Granada region. L'Ecrin valley area. What do you think as a place to live?
 

Hi

We have been turned down by Canadian immigration on a medical technicality, so we are now looking towards Spain as a place to live.

Shortly, we may be going over to look at property in the L'Ecrin valley area near a very small village called Chite. It has also been suggested we look at Orgiva and Lanjaron.

Does anyone live around these areas and can you give us your views as a suitable, or not suitable area to live?

We want somewhere off the coast that is quiet, but not too far away from civilisation, where hopefully our income will stretch a little further. Fairly good value property (relative to the coast) would also be an added bonus.

Any other suggestions as to places to look at in the region?

Thanks :beer:

Graham

Re: Granada region. What do you think as a place to live?
 

Re: Granada region. L'Ecrin valley area. What do you think as a place to live?
 

I looked at villas by the coast, a villa inland that fell through, then fell in love with a cortijo near Moron de la Frontera that the local pharmacist nabbed, but ended up with a villa in a rural location by the coast. I was told time and time again to beware of falling in love with anywhere too remote, as one can end up feeling very isolated. I met people who had bought remote and were now moving closer in. A house on the edge of a small village could be good. I have no knowledge of Granada, but when making comparisons it seemed that one could get good value there, but tracks can be mountainous and 4 wheel drives essential. Unless of course you are hankering after a 'Driving over lemons 'existence. A good site for property was www.kyero.com

Re: Granada region. L'Ecrin valley area. What do you think as a place to live?
 

Edge of a small village is more preferable to be honest than to being two miles down a dirt track in the middle of nowhere, especially in the winter. We may think differently in the summer though.

We would ideally like something with a bit of land (enough for a pool) and its own parking area, so a town house might not fit the bill.

Granada Region
 

Inland Granada tends to very isolated with little or no opportunities for work. There are not much to do in terms of socialising unless your spanish is quite good. I have looked around that region and have discarded it on those grounds and as i said earlier, next week I am looking in the Murcia region which I have been told is really nice and offers real spanish culture but with some expats. Cheers :)

Re: Granada Region
 

The Lecrin Valley has several white villages with a lot of brits owning houses there also it is handy for the coast. Granada airport is only 20 mins away.
You could have a look at Albunol it is a town of about 5000 population with quite a few brits living there now and there are a few semi rural properties for sale it is about a hour from the lecrin valley going towards Almeria.
Take a look at cortijo-andalucia.com they have a large selection of properties both in the Lecrin Valley and Albunol

Leonardo

Re: Granada Region
 

Thanks for the info and the web page link, Albunol has been mentioned to me before.

Cheers

Graham :beer:

Re: Granada region. What do you think as a place to live?
 

I considered a town house in Ayamonte, the idea of a roof terrace with views and maybe an outdoor shower, bus ride to the beach, and restaurants and facilities on the doorstep sounded appealing, but town living can be noisy, so looked elsewhere. The idea of lots of land was also enticing.. the cortijo had 30,000 m2 which the vendor offered to rent back and work for us provided he could leave his tractor on site. Now I have 850m2 and it is plenty. Room for a 10x5 pool, and still lots of space for sitting areas, car parking etc. Unless I was hankering after a self sufficient life I wouldn't want more than 1000 m2. Don't anyone believe that Spanish country living is quiet....we have a large cock in the adjacent plot that wakes us at 330 am, earplugs are a neccessity, and the dusk chorus of barking dogs though quite musical to my ears, drives some people round the bend.

Re: Granada region. What do you think as a place to live?
 

We originally thought about somewhere remote with lots of land and olive groves, lemon trees etc, but now, like you, we would like something on the edge of a small to medium sized village with enough land for a pool, parking and a garden.

There is only me, my wife and our daughter, so something average size would do us fine. We do not really want to work full time, but a bit of extra part time money would be nice, but not essential (hopefully). We want to buy mortgage free and were hoping that about £1,400 a month would be enough for us to live on. Any extra part time income would hopefully be pocket money. We do not want to eat out every night and live extravagantly.

My Spanish is very rusty, but I am sure it will come back with a bit of practice.

By the time we move, our daughter will probably have finished mainstream education, but she may want to stay on for further education, so we may need to find her a place in an international school, so we have got to bear that in mind when choosing our location to live. We do know there is a school at Almuñecar.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, because for the past two years the majority of our research has been aimed at Canada.

Graham

P.S. Where we live now, we are used to hens, cockerels, and dogs barking because we have fields on three sides and the canal at the bottom of the garden. We do not notice it, so that should not be a problem.

Re: Granada Region
 

Whereabouts in the Murcia region are you looking as a matter of interest?

Re: Granada region. What do you think as a place to live?
 

Gray C

I have pm's you re Albuñol

pwwm