Thinking of buying and advice appreciated - Page 2

Update 14.09.2019

The coastal towns of the Mar Menor including San Pedro San Javier Los Alcazares Lo Pagan have been devastated by deep raging floodwater after suffering two Gota Frias.

In fact the seafront area from Denia down to Almeria. Murcia was designated a Red Alert before the storms hit.

Apartments or villas on ground level sea front have suffered the most. 

Search on Youtube for the latest videos, they are horrific.

The whole area has been designated a ''National Disaster Area'' as the local councils are unable to cope. 

Tens of thousands have been evacuated. 

The AP7 Motorway was shut, most roads impassable during the rains, the 332 a nightmare.

Many interconnecting roads have been washed away. 

Supermarkets Consum, Lidl Aldi Mercandona have been seriously affected by the flooding as other stores along the whole coastline.

Hundreds of Cars have been washed away.

The Army have been called in to help and an appeal has been issued by the Mayors for folk to rally together to help clear the mounds of rubbish that has washed into the streets.

I have read encouragement in recent months by some residents, forum members, to move into these areas close to the seafront saying things like ''oh we have never been flooded'' etc.

Wrong: Friday 13th and Saturday 14th September will reserve a place in history as the most devastating levels of rain and floods since records began in Spain back  in 1917.  

Anyone contemplating moving to these arears should update themselves on this disaster and seek advice from any Spanish Insurance company about flooding and whether their bargain purchase can be insured!!!

Thank you for this information.  Im not there at the moment and was finding it quite difficult to find information.  There was some on Facebook but not much specific to San Pedro.  So sorry to hear five people lost their lives.  

There is plenty of things to do in the area:
Golf Courses

Many are situated in the province of Alicante

• La Torre Golf
• La Manga Club
• Lo Romero Golf
• La Finca Golf
• Lomas de Campoamor Golf Club
• Club de Golf de Campoamor,
• Las Colinas Golf… and more!

The “Mar Menor”

Europe’s largest saltwater lagoon, it is the dream for all the enthusiasts of water activities. The calmest, warmer waters in the area will allow you to enjoy Sailing, Kayak and Dragon boat, windsurf… Ideal for most water sports!

The upbeat city activities of Murcia and Cartagena offer lots of activities nearby.

Cartagena is a wonderful coastal town with preserved buildings from the Roman Empire conquests and historical marine objects. Murcia, the province’s largest city, is a wonderful place to stroll around among historic buildings and shopping centres. Here you may wish to celebrate “Semana Santa”, our famous Easter festival.

Cartagena 

A city with more than 2,500 years of history. Each corner, street, and square of the city offers travellers monumental examples of its splendid monumental and historical past.

The music festival La Mar de Músicas will, without doubt, amaze you with its diverse artists from around the world.

Murcia

Visiting Murcia during its Fiestas de Primavera -Spring Festivities- will give you the opportunity to discover squares and parks filled with colours, scents and barracas huertanas where you can taste the typical cuisine. The major traditional events: Bando de la Huerta, Batalla de las Flores, Entierro de la Sardina, recreate scenes from the past.

Thermal and natural spas will de-stress you… but savoring excellent varieties of locally produced wines will provide a relaxing and delicious experience.

The Bullas, Jumilla and Yecla designated origin wine-producing areas awaits your visit to experience their fabulous wine.

These regional, prestigious wines are considered some of the best around the world. These areas do not disappoint in any respect.

Balneario de Archena & Fortuna Leana

These thermal complexes have great importance and prestige in health tourism, both for its Roman Baths and the quality of its medical services Archena and Fortuna Leana.

Thalasia marine spa

Recover through the healing benefits of modern thalassotherapy with Mediterranean marine waters, which contain a special ionic concentration in minerals. And it is really close to the Salinas de San Pedro Natural Park, where you can drive or cycle nearby to the feeding flamingos.

Within 20 minutes of Casas Blancas are the Mud Baths in Lo Pagán. They can be accessed by bike, car or walking, including other points of interest. It is surrounded by the Mar Menor and Mediterranean Seas – both are beautiful areas to enjoy or photograph a sunrise or sunset.

Do you like shopping, cinemas, restaurants?

Then, large Commercial Centers are waiting for you, La Zenia Boulevard and Dos Mares, but there are plenty of them in the area: Plaza Nueva, Villa Martin Plaza…

Do you need more reasons to choose Casas Blancas to live? There is plenty of choice in the area

• Sucina (12 minutes): Free Summer Music Festival I Love Sucina.
• San Javier (12 minutes): International Jazz Music festival.
• Pilar de la Horadada (20 minutes): Free winter activities at the beach Hibernis Mare and Sevillanas Festival

Hospital

And just in case, the local hospital – Los Arcos is not so far

But if you are adventurous…

Diving in the Marine Reserve or flying a small aircraft could be your idea of fun!

Cabo de Palos Marine Reserve

The Reserve is a well-established breeding ground for Mediterranean fish and wildlife. It is home to an abundance of marine life such as huge Groupers, shoals of Barracuda, Octopus, Moray eels, Eagle rays as well as Nudibranch and the occasional Sunfish.

Aeroclub Mar Menor

If you like to fly, you will find Ultralight and Microlight sessions or course – It´s all here!

We love LA and have done since we moved to Spain as residents nine years ago. Its a beautiful part of Spains coastline that is still Spanish. Just dont let your heart rule your head. As advised do the simple checks to ensure your property is safe from flooding ( seek advice from insurance companies) and make sure your your intended property had a Habitation Licence. Solicitors do not always check. If you do not see a copy, either ditch your Solicitor or see the local Townhall who can advise.

We used a " top" Abogado Solicitor Lawyer whose office were opposite the Courts in Orrieula we paid for our villa and found out two years later we had not been given a copy of our Habitation Licence. It can happen. You have had some good advice about the area, we wish you a happy and healthy lifestyle on the Costa Calida.

Thank you for this good advice. Looking forward to getting settled soon.

Thank you for sending this wealth of information about the area - I'll be keeping it for future reference. Very considerate.  Regards. Ann and Pat

I live in San Pedro Del Pinatar, and yes the flooding in surrounding areas was very bad, but here drainage copped very well indeed, my property was not badly affected, Lidl stayed open, Consum did close for a day or so, but I could not see any actual flooding for them on the day following the overnight storm, they may have had some water in, but it would have not been much, but as a business, they may have had some cleaning up to do, or due to storm debre etc, maybe staff could not make it in to work, the general rule was to stay indoors, the best thing to take on board when buying a property is to ensure it is not situated on lower ground where water may go to, ie, at the bottom of a slope etc, my house is based at the bottom of a T junction, the road running to my property is slightly downhill, so the worst that happened to me was water and palm tree debre under my sliding gate and into my pool, it only took 3 days for the pool to be crystal clean again following lots of dirt and sand, no water in my property and no neighbours flooded, now you would not think it had happened, Orihuela was the worst affected, and my friends in Bigastro were badly flooded, 4 feet of water. Not forgetting that this was the worst in 25 years, so thankfully not a regular occurrance!

Thank you for this information.  `Very pleased to hear you were not badly affected, we weren't either - I haven't seen ours yet but will be there tomorrow.  Friends checked it out for us.  I'm an optimistic sort of person and because this has happened I think I wont worry too much about it happening again any time soon.  I know it could but on the balance of probability I think not.  So sad about the loss of life.  I hope the Mar Menor waters recover quickly.  Thanks again.  Regards.  Ann

We bought 2 years ago in san pedro del Pinatar and we like it so much we bought an apartment for rental purposes this year!

Crime...the same as anywhere really, opportunist crimes if you are silly and leave doors/gates open and valuables on display, tourist type crimes happen just as they do.in other touristy places...bag snatch, hugger muggers ( they ask you for directions, then hug you to say thanks whilst removing your necklace/watch etc) and pickpockets....like anywhere, be aware, be safe.

El Mahon closes in winter as does a lot of the seafront at Lo Pagan. The town of San Pedro stays open as it is a local town. there are many nationalities here, but a large percentage of UK ex-pats or long stayers like me and my husband - we don't live here all tear but have spent 8 months here this year!

We live opposite the Hotel Thalasia, and our apartment is behind it. There is also the hotel.Lodomar and this is halfway between SP and LP. The med is a 15 min walk from us as is the Mar Menor, i walk to the Salinas daily ( 5 mins) and can see the flamingoes from our roof solarium.

Only downfall we have right now are flights...we used to use Ryanair as they flew here all winter, that has now stopped from our airport in Leeds, so we now either have to travel further in UK to fly to Corvera or travel.further at this end, fly from Leeds and go to Alicante....the taxi fare is then 4 times more than the airfare😞

All in all a good place, good level.of English spoken, but wrapped up as a Spanish village..

Thanks Kate, I appreciate your input and it sounds like you spend as much time in San P as we expect to. 

It's a beautiful area with so many choices & we particularly like the living town aspect of San Pedro. We find the people are very warm and welcoming. I particularly liked your summation of the crime situation here, I think you are right to point out that there is opportunistic crime pretty much everywhere. We previously lived in Roses in Catalunya for 16 years and it was the same there. We never had an incident in all that time. 

We also used Ryanair and in the early years they remained open all year. They build a super duper airport with generous car parking facilities and then Ryanair decided to close from late Oct to April which meant we had a two hour journey to Barcelona in that period.ist if the car parks are permanently closed now & a lot of money down the drain. It didn't  spoil our time there though and we have happy memories of the people we knew there and our experience in that lovely corner of Spain.  

Now we have purchased a house in San Pedro we are looking forward to a new experience in the south. 

Thank you again for your very informative account of life in San P.