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Hacienda Riquelme Golf Resort Questions & Answers

Hi I’m interested in buying a apartment in hacienda and would like to get some pros and cons from owners any information would be gratefully appreciated

Cheers tom

over a year ago Answer

9 answers

Property representative
haciendariquelmegolf
Sucina, Spain
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Hi there

First of all, it will probably help if it is explained how the resort is run.

 

There are 1864 apartments, in 78 different buildings. They are split across 8 areas called phases. The number of buildings in a phase ranges from 4 to 17. Spanish law is very strict on how we run a resort like ours. Each of the 78 buildings has an Annual General Meeting, each year, to elect the President of their building. This person is in charge of everything specifically related to that building. All the buildings in a phase elect a Phase President. This Phase President becomes a member of the Management Board of the resort. All these Presidents are unpaid volunteers.

 

As the Management Board members are all volunteers, you will probably realise, they are not chosen for their ability, but for their availability. It takes up a lot of time to do the job properly (more hours than most people spend at work), so many people who would be very qualified to do it won’t volunteer. As you would expect in a structure like this, you have very good Board members and some not so good. However, the current board members have significant business experience. I have good reason to believe we have performed a lot better than other local resorts Boards. All Board members provide details of their background, which is on the secure area of our website. As you are not an owner yet I don’t have the authority to identify the Board members.

You may have heard negative feedback on our performance but, out of 1864 properties, it would be surprising if you didn’t. I believe most of the feedback is extremely positive. We have a good record of improving service and controlling costs. Cash flow is closely monitored to ensure we have no surprises. I have been told by our Resort Administrator’s (Resortalia) that we give them a harder time, and are much more demanding, when it comes to managing costs and services, than any other community they manage.

 

We do have debtors, but the number of apartments in debt has dropped consistently year on year from over 700 a few years ago to about 120 at the moment. One of the Board is dedicated to ensuring the company we employ (Resortalia) to administer the running of the resort, keeps on top of debt chasing. In Spanish law the debt belongs to an apartment not an individual so, if someone buys an apartment from a debtor, they become the owner of that debt. This includes banks that repossess properties. The new owner has to pay the current year’s community fees and the previous 3 years’ outstanding fees. If the debt goes back further than that, we can then claim it back by taking the previous owner to court for the rest of the debt they owe.

 

The main debtor is the resort builder, Polaris World, who owe us for community fees they should have paid on the property they own, mainly the bar / restaurant buildings.

 

Regarding the number of properties up for sale: the main reason for this is that many people bought off-plan around 2004 / 2005, three years before the properties were ready. They bought on a rising market, when prices were going up about 7% per quarter. I know many never intended to use the apartments and were hoping to sell on whilst the rising market continued. As you know, the property market collapsed and people were stuck with properties they couldn’t afford the mortgages for, or the community fees. They are now desperate to cut their losses and get rid.

 

I might be biased, but I would not have bought on any other resort in the area.

John B

Owner at Hacienda Riquelme Golf Resort

over a year ago
Property representative
haciendariquelmegolf
Sucina, Spain
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Hi Tom, unfortunately Tripadvisor does not allow me to pass on a contact email address. However if you go onto the resort website and click on "contact us" your enquiry will come through to me. Althernatively, I am at the resort's information centre (including 29.11.17, but not 06.12.17), between 10:00 - 12:00 noon.

Hasta pronto

John B

over a year ago
Tongeren, Belgium
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10
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Hi Tom,

it is very simple to give you an overview of pros and cons, although it is a long list, but with mainly pro's.

We bought about 2 yours ago, are still working, and travel to our apartment 3 weeks in July, and on top of that around the first of November, around Christmas and around April each time for a week, so 6 weeks in total. Our daughters and their husbands and children use it each +/- 2 weeks a year additionally.

The pro's:

- the resort is run by volunteer owners, but they do (all together) a very good job

- the resort is beautiful and very well maintained - STV an external company, employed by the community of owners, keeps the gardens and surroundings spotless

- the resort has the best security you can imagine (camera and detector guarded fences all around it, guards at the entrance and patrol cars)

- Resortalia, the company which manages the administration on behalf of the owners performs in an excellent way

- the golf course is one of the best, if not the best, in the region, every golfer will confirm this (and if not, you can bet on it that the review is based on a one-day bad play :-))

- the resort has 19 well maintained (big) pools (maintenance by an external company) - spread in a way that you are never too far away from one

- there is a restaurant, a super market and a pro shop on site which all perform better than average if not far better

- the resort received for years now a certificate of excellence on TripAdvisor, which is not so easy as some people think

- the resort is fully sold out and the only apartments you can buy are resells - I estimate that there are always around 30 to 50 apartments on sale, but as there are 1.864 apartments on the resort, this is a normal 2 to 3%, which is even normal in every town (and you have to consider that average age of owners is higher in a resort as Hacienda Riquelme - so you would expect a higher resell percentage)

- the resort is only 15 minutes’ drive from the beaches of Mar Menor and 30 minutes from the nice and big town of Murcia. So it offers the best of both interests.

- life in the region is (much) cheaper than it is in almost every country in Northern Europe

- the resort is quiet, peaceful and not overcrowded - only 5 % of the resort is build area, so there is plenty of open space and it feels like that too

- given the services included the community fees are rather low (about 425 € on average per quarter)

- the fees include security, gardening, maintenance of the pools, internal phone, internet and tv, cleaning of communal areas as hall- and stairways, garages etc., maintenance of communal areas and building parts (e.g. elevators) and with this budget the board even does the needed investments (new path lights, repairs, repainting of buildings, new security cameras etc.)

- the smaller town of Sucina is only 5 minutes away and offers every service you can imagine (more restaurants, bars, banks, pharmacist, supermarket, shops and festivities)

- the region is called "the garden of Europe" and has over 300 days with sun a year and is known for its very healthy climate

- there are other similar resorts in the region but Hacienda Riquelme is second to none (we visited them all before we decided to buy)

- prices to buy are today still low and bargains are still available - it won't get cheaper

Are there cons: yes, but very few in our opinion

- if you live or stay on the resort you need a car (owned or rental) if you want to go out of the resort on a regular basis

- if you like it more crowded you have to drive to the beaches or in town

- all apartments have 2 bedrooms and most of them have 1 bathroom (some have 2 bathrooms) - so if you need more bedrooms, the resort is not suited for you - although for the price of an average apartment in most of the owner’s home countries, you can buy two or even more apartments on the resort :-)

If it should not already be clear, we did not regret for a second that we bought there and plan to be there much more ones we are retired in a year or two. Don't make a mistake, I am a golfer and the super and well managed golf course is a big plus, but my wife is not, and she too loves it on Hacienda Riquelme.

Don't buy only for investment reasons, prices will normally not go lower, but probably will not rise very fast as well. Buy if you want to enjoy staying on the resort and in the region. On the other hand, you can be reasonably sure that you will not lose money if you decide to resell in the future.

Hope this answers your questions, best of luck in your decision and welcome in our resort if you decide to join us there.

over a year ago
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Hi John I would be very interested to discuss further in detail if that would suit you .is there a way for us to talk in the background I am new to TripAdvisor

Thanks in advance

Tom

over a year ago
Peterborough
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My wife and I are staying nearby and we use it regularly. I think it is one of the best golfing resorts around here having visited most of them. if we had a choice Hacienda is where we would stay. It has great grounds, and a great focal point with the bar and restaurant.

I agree with other comments about renting.... we reckon you can get a monthly rental for about 370 Euros October to March, plus utilities. Haven't had a utility bill from where we are so can't comment on those costs. The area is a bit rural and sometimes the farmers spread muck on the fields which can be a bit smelly.... I cal this the fen area of Spain. I would rent!!

over a year ago
cork
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We only rent but my in laws have a place there and they get good use out of it the minute kids finish school they go so 9 wks in summer and midterms to aswell as golfing trips aswell as girls trips so they get the use of we wer to buy we wouldn’t get the use out of it as my husband job he’s only be able for 4 wks a year so that’s why not u need to weigh up how much use u would get out of it pros to cons

over a year ago
Liverpool, United Kingdom
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Hi

I really like this resort and have also considered buying but the apartments are generally very cheap to hire so haven’t bothered. We’ve stayed in or visited friends in about 8 different apartments around the resort, we’ve also viewed about 8 others when we were looking to buy so we’ve seen a few.

You need to consider where ur apartment is as the walk to the restaurant from the far side of the resort is quite a distance.

Ground floor or penthouse are my preference due to extra sun, space and outdoor living.

Also consider how close to a pool u r as u need to take ur own loungers.

Under the apartments is parking spaces, some apartments have a storage room which is great for keeping personal stuff in if u hire it out.

There are plenty of key holder companies that can manage it for u if you r renting it out, they can clean it etc too.

Hope this helps.

If you need anything else, just ask.

over a year ago
St. Andrews, United Kingdom
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Hi, I only played golf there recently but even in September most properties were empty. I don't really see it as a great investment, the Polaris World thing didn't really work out. If you were going to spend quite a bit of time it might work out. The post Brexit deal isn't finalised & although the properties looked very good,that part of Murcia isn't dead classy. It would have to be really cheap for me to buy!

Willyum

over a year ago
Solihull, United Kingdom
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Hi Tom, I am not an owner of a property there but my friend is. There are around 18 pools with apartments around each pool & some are busier / louder than others so I suppose it depends what you are looking for. The resort has very good facilities so if you are a golfer I guess you have played there already or will before you buy. Many people though either live there for periods at a time or have as holiday homes irrespective of whether they play golf or not. The restaurants are decent enough (all serviced by one kitchen) but a little pricey and the on site supermarket is very good for your self catering needs. If you are there for longer periods you probably need to hire a car & explore but for a week at a time there is no need to move from the site if you don't want to. I agree with another comment that you need to consider how far the apartment is to the restaurants & bars as they are all in one place along with the supermarket. As an investment I imagine not great but as a holiday home for you, friends & family it's very nice. Not high end but friendly & safe.

over a year ago
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