The Property Doctor

When I first arrived on the Costa del Sol in 1999, San Pedro de Alcántara was a place that I was always keen to avoid. From the N340 that passed through the town, the place didn’t exactly set the heart fluttering with its aesthetic beauty and charm.

Look one way and you would see a shabby looking, run-down Spanish town; look the other and you would see empty scrub and wasteland. Hardly impressive… What’s more, the place was a nightmare to navigate. Negotiating the bottleneck Ronda Road junction at its eastern fringe was bad enough but, once you actually managed to make it into town, finding a parking place brought its own series of dramas.

Fast-forward 15 years and San Pedro is the name on everyone’s lips, from savvy investors to the glitterati, from tourists to locals. So what happened?

The tunnel… that’s what happened. We waited an inordinate length of time for it to be completed, while the local and national economy ground to a halt for several years and businesses went to the wall in the meantime, but eventually it arrived.

It allowed traffic to flow, it allowed ease of movement between Marbella and Estepona, it stimulated property sales and investment in the areas to the west of San Pedro, and it meant that residents like me started to explore my surroundings a little more. It even tempted me to relocate, having vowed never to move out of Marbella’s clutches.

Of course, the tunnel was designed primarily as a by-pass, but while all that work was going on underground it was what was taking place above ground that really started to capture the imagination.

In the height of the recession, one very bold developer, rather than simply sitting on their hands waiting for the good times to return, decided to promote a new project of apartments and penthouses on a plot of land located in the Nueva Alcántara area.

Taylor Wimpey de España took the decision to offer the properties at attractive prices and with a top specification, no doubt impacting on margins, but the development (named Los Arqueros Beach) sold in record time without a brick being laid. Priced from just €195,000 for a three-bedroom apartment, the development attracted the interest and imagination of residents, investors, estate agents and the media… just the sort of stimulus that the town had needed.

With the properties now valued at approximately €100,000 more, we should all have really invested in Los Arqueros Beach. In the time it took for the project to be completed, we have witnessed the re-birth of San Pedro de Alcántara. Parking and navigating the town is easy, there is now an array of cosmopolitan places to eat and drink, with new venues cropping up on a weekly basis, and the park that was promised is due to open just in time for the publication of this issue and the San Pedro Feria.

We’ve had to be patient, but the wait has definitely been worthwhile. This once-forgotten town between Marbella and Estepona is now firmly on the map.

What’s Hot!

• Duquesa Village – yes, it really is possible to buy a two-bedroom penthouse for less than €90,000.
• Meisho Hills – Zen-inspired architecture in Sierra Blanca.
• La Finca de Marbella – off-plan luxury villas selling like hot-cakes.
• Ojén – the nearest hillside white-washed village to Marbella.
• Lomas del Marbella Club Pueblo – hidden rustic charm on the Golden Mile.

Best Deals

• This spacious three-bedroom villa in La Duquesa has cathedral ceilings and a private pool –  €395,000.

• Beachside apartments (New Golden Mile) with seven per cent rental guarantee – priced from €168,000.

By Sean Woolley

Sean Woolley, our resident property expert, can be contacted at Cloud Nine Spain: Centro Comercial Guadalmina 4, Local 88, San Pedro de Alcántara; Tel. (+34) 692 254 432; sean@cloudninespain.com; www.cloudninespain.com