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Just to add - I am aligned with John H on the Canaries thing to some degree and we seriously looked at a place in Lanzarote. Back in 2005 Canary Island process were double (like for like) that of our part of Costa Blanca and as we were working long weekends were great for us we couldn't have done that so easily with 4 hour flights.I actually like the winters out here - I am into my fitness and cycling and walking in 18 - 20 degrees in Dec to Feb suits me just fine on a bright day (which it usually is)
We sold up last year after owning a holiday home in GA for 14 years.In the early years of ownership when we only visited for a week at a time the proximity to the airport was a real bonus.....when we retired and came for five or six weeks at a time that didn’t really matter.Again when we were working a holiday relaxing on a sun lounger for several hours a day was brilliant....once your retired your attitude changes, two or three hours on a beach now or at the side of a pool and I’m looking for things to do!! We were down on Novamar and we had the no problems at all with the house, the TM properties do seem better built than others in the area, but be warned they have the thermal efficiency of a colander....as soon as your heat source is turned off the house becomes cold....those tiled floors are great in the Summer but dreadful in the Winter months. The other point to make is that noise isolation from adjacent properties is dire!!We were very lucky that non of our neighbours rented their property out....I know from the experience of friends that noisy neighbours can be hell....as can neighbours who leave dogs alone in the house all day...non stop barking.We bought south facing....so glad we did, in the Winter months the house was so much warmer, until the sun went down, and brighter than those north facing.We could sit out for a few hours a day even in winter in shorts and T-shirt’s, our neighbours behind us had sweaters and body warmers on at the same time.Being south facing also made then house a lot easier to sell, we actually sold it to some people from another Novamar phase who had bought North facing and regretted it. The Winter temperatures were one of the main reasons we sold up....it just wasn’t comfortable, even the bars and restaurants are bloody cold!Hindsight is a brilliant thing, if we’d bought in The Canaries we probably wouldn’t have sold.We love ballroom dancing and had to travel to Torrevieja, La Marina and Quesada to dance, we met some lovely folk in these areas and did discover that these areas had far more going on than GA.....with much lower property prices.Our best memories of GA revolve around the friends we had and the things we did, we had some brilliant times together and they made our visits fun. Regards allJohn
Have a guess where we’ll be in February....Tenerife not mainland Spain!!Don’t get me wrong we love Spain, we’ve been lucky enough this year to spend time in The Caribbean, The Greek Islands, Malta and Southern Andalucia.....and the place we enjoyed the most was Estapona in Southern Spain, glorious town and area, it had everything.You are doing the right thing by going in February in order to assess the situation yourself.Just one thing to add, and I believe it’s important, we never had any worries re security when we left our home on Novamar, no one had the keys for it, we never saw the need to leave them with anyone. As in all areas you get opportunist chancers entering houses with open doors to rob you and smart arses trying to con their way in to rob you....but in terms of actual breaking and entering I only heard of a couple in all the time we had our place.Regards allJohn
GA in winter is my favourite time, will be there all of February, yes the houses are cold in winter but we had central heating installed and now with mains gas it’s heaven. People use to laugh when we said we were having central heating installed. They seem to think Spain is blessed with sunshine and heat 365 days a year. We haven’t had any issues with anyone getting into our garden or into our house, gate is always locked. The only people to have our key are friends, they also now have a home in GA but I’ve known them since infant school so trust them 100%. When we brought the villa we are in the now we was approached my one neighbour informing us he is a key holder no hello nothing. If you need any advice or help don’t forget I’m there all February.
One suggestion I would make in view of the awful flooding we had in September is to be wary of buying a property in a low lying area, bearing in mind some cars were underwater in parts of Ave de Polonia, it's something I gave no thought to when I bought our house, strangely we suffered no problems with the recent flooding but the previous one we had water come under our front door which is half a metre off the road and as the house was shut up ended up with mould,ruined bedding and a sofa covered in mildew.
Had our place fifteen years now, still enjoy it, get to go out for a month now, enjoy walking and a bit of touring, have yet to find an urbanisation I would prefer to have a house on, best decision we ever made buying a house in Spain and particularly GA.
