Peaceful watersports are planned alongside new lakeside homes at the heart of the Desert Springs Golf Resort in Almeria, Spain.
Plans are being drawn up for new waterfront homes at Desert Springs, Europe’s only international award-winning luxury family resort and championship desert golf course in the Almeria region of south-east Spain.
Around 20 homes are planned on the shores of two of the natural-looking man-made lakes – Sweetwater and Tiburon – at the heart of the resort. Already completed is the first phase of the lakes, with a water surface area of four hectares (10 acres). Now it is being expanded to a total of 10 hectares (25 acres).
Although work on all the house designs is not yet complete, the new properties in Sweetwater Island Drive, running along the north side of the lake, are expected to be four- and five-bedroom detached homes with studies, games rooms and private south-west facing gardens running down to the water’s edge.
So far more than 300 properties have been completed and sold at Desert Springs. Sweetwater Island Drive is among planned new phases of the development being undertaken by the Almanzora Bay Group, an Anglo-Spanish sister group to the Cheltenham-based Robert Hitchins Group, an award-winning developer.
When the lake has been completed, a variety of peaceful water sports activities will be provided. Based at a Chiringuito (casual rustic style) beach bar, they will range from canoeing and sailing to windsurfing and fly fishing for black bass.
Feeding the lakes are the four separate springs of water from which Desert Springs takes its name. They are the sources of the watercourses crossing the resort’s 72 par 18-hole USGA Indiana golf course designed by former Great Britain and Ireland Golf Team Captain Peter McEvoy. He was inspired by the desert courses of Arizona and California.
Although mineral salts in the water make it unsuitable for irrigation or consumption, large numbers of different fish live and breed in it, and it supports a wealth of birdlife.
Says Bridget Rosser, sales and marketing manager of the Cheltenham-based Almanzora Group which is marketing the properties at Desert Springs: “We will be stocking the lake with additional fish once construction and landscaping are complete so, with the resort enjoying a desert microclimate which is unique in Europe, it will be quite possible for residents to say, truthfully, that they have ‘Gone fishing – in the desert!’”
The new lakes will have other benefits for residents at Desert Springs. They will be used to conserve the extremely infrequent but occasionally massive rainfall, not only improving the stored water but also providing an emergency supply of last resort. The lakes are designed to rise by more than one metre to take up the extra supplies.
