Last year my wife got chatting to an elderly English lady who had been coming to Javea for years, since her childhood, and loved the place but had just spent her first winter there. She was living in El Tosalet, one of the best areas of Javea with plenty of villas with pools that look absolutely fantastic in summer. However she said it was the worst winter she had ever had. There was nobody around, except the occasional person walking their dog. There was more going on in the port area, but without a car it wasn't so easy to get there and it wasn't so easy to meet people when she did make it. She said she felt very isolated there.

We know Tosalet well local myth say the houses are 'damp'

Also across the road is a holiday village and the area is swamped during July and August. It is horrendous

More or less the same in Marbella except in the town centre. Too crowded in summer too empty in winter. One friend lived in an apartment block and at times it was empty except for her. I would have found it very creepy.

This is why I like living in a large town that isn't a holiday resort. It's the same all year round, all shops and facilities open (well, some do open for mornings only during August). There are more people around during August but we are not overrun. It takes just 10 minutes to get to the coast by car, or for me 30 minutes by public transport (used to be only 17 minutes until our tram service was suspended, but there are talks going on about the possibility of restarting it using smaller carriages).

I agree with you Lynn, you can not beat living in what I tend to call an ordinary normal town, however mine is small with 3000 inhabitants. My town does get a little quieter during August due to the fact that a lot of the people have small houses in the mountain behind the town so they spend more time there but it essentially stays the same all the year. Never noticed how long it takes me to get to the coast but I guess it is about 10 minutes, all of my nearby beaches are full of the Spanish and the French at Easter and the summer and this year I believe that it has been extremely busy.

Rosemary

Essentially that is one of the major points behind our moving back to France. Javea is alive in the summer with parking difficulties you cannot get around prices in restaurants are hiked etc. It is simply a tourist resort and for us after working villages in France and an all the year round presence it is surreal.

I just cannot get my head around it but many many people in fairness do not have the same approach as myself!

Then English people at 9h.30 this morning drinking pints of lager seemingly also do not care.

I am not hopefully being sniffy but Javea is so difficult for us both.

Secret I suppose is to live either in the middle of a big town but difficult with animals or a house in the country?

Or live on the edge of a Spanish coastal city such as Valencia, Barcelona, Gijon, Santander, San Sebastian, Malaga etc. Then you get the best of all worlds.

Or, live in a flat in a city but then rent out a place from time to time in the coast/country so you can escape whenever you like. That is what we are thinking of doing

We are living in a rental economy. Do not buy anything!

surely someone has to buy to rent it out

that's the price you pay for living in such a lovely place - half the Spanish MPs seem to come here for their hols - the foreign minister has a holiday home here

in about a week, Jávea will be back to normal

where on earth are you seeing English people drinking lager at 9:30 in the morning - there are a few bars where I believe that happens - but I've never in 10 years been to them...........

unless they were holidaymakers - in which case they'll be gone soon

Many Spanish live in the cities in winter and then head out to the pueblo or beach for summer. Rather than having one expensive residence where they live all year round they have something more functional in the city, and then a cheaper holiday home for the summer. Many Brits complain about build quality on the coast, and a lot of it is indeed pretty poor, however a lot of houses were only designed to be summer residences. The "ghost village" syndrome occurs all over Spain - places are heaving in July and August, and completely deserted in winter.

I've been to Javea many times and from April to October it has always seemed a nice place to be (we've never been there in August or winter though). I've never noticed Brits drinking lager at 9.30 in the morning though, it has never struck me as that kind of place (maybe it changes in August), and I've always found the food there to be reaonably priced and of decent quality, especially considering it's a tourist area.

Absolutely. In the mid 90s these 2-3 bed holiday flats would cost have around 30-40k euros which reflects the quality of build. The inflated prices these days are just because the banks have added a huge margin on top!

Domino, too many people have bought and can not sell their property because they cannot get enough money out of the sale to cover their debt

Houses in Spain are like yaughts and loose women these days, always rent!

Hopefully in a few years time I will think differently because I would actually like to buy something myself, but there is still zero value in the market. The only well priced properties on paper are in areas where nobody wants to live

I absolutely agree if cash flow supports rent. We rent here in Javea but not for much longer.

We also had being past tense a problem in France in that I do not have children but my wife does from a previous marriage. So if Linda went before me then upon my death the estate would go down my family route. There are lots of financial gurus in France such as (BF) who say they can get around it. They cannot old Napoleon sorted that out once and forever.

So we sold the house(s) and bought another but in my wife's name supported by a will. So will never buy ever again be it France or Spain. Rent is the way forward. When indeed is the bottom in the Spanish housing market likely to occur. So you could buy today and your money is just languishing.

There are two bars in Javea Park right on the main road. Seating say 18 or so in fairness they have to sit outside for they smoke.

yep, they're the ones

never been in either - & what would you want to be hanging around the red light district for

We went there many years ago, and there was lots of waste land between the town and Arenal, not too built up, we enjoyed it and went back for several years in a row. But then they started filling it all with apartment blocks and ruined it IMHO. I realise we can't stand still, change is inevitable, but for me it became like so many other Spanish coastal resorts that we went to Jávea to avoid. We have tended to spend more time Costa de la Luz way lately, but even one of our favourite areas, Valdevaqueros, has plans for lots of new dwellings and hotel complex. There is a huge protest going on, and for the moment planning permission has been denied. (the local mayor is livid, he can see his backhanders disappearing). Spain seems to have a death wish, they won't be happy until they have covered the whole coast in concrete. The fact that they have just passed a law to allow buildings within 50m of the beach seems to reinforce that.
http://realestatemarbella.wordpress....valdevaqueros/