Parque de las Naciones en Torrevieja

¿Sabe de donde tiene su nombre el Parque de las Naciones en Torrevieja? Fíjese en la foto de arriba, a ver si lo adivina?

Do you know where the Nations Park in Torrevieja has its name from? Look closely on the photo and see whether you can guess it?

Regalo de un Cliente Contento · A Present from a Happy Client

Que bonita sorpresa de nuestro cliente y amigo el Sr. Youcef quien ha traido estos ricos dulces desde Argelia. Estamos muy contentos y agradecidos y le deseamos todo lo mejor para el y su family a partir de ahora y en su nueva casa en Torrevieja.

What a nice surprise from our client and friend Mr Youcef who brough us this delicious sweats all way from Algeria. We are very delighted and thankful and wish him and his family all the very best from now on in his new house in Torrevieja.

Historic location in Torrevieja for biggest day

Torrevieja will charge couples up to €580 per day to hold their wedding at Eras de la Sal.  The location can be hired for civil weddings and other events, and as well as the fee, a deposit must be paid.

The most expensive part of the area, which between 1777 and 1958 was used to store salt and load it onto ships for export, is the stalls, but there are also other parts which can be used, including the West Wharf, which costs €221, or the stage for €132.

Other areas of the city which will be open for such events are the stage in the Jardin de las Naciones (€72) or the bandstand in Parque Doña Sinforosa (€31).

The aim of the Tourism Council is to give locals a variety of open-air locations for their special events. There will be at least one town hall employee at each event to make sure that couples observe the conditions to be used for such matters.

However, the Torre del Moro won’t be used as the town hall can’t guarantee staff will be available there during events.

Source: euroweeklynews.com

Testimonio de Cliente - Client Testimonial

"Muchas gracias Miriam por tus bonitas palabras sobre tu experiencia con nosotros. Ya tienes tu casa en Torrevieja y esperamos que disfrutas de ella tal y como lo deseabas. Y nuestra casa siempre es también la tuya. Hasta siempre, Miriam."

"Thank you very much Miriam for your nice words about your experience with us. Now you have your home in Torrevieja and we hope you will enjoy it as much as you wished you would. And our house wil lalways be your's, too! Whenever you need us, you know where to find us, Miriam."

 Karen Manzanas & Miriam Lanssens

What Miriam has to say about us.

Client Testimonial

Thank you Fintan, Barbara & Adam for you nice words about your experience with us. We wish you all the very best, god bless you.

Client Testimonial

To Karen and Ulrich of Okendo,


"We received a top class service when selling our property in Spain. They were excellent and there attention to detail was first class. We would highly recommend there services."
 
Regards
 
Fintan & Barbara

Another Successful Sale Thanks To Our Home Staging Services

This lovely 2 bedroom apartment came on the market just a few weeks ago. The location is absolutely great, because it is almost frontline to the Punta Prima beach and coast line, but the property needed a "face lift". We convinced the owner to do a light Home Staging, just enough to look attractive when walking in - and bang: just two weeks later it was sold to a Belgian couple. They are buying a nice house in an awesome location and will convert it into their home. We wish them all the best and some unforgettable hours watching the sun rise over the Mediterranean Sea. And the seller is happy because the property sold quickly and at a price they are happy with. 

After:

Property Energy Certificates Now Compulsory in Spain from June, 1st 2013

Properties for sale or rent in Spain must now have an energy certificate which cost between €100 and €350 depending on the size of the property.

 

New legislation was passed by the Spanish government in April and the certificates grade a property’s energy and carbon emissions based on the way it is being used.

 

The certificate shows energy efficiency on a scale of A to G, similar to the system used for electrical appliances and brings Spain into line with other European countries such as the UK and France.

 

It informs potential buyers or tenants on insulation efficiency and consumption of electricity and gas and became compulsory on 01 June 2013 and the fine for failing to provide one can be as much as €3,000.

 

The energy rating must be displayed in advertising material. The data is purely informative for potential buyers or tenants. In the case of a low rating owners will not be obliged to carry out improvements, unless, that is, they want to move up into a higher category.

 

The certificate will be valid for 10 years and can be provided by professionals such as architects, technical architects, and industrial engineers. Once obtained, the certification must be registered in a newly created registry.

 

All countries in the European Union are compelled to sign up for a 2007 EU Directive on Energy as part of a strategy to deal with climate change and sees the introduction of the energy certificates.

 

Elisa Sarría, technical director of Tinsa, said that properties built since 2007 should in theory already have an energy efficiency certificate. According to the firm’s estimates the majority of homes in Spain would fall in category ‘E’, revealing general poor efficiency levels.

 

There are exceptions. For example, the law will not apply to some tourist accommodation, properties occupied for less than four months a year and properties whose energy consumption is less than 25% of what it would be for a whole year.

 

Many estate agents believe the move will see older properties being better insulated as a poor rating could be used by a buyer to lower the price.

 

This law has been introduced in order to bring Spain up to European levels in the fight to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. It is meant to prove that energy efficient homes can reduce electricity bills and will lead to higher real estate quality and transparency in Spain.

An energy label will be issued by the authorised registration body for each Autonomous Community once the Energy Efficiency Certificate is registered.

 

Submitting an unauthorised EEC will be treated as false documentation and will be subject to penalties. Ensure the certificate is issued by a qualified professional who is registered at the official provincial association (colegio oficial).

Another successful Home Staging Service by OKENDO

Another successful project of OKENDO Home Staging Services: Look for yourself the "Before" and "After" of this 2 bedroom apartment and how it changed.  

Otro proyecto de éxito de OKENDO Home Staging Services: Mira por ti mismo el "Antes" y "Después" de este apartamento de 2 dormitorios y como ha cambiado. 

The seller had the property on the market for more than six month without any results. The owner wanted to sell it quickly and asked us for help. The apartment had great potential due to its layout and location. So we offered out Home Staging Services to the owner in order to sell the property quickly and at the best price possible.

El vendedor intentó vender la vivienda  por otros medios durante 6 meses sin resultado. El propietario quería venderlo rápido y nos pidió ayuda. El apartamento tuvo un gran potencial debido a su distribucción y localización. Le ofrecimos nuestros servicios de "Home Staging" para que la casa se venda rápido y al mejor precio posible.

The property was painted, furniture relocated and fully decorated. After we finished the apartment was sold within 2 hours on the same day it came back onto the market, without any price negotiations!  

La vivienda fue pintada, redistribuido el mobiliario  y completamente decorada. Una vez terminado, la vivienda se vendió en tan solo 2 horas el mismo día que volvió a la venta y sin negociación de precios.

If you want us to stage your property for sale, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Si quieres que acondicionemos tu vivienda para la venta, no dude en contactarnos.

Property Sold Quickly After "Home Staging"

This is another example of a successful sale after our "Home Staging Services" had been applied. 

Our Ref 1415, a 2 bedroom apartment on Avenida de la Purísima in Torrevieja was for sale several  months without any success. After the owner realized that the present market was working against him, so time ticking away, the property still unsold and prices still going down, he agreed to contract our Home Staging Services and the team moved in straight away. After about a week the property looked completely different and the result was a sale within less than a week and ad the asking price.

Look for yourself on the photos below what a difference our Home Staging Services make to a property - before and after. And if you have a property that needs a "face lift" before putting it up for sale, just contact us.

Ref 12-1458: Royal SPA Park on Lomas de Cabo Roig (Orihuela Costa)

We are delighted to present you again with a stunning property on the popular complex “Royal SPA Park” in Lomas de Cabo Roig in Orihuela Costa.

This apartment - our Ref 12-1458 - is distributed over two floors and comprises 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and 1 guest-toilet. The apartment offers on the lower floor a lovely bright living room with dining area and access to a nice terrace that can be fully closed with panoramic sliding doors, a separate kitchen with storage room, and a guest-toilet. On the 2nd floor, we have a spacious bathroom with walk-in shower and a bathtub, and 2 double bedrooms. The master bedroom offers access to a small private terrace. On top we find a private solarium that offers plenty of space and of course sun. Thanks to its orientation, the apartment enjoys mid-day sun and views to the Mediterranean Sea. Including in the price is a private underground parking place.

The complex is best known for its beautiful communal pool and garden area, as well as a unique indoor SPA and pool area, where the neighbours have different saunas and showers and a fully equipped gym. If you are looking for a quiet home only minutes away from the coast, beaches, 4 golf courses and the new shopping area “Zenia Bulevard”, then this apartment is just the right place for you.

Our experience with Okendo in Torrevieja

After three years of marketing our home through several local agents, we decided that we would view some properties to allow us to see what we would be able to buy, when we eventually sold our property.

We viewed properties through Okendo in Torrivieja. From the very beginning the team listened to our requirements and showed us some excellent properties, they never wasted our time showing us inappropriate properties they new instinctively what we were looking for and kept searching for us.

My husband and I thought if Okendo gave so much time and attention to us as prospect buyers, perhaps we should ask Okendo to sell our home. We are so glad that we did.

We gave Okendo sole agency and after visiting our property they gave us an honest and realistic valuation based on their research and the current economic climate. They took artistic photographs and wrote a detailed description, they marketed it both locally and through the internet they also worked with other agents giving our property a broad network of prospective buyers. Their marketing was very effective.

After just a few weeks we had a buyer and our sale completed very quickly.

Okendo took care of all the legal work, they were efficient, they cancelled direct debits and utility bills and made sure all the required documents were in place.

We found the team at Okendo to be honest, friendly, approachable and knowledgeable.

They always kept in touch and gave us feedback. They are truly a dedicated hard working multi lingual agency. They worked hard on our behalf to achieve a positive outcome.

Thank you all at Okendo

Carolynn & George J., February 2013

New Website www.okendo.com

We are happy and proud to present our new website 

www.okendo.com. 

Apart of presenting all our properties we have for sale the new website is meant to be a real source of information for both, seller and buyer. We want to pass on our experience, knowledge and tips to everybody who is considering selling or buying a property in and around Torrevieja. 

We will also publish more videos and photos about Torrevieja: interesting places to visit, its beaches, monuments and museums, the salt lakes, etc. 

The new website is directly linked up with this blog, so you can jump forwards and backwards: from the block to the website and vice versa.

In "About Us" you can meet our team and get to know a little bit more about each individually, who we are and what we do.

So, we hope you like the new Okendo website and please feel free give us any feedback you like and to contact us for whatever question you might have on buying and selling properties in and around Torrevieja.

The website is bilingual, english and spanish and will soon be available also in other languages.

MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!!

Following a holiday in the U.K. we decided that the time had come for us to sell our property in Spain and return to the U.K. to be nearer our family.

We knew people who had taken 4 years to sell their Spanish property and so were prepared for a wait.

Having heard that Okendo had sold properties we decided to place ours in their hands.

Ulrich visited us and arranged for a meeting at his office; this took place on Tuesday 18th September. This was followed by a visit with a Belgian couple on the morning of Friday 21st.

A call from Ulrich the same evening gave the most unexpected news that this couple had agreed to buy at the price we were asking.

The purchaser wished to complete the sale on 24th October and thanks to hard work by Karen (Okendo’s legal expert) this was achieved. We left our property on that day and departed from Spain 2 days later, exactly 8 years since we had arrived there!

With this experience we can only thank all the staff at Okendo for a miracle and Ulrich for his advice on the asking price.

We wish them continued success. YES – MIRACLES DO HAPPEN.

Thanks from Bill & Pat L. who are now happily residing in Northampton.

Increase on Purchasing Tax for Properties

With the arrival of 2013 the VAT (Value Added Tax) for buying a new build home in Spain has gone up to 10%.

The purchasing tax for second hand properties (ITP, Impuesto Transmisiones Patrimoniales) has also gone up in some regions, such as the Comunidad Valenciana from 7% to 8%.

The ITP is regulated by the individual autonomic regions in Spain, wheras the VAT is regulated by the central government. The move was announced some months ago by the regional government. The increase of the ITP by 1% makes the purchase of a house with a price of 100,000€ some 1,000€ more expensive.