Gecko Towers
Like many property seekers looking to settle in the Marbella area, we had seen a lot of property. A lot!
The ramshackle “country property” that the agent, who we’d not met previously, would confide in us was only partially legal, as though that were a positive quality. Apparently, the price was reduced to reflect this flaw. What a relief!
The newly and expensively renovated Adosado (town-house) that bore the too heavy hand of the seller’s taste. The bank repo that lacked a kitchen, all windows and most doors. The near beach property, with all manner of major structural cracks that smelt of damp, begged to be knocked down and replaced.
Finally, the runes collided and we were tipped off by a friend of a sale that had just fallen through. It benefitted from a very motivated seller, who was keen to leave the area for pastures new. Why at his advanced age? But that was not for us to question.
Over six weeks or so our purchase progressed with the astonishingly diligent and pro-active skills of my Abogados colleagues in Marbella. After one abortive Notary visit, cause by the seller’s lawyer failing to ensure that all of the papers were in order, and shortly after mid-summer, we completed.
A nearly fifty year old solid property, sited an Olympic shot putter’s “stone’s throw” from the beach in San Pedro de Alcantara, a town we’d known and loved for years. We’d watched it growing into the now famed Marbella’s “West End”. Its charm is partly based on the fact that it’s not Marbella, Nueva Andalucia or Puerto Banus. It’s a mix of all three with a very cosmopolitan range of residents including many Spanish nationals, Scandinavians, Belgians and Dutch. A vibrant community with a plethora of great schools and varied local restaurants.
San Pedro is genuinely blossoming and along with a large number of new apartments being built adjacent to the Boulevard, the Town Hall in Marbella, that controls San Pedro’s pursestrings have agreed to build a sports arena and a conservatoire/music school adjacent to the auxiliary road that runs to the south of the town. San Pedro punches above its weight and we love it.
The house had a slightly strange configuration but offered large downstairs rooms, a big kitchen, a series of good bedrooms, bathrooms and a colossal open upstairs space. My wife has a gift that I don’t really share. She has the ability to look past fussy cornices, oddly painted walls and oppressively heavy “brown” furniture to see what the finished property might look like.
Upon leaving, my comments in the car weren’t entirely positive but my wife’s designer brain had already kicked in. She brimmed with excellent ideas, changes to the layout, the opening and closing of various accesses, the alteration of terrace doors and the kitchen window. Yes, I agreed, that I got her logic.
When it comes to property renovation – or “reform” the often used anglicized version of the Spanish word “reforma” – my wisdom has been not to question my wife’s vision. She has been hugely successful many times in the past both in the UK and Spain in realizing a silk purse from a sow’s ear. And the rewards for us as a family have been plenty.
It was determined that after the embers of a Costa del Sol summer started to cool that the renovation work would start. The interior, upstairs and down would be the priority. The exterior and garden followed later.
Aside from my wife’s undoubted skill as a visionary, a project manager and an interior designer, we needed a team of experts. Skilled builders, plasterers, plumbers and laborers. The pivotal role of a sort of Quantity Surveyor known in translation as a “Technical Architect” is also a vital addition. The latter’s role, as our representative of the client, was to pore, long and hard, over the Mediciones (broadly the Bill of Quantities) to establish the likely cost of the works to be undertaken and the quality of the fixtures and fittings to be used to deliver our preferred style. What results is the “Budget”.
Renovation “Small Works” Licenses, are required to carry out structural changes to a property and these were , historically, issued by the local Town Hall, in our case in Marbella. I have been made aware of a change in the law that seems to permit an Architect (provided they hold recognized qualifications and are professionally insured) to now manage the process as though proxy for the Town Hall. This means that although the Town Hall will be receiving their usual fees for the work being undertaken, there will be a significant reduction in the time spent getting approvals as the Architect will be required to make “Responsible Disclosure” of the pertinent changes to the property.
The demolition phase of any renovation achieves two things. Firstly, it can very quickly change the blank canvass that was the former property to start to resemble the skeleton of the proposed new one. The second, and simply inescapable thing, is that it creates a lot of dust! Dust on the scale of the small dessert, the kind of dust that makes camel caravans pull over for the night.
The workforce arrived at 8.00am and with a combination of singing, a badly tuned radio, man-made bird and livestock calls would work until 10.00am, precisely. When the sun shone, as it usually did, they would congregate on a terrace to eat bread filled with chorizo or ham. 10.30, on the dot, they returned to their labors and achieved a huge amount by the stroke of 14.00 when tools would be downed to heat up in a microwave a warm plate of lentil stew, fabada or sausages would be roasted over a plumber’s Bunsen Burner. At 14.30 work would start with the day completing at 17.00.
In this manner a couple of months passed and gradually our new home took shape. Not a single element that we suggested was ever too much, all changes we made would be greeted with a mixture of amusement and never frustration. Colours were reviewed, accepted and rejected. Flooring was reviewed, rejected or green lit. The kitchen finishes and appliances, the bathrooms, showers fitments were all extensively considered and where they worked for us they were incorporated.
During a build you get to know the team and their characters. They range from the loud, who’d always be the first to offer to carry items being delivered which may have been a new sofa, coffee table or whatever. The Perlita (a form of plaster) Brothers who schooled me in the fine arts of injected plaster and the curious half meter rectangular precast plaster ceiling tiles called “pladur”. They are held in place by a dried fibrous string made from the agave cactus and soaked in plaster to form the hardest seal – all remarkably effective. Finally, the Painters both incredibly diligent and expert, whose view towards the work, that I have always seen as the more monotonous, never sank below buoyant.
Almost two years following our purchase and after three phases of work, creating lazy day terraces and covered spaces, skimmed walls and finished gates, the house was complete. Just out of curiosity we had a meeting with the estate agent that sold us the unrenovated villa so we could assure ourselves that the investment we had made was money well spent. We needn’t have worried.
It was an amazing project and while initially we thought of doing it as a “turner” – or a “fixer upper” for you Disney fans – selling on upon completion to find another to repeat the exercise – the more we enjoyed the realization of our goal the more the house meant to us. We had genuinely created our dream house and loved the process.
Could our colleagues do the same for you? Don’t let caution be your limiting factor in your decision to buy a shabby property with the aim of transforming it into just what you’ve been looking for. Whether it’s an apartment, town-house or villa, with the right kind of controls in place regarding the Budget and the timely delivery of the finished property, this process can be satisfactorily repeated for your family.
Should you be interested in discussing the process involved in buying a property in the Marbella region, we would be delighted to assist you. Please contact me to discuss your precise requirements.
Please note that our posts are for general interest. There is no substitute for proper advice tailored to your specific circumstances as provided by a qualified Abogado who is experienced in the application of the Spanish Law.
Nothing contained in this article should be seen or taken as the writer or the publisher providing legal, tax or financial advice. All details have been reasonably fact-checked and all efforts have been taken to ensure that facts are accurate as at the date of publication.
My details: Mark FR Wilkins, during usual business hours on +34 600 343 917 or e-mail me at mark@therightsgroup.com
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