New Houses and All About Marchena

A real country house and villa special this week. Lots of new and updated properties including a few from an area I haven't covered before around Gandia on the Costa del Azahar (The Orange Blossom Coast). I remember a particularly happy family holiday in the area many, many, years ago which even today my kids (now 25 and 29!) talk about. I will prepare some information on the area shortly when I have uploaded a few more of these beautiful houses.

For now can I introduce you to the Marchena area; a corner of Andalucia that has seen amazing price drops but has so far remained under most buyers radar.

Marchena, Sevilla, Andalucia, Spain

A prosperous, full service town with excellent communications surrounded by rolling agricultural land.

Marchena is a thriving, prosperous, market town in the province of Sevilla just 60 miles from the City of Sevilla and it’s airport whilst Malaga airport and the costa is about 90 minutes away with virtually the whole route on motorways.

The town has the usual long history beginning in Roman times and with buildings remaining from most eras since! Worthy of note however are the preserved remains of the old town walls including the Torre de Oro and Arco de la Rosa Gate. Then there is the parish church of San Juan Bautista and the Plaza Ducal,  a colonnaded square.

Today Marchena offers everything you need for day to day living including Doctors, Dentist, 24 hour Medical Centre, Supermarkets, Banks etc.

Local road communications are excellent with easy access to the nearby A92 Sevilla – Malaga/Granada motorway or, rather further away the A4 Sevilla – Cordoba/Madrid motorway.

 Public transport includes regular, cheap, buses to Sevilla and all points North, South, East and West whilst Marchena railway station gives connections to Seville and Malaga from both of which a there are high speed rail links to Madrid and beyond.

 The town is surrounded by rolling hills and rich agricultural land, La Campiña . The area is also a center for the breeding of Spanish horses and there are many stables in the area. Many of our Marchena houses are in this rolling countryside where you can enjoy country living within minutes of all mod cons.  

For me the most eye catching feature of the town are the storks nests! These big birds construct huge nests on the spires and towers of the town and seem oblivious of the human life going on around them.

If you are interested in the Marchena area you should also take a look at these Country Houses in nearby La Puebla de Cazalla.

For all of our properties in the province of Sevilla please Click Here

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+598 424 80 563

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Email: bill.tickle@tickle-international-property.com 

The Spanish At Their Best

Many, many years ago, just after my love affair with Spain began, I visited Estepona with my family to view investment properties. One of kids slipped in the shower and cut his chin badly enough for it to need stitches. I hadn’t a clue where to go or what to do so I called my friendly estate agent! He came out immediately and drove us to the town’s medical center (every Spanish town has one). As a former rugby player I knew all about casualty departments so I thanked the agent for showing me where it was and said he didn’t need to wait, we could walk home. He gave me a very old fashioned look and I soon found out why. We went in, my stitched up son was seen immediately and within 10 minutes we were on our way home again! Incredible to anyone used to the usual 3 hours + wait in casualty in the UK.

This was my introduction to the Spanish approach to emergencies. Whilst day to day things can be left to “mañana”, when the chips are down all the stops are pulled out. If you have an accident on the road, everyone stops to help, calling for assistance, directing traffic and doing whatever has to be done, whilst hospital emergency departments are exactly that! They aim to treat you and get you on your way as quickly as safely possible, even if, as happened to me once, this means dropping your shorts in a busy room for a quick injection of anti biotics in the bum!

What made me think of this? Well my friends in Spain have been suffering greatly of late with natural disasters of one kind or another; a huge area just behind my old home in Alhaurin el Grande was destroyed by a wild fire whilst the recent rains have caused serious flooding. Summer fires and floods after rain are always going to happen but what matters is the response! The firefighters in particular are amazing. You can see hectares of burnt land but the houses in the middle some how survive because of their skill and expertise. At a time when all the news from Spain is of doom and gloom these natural problems and the reaction to them is a reminder that Spain and Spaniards are at their best in a crisis! They understand what a vecino really is and anyone in trouble can expect help. That's why, no matter how bad things may look, they will turn round.

Can I also add that there are some very nice and talented people in Spain and can I therefore show my appreciation to http://www.facebook.com/Sh7Solutions for allowing me to use some of their photos.

http://www.tickle-international-property.com/

Email: bill.tickle@tickle-international-property.com
+44 208 144 5525

+598 424 80 563

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Market Trends - Property Types

I am forever being asked what the property market in Spain is going to do and my reply is that there isn’t one market, there are many!

Madrid and Barcelona are different markets, subject to different forces to the costas or inland Andalucia for example. That’s why averages are of no help in telling you what is going on and why most figures given by the media are totally meaningless. It will be helpful however to look at the specific areas that I cover where there are some clear trends emerging.

There is strong demand for coastal property as long as it is cheap and well positioned. Unfortunately a huge number of apartments were built in the boom to be sold off plan that are disasters as homes. Build quality is frequently abysmal whilst layout and amenities are worse! Swimming pools tucked away in ugly corners and apartments over divided. What do I mean by this? Put simply the developers put a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment into a floor space that would have made a nice, spacious, 1 bed. This results in all the rooms being too small and cramped; kitchens you can’t work in, bedrooms without storage and so on. On the plans and in the artists impressions all was well but in real life…! So before jumping at a bargain take a moment to think what it will look like with furniture and people in it. Properties like this should be avoided like the plague.

The availability of apartments (and they aren’t all bad – there are bargains about) and modern townhouses has impacted on the value of traditional village houses which have plummeted in price. There are some great bargains about just now.

Inland country houses and villas have also come down in price but nowhere near as much as village properties. That probably reflects the fact that the demand for them is stronger; most people would rather have a detached home, ideally with a pool, then a terraced village house. These are prime properties and prices are holding up much better.

The most striking feature of the current market however is that there are an awful lot of people sitting on the fence! They want to buy that home in the sun but they don’t want to commit until they are sure the market has bottomed. This indicates that there is a big pent up demand and once the market turns it will move up quickly. Unfortunately for these people it is never easy to catch the absolute bottom and we are obviously very close to it so if you see the house that suits your dreams and your pocket, get off the fence!

http://www.tickle-international-property.com/

Email: bill@tickle-international-property.com
+44 208 144 5525
+598 424 80 563
Skype; tickle.tip