 |
| No items matching your keywords were found. |
Moraira Market Update. January 2011
After an exceptionally busy summer and a similarly hectic autumn, we have been able to pause for breath over the Christmas & New Year holiday – even managing to close our office for four days, for the first time in five years! The appalling weather brought so many UK flights to an abrupt halt and the resulting uncertainty has caused the same effect on business as the ‘volcanic dust' scenario, earlier in 2010. To a lesser extent, this also affected potential buyers from other mainland Europe countries, but they generally seemed to cope much better than the UK infrastructure, and many visitors still managed to arrive here by road or aeroplane. Hopefully, as with the volcano issue, we can expect a frantic run into the spring with the bottleneck of frustrated visitor/buyers re-scheduling and playing catch-up.
Many northern and central areas of Spain expect snow each winter, to one degree or another, but somehow the roads, railways, airports, schools etc just seem able to cope. When we travel to Andorra for our annual week of skiing, if road conditions look at all bad the police turn round traffic if they aren't equipped with snow chains or Kevlar ‘Tyre Sox', which we carry with us. We are amazed that even government agency, local authority and large transportation company vehicles aren't equipped with similar devices in the UK – it really isn't rocket science!
So, apart from this temporary disruption, the Moraira property market is still humming along in a steady fashion. There is a tangible air of optimism amongst the Moraira real estate agent fraternity, with many offices relocating, refurbishing or generally upgrading. There remains one final obstacle which is dragging on our local market recovery; that is the mismatch of expectations between both prospective buyers and sellers. Some buyers still fail to appreciate the difference in property values in Moraira compared to, say, Torrevieja which although is also part of the Costa Blanca, is really a different market – in fact it's a different world! At the same time, local vendors fully realise they are in a rather special location where supply is very limited and demand is consistent. The cash-strapped ‘must sellers' have long since been bought out of the market, these current vendors know the value of their properties here and, whilst prepared to accept sensible offers, they are not prepared to sell themselves ridiculously short. Discerning buyers looking to buy quality must recognise the difference between value and cheapness. It always pays in the longer term to buy quality rather than cheapness!
After a period of awful winter weather in the UK you may be wondering how we have faired here in Moraira. Well December was a little wetter and much colder than average, during the colder snaps the early morning temperatures were starting at around 7-9ºC, later rising to 12-16ºC, one dreadful morning we had a freak drop to 0ºC which was the coldest we have seen here in nine years! Currently (early January) we begin the day at around 12ºC, rising to the low 20's right now.
Christmas morning we celebrated with the local gathering on the waterfront of the delightful little bay of El Portet, adjacent to Moraira. Traditionally several hundred locals congregate on the waterfront and beach, each with bottles of Cava and tapas, whilst several dozen hardy souls swim or surf. Once we had worked up an appetite watching them, our group of friends (and ex-clients) trundled back to one of our favourite waterfront restaurants in Moraira for a leisurely five course Christmas feast. Boxing Day became our traditional, turkey themed, home based feast, followed by a countryside walk to ease our consciences. Similarly, New Years Eve was celebrated by our Dutch community in Moraira taking their traditional swim. We were less ambitious and took on the lesser challenge of a roast goose! Whilst Christmas is not the long protracted affair of the UK, the big (additional) Spanish celebration is the festival of the Three Kings, each 6th January. As usual, this involves much noise and ceremony, with the Three Kings arriving via the beach, travelling through Moraira to the nativity scene where tradition dictates that Moraira's newest born baby takes the part of the baby Jesus (yes, really!) Following this, the Three Kings hold court outside the local church in the Plaza and distribute presents (previously provided by the parents) to all the local children. By this time, our interest had waned a little, so our group retired to our favourite Italian restaurant for a further round of feasting and general merriment. From here on it's regular exercise, long walks and diets to prepare us for the challenges of 2011. I take this opportunity to wish our readers health and happiness for the year ahead.
About the Author
Chris Garwood - Select Villas Of Moraira, Moraira, Alicante.
Visit our website www.selectvillasofmoraira.co.uk or email info@select-villas.es
Richard Cava: 3681 N PROSPECT DR Coconut Grove 33133