Polaris World Property

If you have bought a property in Murcia, Spain and/or are living here for the majority of the year, it is very handy to have your own transport. As second hand cars are quite expensive in Spain (compared to the UK or Ireland for example), it might be more cost effective to import your own car. Having done this recently I’ve put together some information, which I hope, will be of help to you regarding importing a car from the European Union into Spain. Be prepared for lots of red tape, delays, unnecessary form filling etc which has been put in place by countless imbecile Eurocrats to justify their existence and pay.

Firstly you start by going to the Jefatura de Trafico office in your area. In our case this was in Cartagena (Murcia). When you get in the door you take a number for ‘Informacion’ (or in our case for every option as we didn’t know where to go). When it is your turn explain you want to change over your European car and you will receive a checklist (called: Matriculacion de Vehilculos usados adquiridos en la union Europa) stating all the documents you will need to collect and/or fill out. You do not need all the items listed; here are the things you do need:

1. Solicitud de Matriculacion
This A5 form is available from the Trafico office and is normally supplied in the waiting room. In this from the person in who’s name the car is will need to fill DNI, NIE or CIF number, name, address, information about the car and put a signature at the bottom.

2. Documentacion de los Interesados (documents from the person in who’s name the car is). For this you bring the original document of your NIE, DNI or CIF number. It is also advisable to take a copy.

3. Original documentation of your car + a copy of every original. This includes the Spanish version of the British and Irish M.O.T. or the A.P.K. in Holland. It is called El Certificado de Caracteristicas or La Tarjeta de Inspeccion Tecnica.

For this you will need to have your car checked at the nearest ITV station. We went to the ITV Rheinland Iberica in Cartagena. Make sure you arrive early in the morning, park you car and go into the office and hand over your car documentation and pay €195. You will receive a clipboard with a checklist and you will then have to drive your car through a series of check stations, where mechanics will check things like the tires, brakes, shock absorption and steering.

When finished you will receive a report with all the results and if your car is ok you will get a sticker to put on the right hand side of your front window and the Spanish certificate of road worthiness.

4. If in our case your car is from Holland you will need form RDW 323 from Holland, which is an export declaration (declaracion official de exportacion). This only applies to cars from Holland.

5. Proof of payment of the Impuesto Municipal sobre Vehiculos de Traccion Mecanica, which is a road tax and payable to the Servicio Municipal de Gestion Tributaria y Recaudacion of the local Town Hall (Ayuntamiento) where you are registered. We paid €25.22

6. Proof of payment of El Impuesto Especial sobre Determinados Medios de Transporte (form 576.05 or 06). You don’t have to pay this tax if you bought your car prior to moving to Spain and if it’s still registered in your own country. If you are already living in Spain, and importing a car from another country, you will however have to pay this tax. We were not subject to this tax as we already had the car before registering and living in Spain. To prove this I had to get a document from the Dutch Consulate in Alicante, which stated that I am no longer registered in my home country and now registered and living in Spain. The Consulate will need a document from the Town Hall of the last place you lived in (in our case Amsterdam) to be able to supply you with that declaration.

7. Lastly you will need to pay Tasa 1.1 or 1.2 a rate for importing the car, the amount we paid was €69.40.

There are agencies that, for a fee, can help you with most of the above. We found it however easy enough and quite an experience to do everything ourselves.

Firstly you will have to establish where you want to buy and whom you are buying the property for. Do you prefer being close to the sea or would you enjoy the tranquility of a rural location. Visit the area’s you have chosen and maybe even holiday there for a while to get a feel for the place. Check weather charts to find the perfect climate that suits you, Murcia is a large province and Spain is a big country that has a rather varied climate with many microclimates (palm- and orange trees are generally a indication of a warmer climate). It is of course a great place to soak up the sun but there are also some fantastic places to enjoy winter sports such as ski-ing in Granada, just a two-hour drive from your property in Murcia.

Read the main article about Buying Property in Spain

Golf. Ever played it? For those of you that have the following quote from Mark Twain may be true for you “Golf is a good walk spoiled”. Whatever your age, whatever your sex, golf is a game that can be played by all shape and sizes. I use the word “can” as I for one find it one of the most frustrating games I have ever played.

A former great, Gary Player, was once accused by a journalist of being lucky. His response went down in golfing folklore. He responded to the accusation with the quote ““Sure I’m lucky, he told the journalist, “and the more I practice the luckier I get”.  Brilliant Gary but the more I practice the more frustrated I get at not being able to replicate my swing on the driving range to the actuality of the game on the course.

It can be a terribly frustrating and indeed a lonely game especially if it is only whilst tee-ing off or putting that you get to chat to your fellow players. Those of you who have played can testify to the fact that unlike other sports there are days that you play and everything clicks and others when everything goes pear shaped and it would appear that this could in fact be your first golf outing.

Golf is though essentially a social sport. Whether it’s played among friends, colleagues, business associates etc it allows you to converse (albeit at tee off or putting in my case) to your companion in a relaxed environment. It’s no surprise then that 40% of Spanish company directors play golf, a figure replicated throughout business Europe. 

Because it’s a game of both mind and body a player must contemplate their next shot and indeed concentrate on every aspect of that shot. How is my stance, am I relaxed, how’s my grip, address the ball, breath, remember to breath, don’t lift your head, relax, keep your eye on the ball, look to where you want to place the shot, am I using the right club, is there a breeze, will the ball run on the fairway, don’t lift your head, pendulum Pete remember your a pendulum, eye on the ball, don’t lift your head, draw slowly back, release……..FOUR!

Ok so the aforementioned doesn’t always happen but my Father likes to tell me that I’m a military golfer. When I asked him what he meant his response was left, right, left, right. What can I say, the guys a comedian. To those of you still interested in playing here are 10 reasons why Murcia, Spain is the place to golf.

1) The weather. It’s worth repeating. With an average yearly temperature of 20 degrees and over 300 days of sunshine per annum you’re almost guaranteed good favourable playing conditions.

2) The courses. Ok so most of the courses are relatively new, La Manga Club being the exception, but within the next four years you’ll have 9 Jack Niclaus signature golf courses to play within a 25km radius thanks to Polaris World.

3) The Location. Murcia has only recently established itself as a golfing destination. Unlike the golfers former favourite Marbella, it isn’t overcrowded; it isn’t overpriced and it isn’t over developed.

4) The Cost.  Aside from playing in the luxurious surroundings of La Manga Club a round of golf wont cost you an arm and a leg. Polaris World for example offer a one year membership €1,999, family membership €2,999 or non member €66 per round of golf.

5) The Accommodation. With an Intercontinental Hotel already open in its Mar Menor development and another due to open shortly in its La Torre development Polaris World are leading the way in golfing tourism in Spain. Alternatively you can choose to stay in luxurious rented on site accommodation for very competitive prices.

6) The Legend. Jack Niclaus is to golf what Pele is to football. Quite simply the man is a legend. He hasn’t just put his name to Polaris Worlds Developments; his designs are the jewel in the Polaris World crown. 9 Nicklaus courses, 35km radius. Quite simply its golfing heaven.

7) The Surroundings. With the Mountainous Sierra Espuna National Park as a backdrop combined with 9-13% building density all Polaris Worlds courses allow you to play in a peaceful, scenic and beautiful environment.

8.) The Airports. With airports such as Alicante within an hours drive, San Javier within twenty minutes and a new airport in Corverra opening shortly you can be rest assured that getting here will not be a problem.

9) The Future. It’s not often that any of us find ourselves at the beginning of something great. Generally we arrive at something that’s already in full swing (no pun intended) and to join in will cost us. Murcia and Golf in particular is in the ascendancy. Whilst other regions report falls in tourism Murcia is going from strength to strength. The secret is out. The infrastructures in place, building continues and those in the know are investing here.

10) The Developer. Ronseal have a very catchy sound bite. The product is pushed towards the camera and the actor announces, “Ronseal, “[It] does exactly what it says on the tin”" Well Polaris World could be described as the “Ronseale” of the Development world. What you see is what you get. Polaris World is as they say “A way of life”.

 Check out the Polaris World Golf Courses

The American and Spanish property markets have stalled. It seems that billions are being wiped off the stock market value every day. SocGen, Jerome Kerviel and Northern Rock are just a few of the names that we now see in our news on a daily basis. Japan, the world’s second largest economy announced earlier this month that its economy was no longer “first class”.

In the aftermath of the American sub-prime crisis many of the worlds largest and wealthiest Banks are reporting their worst quarters since they were founded. Heads are rolling at the top and investors are baying for blood. But is it really all doom and gloom? Is the end of the world nigh? Will the stock markets volatility take us to the gates of hell? Is Armageddon fast approaching? Well if you are to believe the market analysts who are predicting further market falls that would certainly appear to be the case.

But who exactly is being affected? Well the banks for a start. Many lenders are nervous and indeed unwilling to lend to one another, which is of course detriment to commerce as a whole. Hard working ordinary individuals will suffer as their pension funds take the hit and those foolish enough to still take out endowment mortgages might find that they don’t have enough to pay off their mortgage when their term expires.

So is it now time to keep your hands in your pockets? Is it time to stock up on bottled water and tinned food? Are the doom mongers right should we turn off the music, switch off the lights, celebrate, this party’s over, I’m going home. The answer is no. Confidence like happiness is a state of mind. One mans misfortune is another mans gain. Yes interest rates rising affect us. Yes rising oil prices affect us, but those of us not “savvy’ in the stock markets are more or less exactly where we were.

The reality is that its no secret that both the American and Spanish property markets were over valued. Through a combination of market forces, over valuation and bad lending banks are having to face up that there are some rather large black holes in their accounts. Spain unlike Ireland, the UK or other parts of Europe for example has an usual way of valuing its properties. It’s not unheard of that owners rather than real estate agents or even valuers dictate the value of the property.

First time borrowers are under huge pressure to make up the shortfall of 20% needed to purchase their first home as many lenders here cap the loan to value rate at 80%. This in turn may lead to pressure on the valuer both from the buyer and the bank to over value the property in question in order to make up the 20% and cover costs, which include purchase tax. So a property in reality worth €160,000 might be valued at €200,000. The housing market begins to slide and suddenly there’s a lot of negative equity around. Coupled with bad lending which leads to loan defaults it’s a recipe for disaster. But that’s the thing with greed, it can blind side you and end up biting you in the bum.

For most of us though there was never as much money in our pockets as we were led to believe. I for one, when I lived in Ireland, found it laughable when the government kept telling me that we’d never had it so good and yet I seemed to be living from pay packet to pay packet. Sure my wages had risen. Sure interest rates were at record lows but the fact was that the cost of living had risen faster than that of my wages and the record low interest rates were coupled with house prices that were simply out of my reach. We are the “Credit” generation. Where our parents thought long term by putting aside anything they could for a rainy day we spend spend spend. And when we’ve run out of our own more money to spend we spend other peoples by using credit cards.

When I started my career in banking in 1994 many people were still paying mortgage interest rates of around 12%. As rates fell we were advised to advise our clients to fix their mortgage rates. This meant that whilst the rates dropped throughout the 1990’s we had advised many customers to fix at the higher rates thus meaning that our clients, the people we were supposed to advise and protect were still stuck paying higher rates. Good for the bank, bad for the customer.

Essentially, in my opinion, banks are a bit like bookies or bookmakers; they rarely if ever loose but give the impression that you’re the real winner and they are in fact the looser or facilitator. The truth is that in Ireland for example it became and has become very difficult to run a family home. With the monthly cost of childcare on parity with that of your mortgage payment, not to mention the spiralling costs of living in general, many are living on very small margins and unless you begin to take on the attributes of an accountant there may well be trouble ahead.

To those who only spend what they can afford things haven’t really changed that much. While Banks, Builders and Real Estate Agents are bracing themselves for a nightmare 2008 those of us who never really bought into the “you never had it so good’ rhetoric from our respective governments and economists might just find that there’s one or two bargains to be had out there and that the economic outlook must be viewed with a sense of perspective.

Yes there is change ahead. Yes there seems to be an economic shift from the West to The East, which has seen the rise of both the Chinese and Indian economies. But now is not the time to panic. If house prices fall you don’t have to put your house up for sale the next day. It’s the same with shares, yes there is widespread losses and indeed widespread panic which in turn leads to further losses but the housing market like the stock market remains the same, buy low sell high, sounds pretty obvious but as long as you stick to that golden rule the worlds economic outlook need not be yours.

 Read more about Polaris World Properties and the Polaris World Buying Process 

Friday the 25th of January 2008 saw the opening of Polaris Worlds Show houses for its Jardines development in the Condado de Alhama resort. Whilst this was strictly for VIP’s and Golden Partner (Agents) it began a new chapter for the company as a whole.
As you can imagine there was great excitement all round within the Polaris World camp as this day, this new chapter, has been a culmination of many years hard work. Whilst Jardines was obviously the centre of the attraction it also allowed a sneak peak of the Penthouses and Los Naranjos de Alhama area of the development.

One of the first things that hits you about the Penthouses is the view. They are on a higher elevation than the Jack Nicklaus Signature Course, which they look out upon. They also have spectacular views of mountainous terrain in the distance, behind which the sun sets. You can almost picture yourself sitting out on your terrace on warm evenings (of which there are plenty here), with a nice bottle of red from Murcia’s own Jumilla or breaking open a bottle of cava as the sun sets in the distance, heaven.

The Penthouses in Los Naranjos look very impressive already. Although it’ll be a few months before completion you can get an idea of how they will look when finished. They stand impressively along the frontline, The Jack Nicklaus Signature Course sweeping below them. They will have the sun in the front in afternoon, which means that you will get to witness many spectacular sunsets from the comfort of your large terrace area. Show House here are set to open in the next three months.

The two and three bed-roomed apartments are best described in the Jardines de Alhama news update. Whilst you wont have the views of Jardines or that of El Mirador (The View) you are in very close proximity to the El Agora Town Centre, Club House and Sports Area.

You can find more information in our Condado de Alhama section

Friday the 25th of January 2008 saw the opening of Polaris Worlds Show houses for its Jardines development in the Condado de Alhama resort. Whilst this was strictly for VIP’s and Golden Partner (Agents) it began a new chapter for the company as a whole. As you can imagine there was great excitement all round within the Polaris World camp as this day, this new chapter, has been a culmination of many years hard work.

So first impressions? To those of you who have seen the promotional DVD for Jardines in Condado de Alhama you will not be disappointed. In fact when you first turn the corner into garden 11 the first thing that will hit you is a profound feeling of deja vu. It looks exactly as promoted. The garden, palm trees aside, is still obviously immature but will grow into a beautiful area for you and your family to enjoy. The pool looks bigger than it does in the photo and the distance around the garden area appears larger.

To those of you with roof terraces (2 bed 1st floor) you have magnificent views of the mountainous Sierra Espuna National Park in the distance whilst those of you with the ground floor (3 bed) apartments will be more than happy with the size of your gardens and the area on which you look out upon.

The interiors of show houses in general are not always to everyone’s taste but Polaris haven’t gone over the top. The design is modern but warm. The kitchens are open plan and streamlined whilst the living area, although small in size is comfortable for a two/three bed roomed apartment. Personally speaking I’d knock down a wall in the three bed roomed apartment and increase the size of the living area but that of course is not what your local real estate agent would recommend. 

All in all whilst the area as a whole looks quite uniformed from a distance the individual gardens give the place a cosy community feel. The area is within a closed perimeter fence and the finish is of the highest quality and unlike other developers Polaris has yet again delivered on their promise. If you haven’t already bought here you’ll certainly consider buying after seeing this. If you’ve bought already you certainly wont be disappointed.

Read more about Jardines de Alhama

On Friday the 25th of January 2008 Polaris World proudly opened its first show houses in its Condado de Alhama Development. Dignitaries, VIP’s and Golden Partners (Sales Agents) were for the first time allowed to see for themselves the progress taking place throughout the development but also to view the Jardines area of the resort where Polaris have opened its new show houses in the first phase of this magnificent resort. 

The first thing that hits you is the scale of this development and how quickly it’s progressing. Its approximately 7km from the Sales office to Jardines which in itself gives you an idea of the size of this resort. As is the case in most new developments here in Spain most of the infrastructure is already in place.

From the entrance to the resort you’re taken along a wide palm tree lined avenue, which snakes along the interior of Condado (This road will be open to the public). A high grass bank on your right, planted with trees breaks the view of the public road which runs along the outside of the development. You are taken past Cortijos de Alhama (Villas, yet to start development) on your left and then on past the luxury golf apartments (again construction has yet to start). 

At the roundabout you are brought back down the resort past five cement factories (I guess when your development is this size its handy to have them on site). From here you are brought back onto the avenue that bisects the whole resort. To your right are the Penthouses Los Naranjos and on your left the two and three bed roomed apartments in the Los Naranjos de Alhama area, both of which have been constructed but have yet to be rendered. Polaris expects the first show houses to open here in May.

The area for the Town Centre El Agora and the Sports Area can also be seen, as it is clearly outlined and ready for construction to commence. Further along the avenue to the left you can see work taking place on the Oasis town centre and what appears to be a massive pump working on the lake surrounding La Isla del Condado. By the time you have reached Jardines de Alhama you are in no as to the scale of Condado de Alhama. If you haven’t bought already you certainly will have wished you did after seeing this.

More information is available at: Condado de Alhama

Here are some pictures of the development on the Condado de Alhama resort:

Click on an image to enlarge it.

The chances are if you haven’t heard of Murcia then you won’t have heard of Mazarrón. Its one of those places you stumble upon when you decide to go off the beaten track and believe me you won’t be disappointed for having done so.

Nestled between the Sierra de la Muela hills of Cartagena to the north and the Cabo Cope and Calnegre to the south, Mazarrón is the way Spain must have looked before the tourist boom of the 60’s and 70’s. Indeed the majority of its visitors are the Spanish themselves who return year after year during the summer months to escape the unforgiving heat of the interior.

You won’t find the high-rise developments commonly found in Spain’s more touristy destinations. Instead you’ll marvel at the relatively untouched surroundings. When I say “relatively” I mean in a development way as mankind has indeed changed Mazarrón over the last 100 years. Both mining and agriculture has left it mark on the area with the latter still the largest industry and indeed employer in the area.

The mines though have long since been abandoned but the evidence of Mazarróns former main industry remain and can be seen just outside the town. Local agriculture is made up of mainly fruit and vegetable plantations, which include growing tomatoes, melons and red and green peppers.

For the beach bums among you there is no shortage of beaches to explore as the area boasts approximately 32 for you enjoyment. Many of these are hidden and can only be reached by foot, bike or 4-wheel drive so you’ll more than likely have the place to yourself. For the naturists among you there are also a number of nudist beaches nestled among the little coves so if privacy’s your thing the beaches of Mazarrón are for you.

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