A winning combination
If your favourite activities are cycling and skiing, take off to a region where you can do both!
BY ZOE DARE HALL
Like any estate agent in southern Spain right now, Phil Pritchard has a problem. He has a great product – apartments in small, boutique developments in the Alpujarra villages (just over 100km east of Malaga) for £80,000.
The setting is stunning, with the Sierra Nevada’s ski slopes and Granada’s Alhambra palace both on the doorstep. But how do you convince British buyers, his core market, to invest in Spain when their UK homes are plunging in value and the cost of living is going up? Skiing and cycling, that’s how. Pritchard, the director of European Property Sales (tel: +34 (0)9 5862 2135, www.europeanpropertysales.co.uk), has found that, while pure investors looking for quick profits will no longer touch southern Spain with a bargepole, holidaymakers who come to the Lecrin Valley in the Alpujarras mountains – where Rowan Atkinson and Alexei Sayle own homes – for a healthy week’s mountain biking, hiking or skiing, can still see the lifestyle value in buying a property there.
“We live in Vélez de Benaudalla in the Sierra Nevada National Park, which has thousands of kilometres of trails among the mountains, rivers, gorges and lakes,” says Phil, 50, who commutes between his office in Derby and his home in the mountain foothills, where he lives with his wife, Sarah, 39, and their children Ben, 10, Grace, eight, and two-year-old George.
“When we arrived a few years ago, we saw instantly that there’s a real passion for mountain biking here, with events throughout the year and tons of people whizzing past,” he says.
“I realised that the skiers who come here in winter and mountain bikers who visit during the rest of the year are similar types of people, so I looked at developing properties that would suit them, set near the ski slopes or right on bike trails,” he explains.
The properties need to be affordable to the kind of holidaymaker the area attracts – not just fit young singles and couples, but families with children and a lot of 45-pluses who want to keep active, so budget is a key factor. Fortunately, properties in the Granada province are 31% cheaper than the Spanish average, according to property website www.kyero.com
The apartments are customised to suit their active clientele, with hard-wearing marble and granite floors, and areas to store, clean and repair bikes. At the development he’s marketing in the village of Chite, just outside Granada, Phil even throws in two mountain bikes free with each apartment.
The 12 one-bedroom apartments, which start from £88,000, all have bike trails running right to their doors. “The trails are graded for difficulty and there’s something for everyone, from families with young kids to serious downhill racers,” says Phil.
Sporty buyers, including UK bike-racing champion Tom Braithwaite and players from Real Madrid, have bought in another of Phil’s developments, Jardin de Nazari, in the village of Vélez de Benaudalla. The 290 apartments start at £120,000 and are set in Moorish-style courtyards and gardens, with a spa, gym and Roman baths.
This area isn’t renowned just for its biking. Andalucia is also home to Europe’s most southerly ski resort, in Pradollano in the Sierra Nevada, refreshingly free from the glitz and exorbitant prices you find in Alpine equivalents.
“I love the atmosphere of the ski resort, which is one of the highest in Europe, so you can ski there from late November to May,” says Phil. “It’s very Spanish, not remotely pretentious and it’s a great place to take kids, with a new children’s park.”
The resort’s 87km of ski slopes – including five black runs and peaks of up to 3,400m – also promise year-round sun just an hour away from the coast and some of the best spring snow conditions in Europe.
“There are wide, open expanses and some great off-piste skiing and snowboarding, in some areas with incredible views across the coast to north Africa,” adds Phil.
For those keen to be near the slopes, you can buy apartments from £96,000 in the white town of Monachil, where Sheffield United’s goalie Ian Bennett has invested. The town sits on the edge of the Sierra Nevada, 20 minutes from the ski resort in Pradollano.
The current downturn in southern Spain’s property market has seen a shift away from those who came to the coast purely to invest and a return to buyers who love the region and want a second home for themselves.
“It’s a return to the kind of people who first started buying property on the coast 20 years ago – people in their fifties thinking about early retirement, wanting to stay healthy and looking for a lifestyle change,” says Phil.
“The economy may be bad, but people still want sun, especially as the last English summer was so appalling – again!” says Phil. “But they don’t want to just lie on a beach for a fortnight anymore. Buyers want holiday homes in places where there is something to do.”
He’s teamed up with www.activespain.co.uk to offer sporting and cultural activities such as canyoning, dune buggying, golf and tapas trails.
“Having these activities nearby means buyers have more chance of attracting holidaymakers to rent out their properties,” he adds. “Spanish property is back to being about living a desirable lifestyle.”
A QUESTION OF SPORT
It’s not just skiers and cyclists who can live the dream in southern Spain, with many other health-related properties on offer for lovers of sports, pampering… and beautiful homes! Here are just a few:
If you buy one of the high-tech, high-spec apartments at El Cortijo del Mar in Estepona, where one-bedroom properties start at £230,000, you get membership of the exquisite El Campanario, an Indonesian-Mediterranean country house with a spa, gym, wellness centre and pool among its leisure facilities.
You can also play tennis and golf here (tel: +34 (0)9 5290 6944, www.duchyestates.co.uk).
Ready to move in to, an end-of-terrace, three-bedroom townhouse in Hoyo 14 – right on the 18-hole Nuevo Portil golf course and a five-minute walk from 21km of sandy beach on the Costa de la Luz – costs £230,000. There are tennis courts and swimming pools on site (tel: +34 (0)9 5939 9698, www.titan-properties.com).
Champneys has just launched its first spa venture in Ojén, in the hills behind Marbella, with 72 furnished apartments attached to a Moroccan-style spa with outdoor pools, gym and clubhouse costing from around £470,000 [below]. Some big sporting names have invested here, but they’re all keeping low-profiles! (tel: +44 (0)1442 291200, www.champneysmarbella.com).
