Six years ago, Johan and Reijer, an enthusiastic couple from The Netherlands, contacted me, having planned a visit to Spain to look for a house somewhere on the general route between Alicante and Malaga. And of course the Lecrin Valley area sits nicely in between the two!
Six years and five renovations later, here’s their amazing property adventure story so far…
Their requirements were to find a pleasant house with no fewer than four apartments to rent out and a convenient location from which to organise trips to introduce people to wine routes between the coast and the hills. They wanted an estate agent who spoke their language (both literally and figurative speaking) to guide the purchase.
After their first visit, they decided that the Lecrin Valley, with the Costa Tropical just a short distance away, was the place for them to both live and work. And as often happens, during the search, their ideas about requirements changed and they decided to invest in several smaller properties instead of one large property with rental potential.
This turned out to be a wise decision for several reasons:
- Investments in real estate is still a very sensible idea, since they achieve a much higher return compared to other investments, such as shares or savings.
- Investing in real estate is less sensitive to inflation. The idea being that bricks and mortar are a hard asset that increases with inflation, the current low interest rates providing an extra impulse.
- Investing in real estate also enables you to spread your assets and that is exactly what these two budding property developers did…
After buying a lovely house in the hill-top village of Pinos del Valle to live in themselves, Johan and Reijer invested in an old donkey stables in Saleres as a renovation project.
Having transformed it into a fantastic holiday home with the help of a local architect and contractor, they have now successfully sold it and moved onto the next project…
The second ‘project property’ they found, once again in lovely Pinos del Valle, they then turned into their own main residence, renting out the first one to holiday-makers, but due to current travel restrictions, it has been rented, without interruption, for medium term rentals, keeping it occupied where others may have been left empty.
Next on this dynamic duo’s to-do list was something a little different – a beautiful villa on the Costa Tropical in Salobreña and having woven their now well-honed renovations magic, they hope to receive their first guests this summer.
Their latest purchase was just last week, and it concerns an old village house in Beznar, practically a shell, but in a beautiful location with a view of the lake and a project for which they already have the best ideas. They hope it will be available for holiday rental within a few months, and knowing them, it probably will!
In addition to concentrating on their own investments, they have also made time to pass on tips to friends and family who have now caught the housing fever, allowing them to have a go at making the most of the investment opportunities out here.
I consider myself truly fortunate to having met Johan and Reijer, being able to advise and assist them in these transactions and be a real part of their property adventures in Spain.
I can heartily recommend their beautiful rental houses and know that you will not be short of anything with them as your hosts, so if you want to find out more about their holiday homes, click on the following link for more information. www.villa-andalusie.nl
For those of you who speak Dutch (or have found Google translate!) have a read of their engaging blog, which candidly tracks their interesting adventures, recounting their property search and all that they experience in their exciting new life under the Spanish sun. www.villa-andalusie.nl/volg-ons.php
At Home in Andalusia 