Full-time relocation

I identified the hills behind the Marbella coast between Casares to the the west and Alhaurín el Grande to the east as the initial search zone, going no further than 25kms inland so any property would be less than a 40 minute drive to Marbella.

Of those twelve, one lovely cortijo was just a tad too close to the abattoir in Coín for comfort and four others did not come up to scratch in the quality department.  Over two very busy days in early June we visited the other seven, the result of which was that most of the area I had targeted could be ruled out.

Firstly, they felt it was too far inland, in part because their Spanish is limited but also the distance; it was only by viewing properties in the Coín and Alhaurín locations that they realised that even 20kms away from the coast does feel very different.  In reality they wanted a little less country and a bit more coast than they had appreciated.  Secondly, while some of the Andalucían countryside is lush, green and well-maintained, some parts, particularly in areas of smallholdings and farms, is scrubby and scruffy and too often the access to what may be a really nice property is an eyesore with all kinds of rubbish dumped at the side of the road.  But from the viewings near Casares and in the hills behind Estepona it was very clear that a certain kind of environment would be the ideal; hilly and heavily wooded, part of an existing urbanization rather than a one-off country property, maintained lanes rather than rough tracks and around ten minutes from the coast as a maximum.  So we agreed that I should dig deeper in the area near Casares village and in the Los Reales area behind Estepona and I viewed a further seven properties of which Mike and Brenda visited three but none felt right.

By now, one month of the two month visit had gone but I felt I knew what the real problem was and it was all about that fundamental property issue – location.  Several of the properties would have been of real interest if only they had been somewhere else and that somewhere else was a place called El Madroñal, one of the best urbanizations, a real prime location 7kms inland from San Pedro on the Ronda road.  This is where they really wanted to be but it is many years since I have seen a good house in El Madroñal go under €1 million, with the average being closer to €2 million even at today’s reduced prices and I was working with a budget with a €600,000 maximum.  It wasn’t looking good but they did now accept that if that was where they wanted they would have to up the budget.

There were three houses on the market in El Madroñal under €1 million, all priced at €995,000.  They had already seen one of them a year previously and rejected it because of road noise; some houses in El Madroñal do have this problem and often it is impossible to tell until you are actually inside.  We viewed the other two; one was way too small while the other was interesting enough to make a second visit but ultimately the layout just didn’t work so it looked like another dead end.  Then out of the blue a house that had been on the market for €1.4 million originally and was still at €1.2 million when I started the search was offered to me at €850,000, although it did need updating and extending.

With only two weeks of their visit remaining we went to see it.  We knew that someone had already made two visits and was sufficiently interested to have gone back with a builder.  The important thing in this type of situation is to control it by being first with an offer on the table, leaving the other party having to go better.  Within a few hours of the viewing Mike and Brenda decided to make the first move and pending a second look the following day we made a low offer eventually agreeing a deal a few days later.  For a house on a plot of 6,000m², south facing with sea views, in a mature, wooded garden this is the best purchase made in El Madroñal for a decade.  By the time the other interested party had their builder’s estimate and were ready to make an offer we had paid a deposit and contracts were being prepared. 

In the last few days of the visit I set up an on-site meeting with an architect from Seville, Domingo Cárdenas-Mata, and the purchase contract was signed. If this search proved anything it is that the location comes first; for these clients locations other than El Madroñal would have been a compromise.  But I think it also shows you need a little bit of luck and be in the right place at the right time.  Earlier in the year this house had looked way out of the budget so didn’t even come under consideration but by the time the price had been reduced to within striking distance we were on the spot and ready to go.  Now, our clients have one of the beat houses in the area; a wonderful sea view, a house that fits perfectly into the wooded hillside with a contemporary interior with elevator to all floors, a 13m heated pool, spa with a steam room, gymnasium and games room, and the perfect office for WFH.

That’s my version of events.  Here’s what our clients had to say:

“We would like to say that for us the experience of buying property in Andalucia and having Barbara as a wonderful mentor by our sides could not have been more pleasurable.

We were so impressed by the attention to detail she provided in her report on every house that we looked at. She had done thorough up-front research and sent us lots of photographs of every property that might be of interest. We were amazed at how many houses she was able to show us that met our requirements and all within the original budget price she had been given.

She also made sure to inform us of any negative factors that might influence our decision, such as early setting of the Sun particularly in winter for properties in the lea of mountains, possible noise from motor-cross activities on Sunday mornings, and when we finally found a home that we would have loved, Barbara noticed a very hard to see builders yard in the valley just below this property that we later found out was owned by what could be some rather typically Spanish inhabitants who had probably been living there for years and may be prone to erecting further unsightly buildings without any planning permission.

Finally we were extremely lucky to find just the right house in El Madroñal which is what we had wished for but never considered it as a reality. Barbara was right on the spot and with her excellent negotiating skills we were able to secure an offer at well below the asking price making it affordable for us.

We now have had the added pleasure of working with Barbara’s friend Domingo who has turned this property into our dream home.

From our point of view and our recent experience this is the only way we would ever recommend to anybody to purchase a property in Spain.” 

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