Choosing the best place to buy an appartment

Beware of Mar Menor. The water is severly polluted and it will take up to 30 years to recover. Prices are dropping fast and will continue. An Appartment of +/- 70 sq.m. shouild be less than 60K depending on location and equipment. Take your time, do not hurry and don't pay anything upfront to any agent. Ask the concierges, they gladly refer you directly to the owners. Find out the "average market value" online and make an offer.

I agree with Killjoy about the pollution and I certainly wouldn't eat any seafood advertised as from the Mar Menor. With heavy rain all sorts of chemicals wash down from the fields and the agricultural community usually win out against the tourist's needs.
https://sublicasa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Problems-at-the-Costa-Calida.pdf 

I don't know how Torre de la Horadada is affected by flooding during Gota Frias so hopefully someone more local can help with that.

I hope you don't mind me giving a few general tips having never been to Torre.

Torre comes under the municipality of Pilar de la Horadada which means that money raised in the area gets spent in the area. If you go a little further north to the Orihuela Costa they come under Orihuela City, where all the money is spent!

Do your research re flooding, Gota Frías and DANAs.

It is a long way from Alicante airport so check out how you and your guests will get there. Murcia is closer but has fewer flights and has no bus service at all at the moment.  Apart from hire cars, practically you are talking taxis, especially out of high season. When Covid struck the hire car companies offloaded a lot of stock so with supply and demand prices are very high at the moment and I think it will take a good solid season of high numbers of tourists for them to consider increasing their fleets.

It gets cold here in winter. The EPC in most Spanish properties (newer builds are getting better) are usually very low so it will often be warmer outside if the sun is shining. Every year questions are raised on the forum by people spending their first winter here and "freezing" is a well used description.

It gets very hot in summer and electricity prices are high so you want to make sure your guests don't get carried away with the air con. Who is going to get the property ready for guests, cleaning, laundry etc? Will you want a keyholder to do this for you and make regular checks on the property for insurance purposes (think lockdown) or if an emergency crops up?

Humidity can cause problems if a property is closed up so invest in trays of crystals, cat litter or salt.

Rent first, the dream doesn't always work out and you will be heavily out of pocket if you find that what works great for a week or two is totally unsuitable for longer stays.

You are the ones paying for it so your needs must be paramount, the others should be grateful for what they get.

If you are looking for a community with a lot of facilities, the more it will cost you each month and only coming in the winter you will not be getting any use out of the pool.

Try looking around La Mata or Guardamar, close to the beach, closer to the airport and on bus routes so easy to get to Torrevieja or Alicante City.

Once you have narrowed it down, come back on the forum so we can give tips about Spanish estate agents!

A couple of websites that you should have a look at before doing anything:

Citizens Advise Bureau Spain for bureaucracy stuff, e.g. licences, etc.

N332 for anything to do with driving in Spain.   This site is run in collaboration with officers of the Guardia Civil for English speaking people and has an English version of the Spanish equivalent of the Highway Code on it.

Be aware that not all rules and regulations are the same for every town - they all have their own way of doing the procedures in force.

Buy what suits you, not your what you think your friends will like.  If you are not going to use the apartment in the summer months than you wont need to buy a property with a communal pool.  New apartments are expensive but better insulated.  A good hot/cold air con system is enough to heat most apartments in a residential block, but if the one above and the one below are both empty then you will find your apartment will be colder as properties are not well insulated.

Bear in mind that friends and family can only use the apartment for free - you cannot charge anything unless you have a Tourist License and then you will need to pay tax on the rental in Spain every quarter, so think about how many people's holidays you want to finance!  Your friends will run your air con, use your utilities that you are paying for, and someone has to pay for the afterstay cleaning and laundry too.  It's one thing to cover the cost of your adult children and grandchildren have a holiday in your property once a year for free, quite another to subsidise a few friends taking a break several times a year.  Not all properties can obtain a Tourist License.

The best option would be to spend some time visiting the different areas, rent for a month at least if you can out of season to see how you get along.  There are many places with amenities open all year round and where you can stay without the need for a hire car.  There are companies that do door-to-door airport transfers at reasonable rates (a lot cheaper than taxi) from both airports.

Decide what you want, your max budget and how/when you will use the property.  Then look at the areas that meet your criteria.  Don't rush it, it's a big decission.

Hello,

We have had a home in Torre de la Horadada, a new-build at the time, since 2015. We have never once regretted it and, although we have travelled a lot in the area, we have never found anywhere that matches it! I whole heartedly recommend the town.

Regards,

Paula

Hi Paula,

We have owned Holiday apartment in Torre de la Horadada since 2002 and finally bought a house for permanent living in 2020. 

We love the area which is within the municipal area of Pilar de la Horadada which is a working town slightly inland within walking distance of La Torre.  The areas covered by the Town Council of Pilar, are the town itself, La Torre, Mil Palmeras, Pinar de Campoverde and El Mojon which is at the border of Alicante and Murcia provinces.

La Torre is a very popular place for holidays for Spanish families especially from Madrid and Murcia and the place is very, very busy during July and August when they all arrive for their annual holidays!  Wonderful atmosphere, however some folk find it too quiet in the winter period, personally it suits me down to the ground when the beaches are fairly quiet and parking is easy. 

The area is well served by supermarkets, restaurants, cafes/bars etc also available are buses to the surrounding areas including Alicante ( and the airport from Torrevieja a neighbouring town) and Zeñia Boulevard which is a great shopping centre just up the road.

Hope you make the right choice for your purchase. 

Regards Ruth

Thanks Paula.  All these recommendations are very important to us as we will are planning to come out again and concentrate on these areas.

Thanks Ruth.  We have certainly ruled out some of the areas that we originally thought we would be interested in and are being drawn to Horadada upwards towards La Mata.  Doing lots of research at home before our next trip out.  Linda & Chris