Look at buying a property in PAU 8

Hello Neil

 Although I dont know the urbanisation you mentioned, I do know Villamartin from visiting, my advice would always be...Dont fall in love with a house until you love the location. Come and visit, rent for a few days and walk/ look around the area before you decide whether it is for you.

 So many people in the UK bought properties during lockdown , from the internet & only now after 1st visit, discover they cant always  walk to places they need , no public  transport , not close enough to gym, medical centre, beach etc etc.

 It  is expensive to buy /sell in Spain & 1000s of properties to choose from, so making a mistake would be best avoided.

Good Luck with whatever you decide to do.

Cheers

Elinspain

Hi 

Thank you for the sound info. We did visit for 5 days a couple of weeks ago. PAU 8 looks really clean area. We are just not sure what it is really like to live their. We have seen a nice property in good condition and it’s gated. It we have grand children and it doesn’t look children friendly. 

Totally agree.
When you say you know you will need a car for the beach, have you tried finding a parking space near the beach at the times you would be visiting? You will need a car for everything really for any time you want to leave the urb, especially for shopping.
Would you hire a car every time? At the moment hire cars are very expensive and hard to find because many cars were sold off during shutdown and I can't see this situation changing until the threat of Covid is gone and tourism is back to pre-pandemic levels. A week's hire for a small car in October half term average about €300.

As Elinspain says, the best thing is to do a trial run.

Ongoing expenses will include Community fees, IBI (Council tax, much lower than the UK), Rubbish (minimal), Non-resident tax, standing charges for water and electricity, holiday home insurance, internet and TV and key holding arrangements. Although not everybody uses them they will be on hand should any emergencies arise, carry out periodic inspections, arrange local tradesmen for maintenance issues, turn on water at the mains and heat water, switch on the fridge, supply a basic food pack, have fresh linen on the beds etc etc.

If you plan to visit in the colder months you will need heating. Electricity in Spain is very expensive with cheaper electric only available between midnight and 8 am and all weekends and fiesta days. During the day, running air con will be quite expensive.

Our daughter and grandson visited recently and we went to the beach a couple of times and I was very impressed with La Mata and this will be our go to place whenever they visit. I live inland and am not a beach person but I actually had a paddle! The beach was safe, there were lots of restaurants and supermarkets and I saw more than one lesser spotted bus meaning access to other resorts and towns along the coast and it's closer to the airport and on the beach. Might be worth considering.

Hi Neil

From your two posts, I'm not sure whether you're looking for a holiday home, or a permanent home?

PAU8 is close to the Plaza, but you will need a car for almost everything else. Villamartin in general is full of expat retirees, with not a great deal on offer for children other than the pool (if you have one). In general, everyone is friendly - after all, everybody is either retired or on holiday!

I would suggest that you consider La Zenia and Playa Flamenca, which are far more convenient for all amenities, and are much livelier out of the high season.

There is somebody else on this forum who has a property in PAU8, hopefully they will reply to you.

Cheers

Steve

Thank you all for the sound advice. We are going to come out again and look around the other locations. We will need a gated complex just to feel a bit more secure.  I’ll keep you all posted. 

Thanks Neil 

Hi, we have a holiday home in Pau 8, and we love the area. It's quiet and clean and near enough as well as being far enough away from the amenities. There is a well stocked supermarket at the plaza and there are regular buses to La Zenia, but you can walk to La Zenia in 40 mins, and there are no steep hills to climb. The canal is nearby if you like cycling and there are plenty of other things to do. Hope this helps 

I agree with all of that. We have a holiday home in Pau 8, which is used by our grandchildren and they love it. Our property is on a gated community with a communal pool and that is all that they need. There are small playgrounds nearby and at the Plaza there are trampolines and other activities to interest children. They like going to the Plaza from our house on their scooters and it is not that far to go. You do need a car to get to the beaches and we have found that the one at Cabo Roig is the best. Enjoy your holiday home.

Best wishes, Alan.

Hi All. I do love how clean it is and it’s reassuring To here you are all happy and the Grandchildren enjoy being there. We are going out again in 2 weeks to have another look around the area again. I didn’t see the trampoline area that’s worth knowing. Thanks for sound information again. Neil 

Hi Neil

We have an apartment near the bottom of Pau 8 on Cale Otello which is gated although you could get in if you really wanted to like most places to be fair, we love the area and especially the closeness to the Plaza we can walk there in 20 minutes although coming back takes a bit longer sometimes 😂, we use the Plaza quite alot when we are here as its so handy and the choice of restaurants and bars is great although we visit the other commercials La Fuente and Via Park which is nearby, there is a small shop there where you can get virtually all your shopping if so required I must agree with the rest a car is a must if you want to go anywhere even to and from the airport its going to cost around 140 euros return, we were renting but bit the bullet mid term this year and bought a car and to say they are expensive is an understatement but it will pay for itself in 2 years the amount we were spending on car hire plus the family, the winter months is alot quieter the summer months the place is packed and the Plaza is very busy as are most the commercial centres, once things get back to the new normal you will see the winter/summer shift, its been pleasant to have the use of the pool mainly to ourselves but am sure next year things will revert back.

There is a childrens area at the back of the Plaza if you go in via The Porobello restaurant and keep right that area there is for the children, shops are close by as in Mercadona over at Campomar, Lidle & Consum at Blue Hills and the La Zenia Boulevard is a 5 minute drive away the coast at La Zenia is 10 minutes although this gets packed through the summer as do all the beaches to be honest, we tend to drive down to La Mata and walk along the front you can walk for miles Cabo Roig is very nice also, the coast road N332 is a nightmare past Torre most days worse in the summer but you get used to it or go the back way once you have your bearings, you can use the motorway but you hit 2 tolls in no time this end, there are 5 golf courses with 20 minutes one on your doorstep Villamartin and there is a great crazy golf opened up at Greenlands near Quesada great for the kids.

Money wise i guess if we broke our place down its costing ball park 7k a year to run with no mortgage thats everything car, taxes, utilities, communal fees and solicitor fees but not running repairs and renewals, we have just spent 680 euros this time on electrician and Locksmith plus a new mattress for 500 euros, couple of months ago painting and decorating was 650 euros so its not all sun, sea and San Miguels......!! Take your time as there are alot of properties for sale although not that many on Pau 8 which gives you an indication of its popularity, I would agree this area tends to rely heavily on the Plaza where as Playa Flamenca and Cabo Roig have the strips so more to choose from but its horses for courses we like it here as we are far enough away to not have the hussle and bussle but close enough to walk and have a few beers.

We tend to do 2 weeks in the UK and 7-10 days here although this will be our last visit this term its home tomorrow sadly and no fixed return to speak of yet, flights are very cheap at the moment but I think next year they will return to close enough to what they used to be.

To sum up Pau 8 is a good balance of holiday and permanent residence but make sure its right for you, there are plenty rentals on here try before you buy as they say, if you need any further advice pm me I am quite happy to chat further if you want to go more in depth to costs, best of luck and happy  house hunting.....

Regards

Andrew