# Nice urbanisations along the coast



## sadlybroke (Jun 19, 2012)

Can anyone advise on nice urbs that would fit the following requirements please?


Long term rental of a 4-bed 2-bath furnished modern villa with a garden, up to 1200€ per month
Private or communal pool
Ideally walking distance from a beach; no more than 15 mins drive from the nearest beach
Most residents should live there so it won't turn into a ghost town during winter months
Anywhere along the coast between Barcelona and Gibraltar
Within or close to an English speaking community, esp. families with young children

So far I identified La Marina as one of such urbs. Can you let me know about others so that we could contact local estate agents and have a look at houses available there please? Thank you.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

I don't think you'd find a furnished 4 bed villa for under 2000 euros excluding utilities along the coast from Estepona to Marbella , maybe not even further up the coast towards Malaga.

If that is your budget I think you'd find something further north, Coasta Blanca or Costa Brava but not Costa Del Sol..

In the Estepona - Marbella area you could pay up to 800 euros or more excluding utilities for a three bedroom furnished flat in a pleasant urb.
But I've seen villas with pools in the Velez-Malaga area and inland, around the Alhaurins, for 1000 euros or less.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

you'd get all of that that easily here - if you decide that you fancy Jávea I can advise on individual urbs - there are so many


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## sadlybroke (Jun 19, 2012)

xabiachica said:


> you'd get all of that that easily here - if you decide that you fancy Jávea I can advise on individual urbs - there are so many


Yes please, names of individual urbs that fit our requirements would be great.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

sadlybroke said:


> Yes please, names of individual urbs that fit our requirements would be great.



I think xabiachica made a typo - she meant she *can't* possibly name them all in Javea, there are hundreds - you need to go and take a look. No one knows what your requirements would be.

You are aware that the area that you've suggested is simply huge. From Barca to Gib must have many thousands of urbs

Jo xxx


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## sadlybroke (Jun 19, 2012)

jojo said:


> I think xabiachica made a typo - she meant she *can't* possibly name them all, there are hundreds - you need to go and take a look. No one knows what your requirements would be
> 
> Jo xxx


Hi Jo, my requirements are listed in the first post. I am not after the whole list, but a suggestion of a few urbs that fit the requirements mentioned above. I know it would be best to go and look for ourselves but it is impossible for us, we will have to do it remotely.


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## sadlybroke (Jun 19, 2012)

jojo said:


> You are aware that the area that you've suggested is simply huge. From Barca to Gib must have many thousands of urbs
> 
> Jo xxx


Of course I know that. What I meant is that we are flexible and can move to any part of Spain.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

sadlybroke said:


> Hi Jo, my requirements are listed in the first post. I am not after the whole list, but a suggestion of a few urbs that fit the requirements mentioned above. I know it would be best to go and look for ourselves but it is impossible for us, we will have to do it remotely.


Well I wouldnt know where to start. the only one i could recommend is Torremuelle, Benalmadena which is the one I lived in. there are a good few more in Benalmadena (40 or 50 urbs???) but I havent a clue what they're like. My friend lived in one in Mijas costa - that seemed ok for her, but wouldnt have suited me. another friend lived in a different urbanisacion in Benalmadena, but that wouldnt have suited me either - they both seemed a bit too far away from the things I wanted and needed. Many urbs are large, so you'd need a car, or to be near public transport. Some are on hillsides, so difficult to walk around, some are old, some are new, some are half finished, some are full of big villas, some are full of small villas, some are gated, some have electric gates just to get into properties, some have apartment blocks...................... Why dont you go onto google maps - streetview and take a look at the areas that interest you???

jo xxx


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## sadlybroke (Jun 19, 2012)

jojo said:


> Well I wouldnt know where to start. the only one i could recommend is Torremuelle, Benalmadena which is the one I lived in. there are a good few more in Benalmadena (40 or 50 urbs???) but I havent a clue what they're like. Mt friend lived in one in Mijas costa - that seemed ok for her, but wouldnt have suited me. another friend lived in a different urbanisacion in Benalmadena, but that wouldnt have suited me either - they both seemed a bit too far away from the things I wanted and needed. Many urbs are large, so you'd need a car, or to be near public transport. Why dont you go onto google maps - streetview and take a look at the areas that interest you???
> 
> jo xxx


Thanks Jo. I've been looking on Google maps but I just can't tell form a streetview picture if an urb is full of villas rented to holidaymakers and will become a ghost town in October or if people actually live there. 

Perhaps I am approaching it from the wrong end? Should I look for individual estate agents and ask them about properties instead?


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

sadlybroke said:


> Thanks Jo. I've been looking on Google maps but I just can't tell form a streetview picture if an urb is full of villas rented to holidaymakers and will become a ghost town in October or if people actually live there.
> 
> Perhaps I am approaching it from the wrong end? Should I look for individual estate agents and ask them about properties instead?


Yes, TBH, I dont know if my urb had holiday makers or not - maybe one or two, but we all had gates and didnt venture out to see who was where or what properties had tourists or owners - many did a bit of both I think????!! Things change and so do the use of properties. I would say that the small urbanisations with apartments/town houses, close to the beach, with a communal pool and everything in one place are more likely to be for holiday makers - those that dont need cars or schools. but apart from that - agents are the people to ask

Jo xxx


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

sadlybroke said:


> Thanks Jo. I've been looking on Google maps but I just can't tell form a streetview picture if an urb is full of villas rented to holidaymakers and will become a ghost town in October or if people actually live there.
> 
> Perhaps I am approaching it from the wrong end? Should I look for individual estate agents and ask them about properties instead?


You really do have to decide on an area then visit and see for yourself what places are like. 
No one person can give you the kind of information you require .....
How can anyone know whether a place is mainly rented out iin summer or not without living there
Maybe your idea of asking agents would be more helpful...but there again, some agents will tell you what you want to hear....

If you look at the post I made on the Marbella thread you'll see why I disliked the urb we lived in for a while.....the agent didn't tell us about any of the problems we could encounter, merely pocketed 2 x900 euros rent in advance, 220 euros finders fee and 200 euros for 'moving out the furniture that was there'.

We learned the hard way...


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

mrypg9 said:


> You really do have to decide on an area then visit and see for yourself what places are like.
> No one person can give you the kind of information you require .....
> How can anyone know whether a place is mainly rented out iin summer or not without living there
> Maybe your idea of asking agents would be more helpful...but there again,* some agents will tell you what you want to hear....*
> ...


yes, that's how we ended up on an urb which had few full time residents & no other kids........... - & to make it worse the only other residents were the worst kind of grumpy brits who really should have gone to live in Bournemouth rather than Spain - anything remotely resembling the Spanish way of life was against the rules - one of them was the urb President


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## sadlybroke (Jun 19, 2012)

mrypg9 said:


> You really do have to decide on an area then visit and see for yourself what places are like.


This would be ideal but it is not possible. We will have to do it remotely.


mrypg9 said:


> How can anyone know whether a place is mainly rented out iin summer or not without living there


Precisely. That's why I asked people who live (or lived) in nice urbs to recommend some with more or less permanent residents, families, children, etc..


mrypg9 said:


> Maybe your idea of asking agents would be more helpful...but there again, some agents will tell you what you want to hear....


This is exactly what I think. 

I guess I'll just put my finger somewhere on a map of Spain and we'll move there... that's how we got to Bristol many years ago and we love it... Bristol just looked "right" on the map.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

sadlybroke said:


> This would be ideal but it is not possible. We will have to do it remotely.
> 
> Precisely. That's why I asked people who live (or lived) in nice urbs to recommend some with more or less permanent residents, families, children, etc..
> 
> ...


Its a bit like asking someone to go to a library and choose you a book with the right story, the right amount of pages in the right print - no one has any idea what you are actually looking for (we dont know you and I wouldnt even choose an area for a friend if they asked, even less a stranger) and you are asking us to help you choose just one out of squillions! I'm sorry, its got to be between you and an agent to narrow it down. 

Start by thinking about your needs, write a list. Close to an airport? Close to a school? Close to a hospital? Close to shops? How close?? In the centre, on the outskirts, in the campo?? Maybe then you can narrow it down to at least a town!


Jo xxx


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## sadlybroke (Jun 19, 2012)

jojo said:


> Its a bit like asking someone to go to a library and choose you a book with the right story, the right amount of pages in the right print - no one has any idea what you are actually looking for (we dont know you and I wouldnt even choose an area for a friend if they asked, even less a stranger) and you are asking us to help you choose just one out of squillions! I'm sorry, its got to be between you and an agent to narrow it down.
> 
> Start by thinking about your needs, write a list. Close to an airport? Close to a school? Close to a hospital? Close to shops? How close?? In the centre, on the outskirts, in the campo?? Maybe then you can narrow it down to at least a town!
> 
> ...


OK, fair enough. Thanks anyway.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

sadlybroke said:


> This would be ideal but it is not possible. We will have to do it remotely.
> 
> Precisely. That's why I asked people who live (or lived) in nice urbs to recommend some with more or less permanent residents, families, children, etc..
> 
> ...


that's almost what we did!!

although in the years between 'sticking a pin in the map' & coming for a recce we had lots of holidays in the area too - we eventually moved here 4 years after we originally intended to


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