Major Coastal Areas

The popularity of Spain’s coastal areas is undiminished. The climate and amenities are at their best. Although heavily populated in the summer by visitors these areas are the traditional ground for foreign property purchasers and therefore have many letting opportunities.

Case Study – A Special Place

Visitors heading inland from the brash coastal strip of the Costa Blanca are dismayed to find that little English is understood and none spoken except by the ten resident foreigners in the small community of Castell de Castells. Why should the other 500 Spanish inhabitants even consider another language, as its knowledge is not a prerequisite of a successful rural life?

It is a special place because it has so much history. It is not overrun, as this is impossible in its narrow streets that are virtually impenetrable to modern vehicles and its hills that are exhausting to those on two feet only.

In spring Castells is seen at its best. Wild orchids, rosemary, fennel, thyme and sage grow in abundance. The microclimate achieved from its setting in an amphitheatre of high mountains ensures a change of colour at sunset as the veil of heat lifts from the town. The parched hills of the surrounding sierra turn from brown to green and the distant ridge of mountains to dark blue.

Castells is an hour and a half from Alicante and Valencia but viewed from any perspective it is light years away. The surrounding mountains hold castles agonisingly close to their precipitous tops, looking down, watching over a landscape of high sierras. The Moors have been here too, as many a remaining relic is now testimony to the old Arabic masters.

The main church sits in the city square, which has a bar and a shop. There are a few other places to spend Euros – more shops, a pension, a hotel and a weekly market – but they are for the needs of everyday living as there are no tourists, and no disco bars or wild parties take place here.

At dusk the old village falls strangely silent apart from the old church clock ringing the time. Doors studded with brass buttons silently close. The reflected light of the occasional television screen now flickers in the interiors of houses deliberately kept dark from the invading sunlight during a hot day.

It is a village being regenerated. It has passed through a phase of the young leaving for work on the Costas, for the homing instinct among the young locals remains strong. Family ties remain. As the old die, laid to rest in the small hillside cemetery surrounded by wild flowers, their houses are highly prized for renovation and not easy to come by. The result is that empty ruins are as rare as eagles looking for prey on the hillsides. Houses in the cobbled, narrow back streets give sun and shade in the searing heat as their occupants sit outside and talk, for this is a friendly place where politeness, courtliness and happiness are in order.

The views from houses to the mountains are spectacular and while most foreign homebuyers concentrate on the town and its surroundings, new invaders are searching in some of the far flung villages of Famorca, Facheca, and Tollos: three pretty, high, remote places all within a few minutes drive underneath the high tops of the Sierra de la Serrella which is only shared by rabbits, hares, partridges and quails.

The Spanish residents are sons and daughters of the land, seeking a living from the olive and almond trees while their brothers and sisters down the valley tend to the orange and lemon groves. The quaint green tractors with handlebar steering are quieted for several days as an annual fiesta to celebrate the harvest takes place each December.

What about the ten foreign family residents? They are not your average people, not even your average ex-pats. Villages like Castells will always attract more lucid, outgoing people, at ease with themselves, free from the distractions of modern life and most certainly characters.