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Saturday night, 04 Feb, there were 8 robberies on one street in the F-zone. It appears that the epidemic of crime may be returning to Sotogrande.
I moved out over a year ago and must say that I feel a lot safer living up the coast. In the summer of 2003 there were literally hundreds of robberies, many while the inhabitants were at home, some using violence.
The police were quick to blame this on gangs of eastern european ex-military/police -so I guess it’s not just us brits that like to point the finger at johnny foreigner.
So why do people pay a huge premium to live in Sotogrande?
Frequent crime? Second rate schooling? Lack of basic infra-structure? Regular cuts in phonelines/gas/electricity -take your pick. Or is it because you get your xmas cards delivered in February?
Soto has advertised heavily in the UK weekend papers promising some sort of paradise.
I say buyer beware -the whole concept of Sotogrande is a scam… -
I tend to agree that Soto is stuck up its own bottom. And as you say a premium has to be paid to live there. I have never been able to understand what the attraction is for somewhere so snobby but without views, decent bars or restaraunts. The ‘Polo’ pearlnecklace brigade ( both English and Spanish)come in their droves and pay enormous sums for rentals in July/August. I find the place unfriendly and elitist.
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Fair question -I was naive enough to buy into the “dream” for a couple of years and wasted a lot of money living in Soto. I looked hard for a place to buy there at the start but was appalled by the way the Soto estate agents operate. In my opinion they are operating a scam -promoting a dream that doesn’t exist. I lived in a prestige property and was appalled by the build quality, the infastructure and the fact that twice the agents tried to steal the deposit from me.
As an adult I knowingly entered into a contract with these agents, so I only have myself to blame, however I was appalled by the crooked way these people operate. They are a dishonest bunch of crooks.
Soto advertises their dream heavily in the british press. I would like to offer readers of the forum someones actual experiences, especially as a warning to people that may be naive as I was to believe the adverts.My biggest suprise was the level of crime in Soto -I moved to Spain because I thought it was only a matter of time before I became a victim of a serious crime, living as I did in central London. In the end I didn’t feel any safer living in Soto. It’s funny how this epidemic of crime gets little press attention.
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We were robbed of euros 3,400 of personal items from our rented apt in Elviria at Las Terrazas de Sta Maria Golf in the afternoon of Jan 5, the day before the holiday. It was an insider event, the burglars came in with a key. The apt has a security lock, but the maids belonging to the rental office have a key, and we believe gave that key (original or copy) to personnel of the maintenace company who watched us leave that afternoon and knew that the apt and the building were empty. The police wrote the report but did no investigation as it was not a break-in. As we were only temporary renters, our insurance did not cover the theft.
Moral: beware of all apts that are being rented and for which a management office has keys. Maids and gardners come and go, no real way to screen them. And even if you know they are responsible, no way to prove it.
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