 FAIRWAYS TO HEAVEN: Golf Property
Rupert Wright, Sunday Times, July 2003
Rupert Wright investigates property on golf courses
in Spain and France
A home on
a golf course could be a good buy, whether you love
or loathe the game.
Hamish Thorpe
is a happy man. He has just bought a house on a golf
course in Portugal. The 50-year-old insurance broker
enthuses about the landscape, the rentability of his
house - agents can guarantee him a minimum 20 weeks
a year rental income - and the security. "I lock the
door when I leave and the developers look after everything,"
he says. There's just one thing that puzzles his friends.
Thorpe bought
the three-bedroom villa with pool in Pestana Golf Resort
in Carvoeira, on the Algarve, for £337,000, but he does
not play golf or even watch it on television. So does
he plan to start? "You must be joking," he says. "I'm
with Mark Twain. Golf is a good walk spoilt." Thorpe
is one of a number of investors who have been attracted
to the idea of buying abroad on a golf course, even
if they don't play the game. They like the infrastructure
and the lushly watered landscape of the fairways, and
there is another attraction that is often overlooked.
"In places such as the Costa del Sol, buying on a golf
course guarantees your view is not going to be spoilt,"
says Mark Stucklin, director of Spanish Property Insight.
"Everywhere else there's a good chance that sooner or
later a block of flats will spring up to ruin your view."
For many
people retiring to the sunshine, a golf-course development
can provide them with an immediate like-minded community.
It helps if you play golf, for there will be competitions
and the chance to drink pink gin together in the clubhouse.
But even if you think a bunker is just a good place
to shelter in the event of a nuclear attack, it's worth
looking at the advantages of golf-course living. The
development will be managed, it will be safe and if
something breaks in the house, the management company
will fix it, for a fee, and they can organise cleaners
and builders. They will even rent it out for you when
you don't want to use it.
A toil round
the golf courses of Spain and southern France came up
with the following three "best buys", aimed principally
at golfers, but also for people such as Thorpe, who
think a wedge is just a lump of cheese:
Monte
Mayor, Costa del Sol
Much of the
development of the Costa del Sol is ghastly. Many of
the people you encounter at Marbella airport are unspeakable.
There are at least 30 golf courses, with more under
construction, but most are crowded and expensive. With
coastal development saturated, the smart money is increasingly
heading towards the hills. Still within striking distance
of the beach at Playabella is the course of Monte Mayor.
Designed by Pepe Gancedo, a Spaniard renowned for working
in unusual terrain, this is one of the most beautiful
courses you will play.
Development
of Monte Mayor is just taking off, with houses beginning
to pepper the skyline. They offer stunning views of
the course and beyond to the sea. Prices start from
around £142,000 for a building plot of 2,005sq m. Stick
a house on, and the price more than doubles.
La Perla
Living, a Dutch company, runs the development and will
sell you the land, or build and manage your house for
you.
According
to Lawrence Maeck, sales director at Monte Mayor, the
company is lining the estate with pavements of Portuguese
marble, where other developers would probably use concrete.
The same attention to detail is applied to the houses,
with reclaimed roof tiles and antique doors recovered
from ruins. As well as the homes alongside the fairways
there will be town houses, starting at £278,000, as
well as farmhouses built in the countryside.
"Monte Mayor
is the place for people who are mad about golf," says
Maeck. "But we are also taking care of people who don't
want to play golf every day, and of spouses who don't
play at all. We are building an equestrian centre, a
fishing lake and lodge, tennis courts and health spa."
There is
another benefit. From the beginning of next year, Monte
Mayor will be one of only two private courses on the
Costa del Sol. If you want to play the course you have
to own a house, or at least have a friend with a property.
Lifetime membership costs a one-off £2,070, and an annual
subscription of £864. This entitles members to 50 rounds
per year for their guests. Maeck thinks this will make
the course more exclusive and the property more desirable.
It will also mean that he can finish his after-work
rounds in plenty of time for dinner.
Bonmont,
Costa Dorada
Just over
an hour's drive south of Barcelona, past the Roman city
of Tarragona, lies one of the few courses in Spain designed
by Robert Trent Jones Jr, one of the world's most celebrated
golf course designers. It may not be one of his most
spectacular courses, but it is challenging, with ravines,
water hazards and more than 90 bunkers.
The housing
at Bonmont is less spectacular than at Monte Mayor,
but it is cheaper. Medgroup, which is backed by the
financier George Soros, has just taken a majority stake
in the project. This should inject some cash and energy
to the place, which until now has been developing at
a rather sleepy pace. The latest properties to become
available here are two- and three-bedroom apartments
by the Sports Area from £142,000 - the two-bed properties
vary from 88-116sq m, while the three-bed are from 96-136sq
m. The Sports Area will feature a running track, tennis
courts, pool and it is just a short stroll to the clubhouse
and the golf course. Golf club membership is available
only to property owners and costs £3,108 for 10 years,
plus a monthly fee of £78, or £8,290 for life, also
with a monthly fee of £78. Rental tenants can play at
certain times of the day for a green fee - which allows
non-members to play 18 holes for a set price - that
varies between £38 and £48.
Saint
Endréol, Provence
If you buy
a house at the Saint Endréol estate, just a 30-minute
drive from St Tropez, you won't get a view of the fairway,
or get hit by a hooked drive as you lie by the swimming
pool. The philosophy is to keep the houses away from
the course. "Can you imagine spoiling a view like that?"
asks Patrick Bouloy, commercial director at Saint Endréol.
His sweeping arm takes in a forest of pine trees, cut
by lush fairways and the odd flag in the distance indicating
where a green might be. Behind, the mountains, and to
the south, the sea. "People come here who love Provence,"
he says. It is situated just north of the A8 in the
Var. You might bump into David Beckham on the putting
green. His new house is a short drive away in the hills.
The course
was built in 1981. Ten years later the president of
Cagima, a Japanese construction company, came and played
a round. He enjoyed it so much that he bought the course.
In total, a maximum of 260 houses will be built in clusters
of hamlets around a giant pool, surrounded by about
1,000 acres of land. For a semi-detached house with
three bedrooms, fitted kitchen, high ceilings and a
garden, complete with watering system, you can expect
to pay £284,000. Homes vary in size from 103-120sq m.
This course,
with a 20% discount on the green fee of £45 for those
renting, is probably my favourite. Spectacular as Monte
Mayor is, you can't help feeling that it won't be as
beautiful once they have built all the houses. At Saint
Endréol you can hit the ball into the rough without
fear of interrupting a barbecue, the greens are good
and the views outstanding.
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