow for servicing and repairs to the drainage system - yes, you guessed it, block 16 is that block !

Milenium Levante confirmed that as this problem is a construction issue, we would need to wait for the  involvement of Polaris World before any re-pair work could be actioned, clearly with the zero interest that Polaris has on Condado now,  this wait would have been a long and fruitless one !

I requested that the work was carried out immediately  due to the public health issue we have. I also suggested that maybe the drainage should be carried out independently and the owners pay for the work themselves if this was the only way the repair could be commenced.

I made contact with the newly elected Level 1 president (Phillip Tann) who lives on site and he discussed this matter with Milenium directly on 10th January and the end result is that all parties have agreed that the drain repair work and installation will be claimed for under the buildings insurance policy that we have on site

This means the work will be carried out in the immediate future and in time for the opening of the 2012 season - a good result for all and my thanks to Phil for his invaluable help here....

Happy New Year - Where will you be flying into in 2012 ???

Happy New Year to all, hope you had a great Xmas and memorable new year. We spent Xmas at home in London doing, if I am honest,  very little other than eating and drinking too much but I guess that's what Xmas is all about !!

With the start of 2012,  thoughts inevitably turn to escaping from work and heading over to Condado, we have already booked to come over for Easter for 10 days and I was looking yesterday at flights for June 2012 for another escape. With the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in the UK, we have the rare occurrence of not one but two consecutive bank holidays on Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th June.

Always keen to grab some holiday for free,  I thought I would price the flights on Ryanair from Stansted to San Javier. If you have checked the Ryanair site recently you will see that they have implemented the crazy "unintelligible zcgtyu grunupiz"  letters that you have to enter into the site in order to progress any further,  this is meant to deter the automated flight search engines, but they are so hard to read. I am sure many punters just give up at this stage. I normally end up clicking through a dozen different options before I can get an image I can actually understand and replicate on the keyboard !

To say the costs for Diamond Jubilee weekend were expensive is somewhat of an understatement, the normal Saturday flight we try to catch leaves at 07.40 am and the most we have ever paid is around £250 for 2 pax,  however this year and with Ryanair always keen to make a buck, the price for the flight for Saturday 2nd June is £552.00 for 2 pax - suffice to say, IF we go, we will fly with Monarch from LGW into Alicante for £250.00 cheaper than Ryanair !

On the back of this I came across on Facebook a new link for Covera airport images, San Javier is due to close in early June (7th has been touted) so where will we end up flying after this date ?

Corvera Airport - Opening June 2012 ??

 What are your flight routes into Condado  - Alicante or San Javier ??

Happy Christmas / Feliz Navidad To All Owners !!

Minutes from the Presidents EGM - November 2011

Minutes enclosed from the Extraordinary General Meeting held on site on 26th November

The minutes contain some interesting information - click on the link below to access in PDF format....

Minutes from the November 2011 EGM