Imogen Calderwood
IMAGINE making money in the Andalucian sunshine with your own eco farm, or opening up an organic family restaurant inside a 14th century mill?
Whatever your dream, rural property guru Margarita Taylor can make it a reality with this fabulous finca, set amid the olive grove-speckled hills of the Sierra de Ronda and now up for grabs for €950,000.
As the current owner, Margarita knows every corner of the finca. With 39 hectares of land – five with totally flat river frontage – it offers endless opportunities for anyone looking to launch a new business or create a stunning family home.
“The finca is a blank canvas at the moment, it all depends what you’re looking to do with it,” says American expat Margarita, who has run a property renovation business in Gaucin for more than 40 years.
“With lots of space, and ideal conditions to support almost any business, the opportunities it offers are endless.”
An eco-farm is right at the top of the list of Margarita’s suggestions.
Eco-farming on the coast is growing ever more popular, as increasing numbers of shoppers are looking for fresh, organic produce.
Soil at the finca is in superb condition, she says, and with the Genal river running right through the property, the water supply is second-to-none.
“If people are interested in farming, but inexperienced, I can also help set up and organise the running of the farm. It’s what I’ve been doing for my whole life,” adds Margarita.
“There are three properties already on the finca, including the 14th century mill and a small farmhouse. With only a small amount of work, the house could quickly make a nice, comfortable living space.
“And the mill would make an ideal location for a bar or restaurant. I have a team of stone masons ready to get to work on it.”
Margarita – who speaks English, French, German and Spanish – has an online portfolio of properties that she has also renovated, which can be seen on www.andalucia-verde.com.
“Where I am in Gaucin is absolutely heavenly, it’s a life I would recommend to anyone.”
For more information, call Margarita on 952 117 451.
Hmm, blank canvas sounds like estate agent speak for “totally dilapidated”. It all sounds lovely, the reality is so vastly different. Bars and restaurants in the middle of nowhere frequently close up because of low trade. Farming is also very hard work that not even the Spanish want to do anymore.
Already seems expensive at 950k and how much is needed for her ‘small amount of work to make it a nice comfortable living space, then how much to turn it into an eco farm where due to her knowledge she will set it up etc ‘A bar or restaurant from scratch’ another of her ideas hmmm how far out in the middle of nowhere is it? Is she an expert in the art of persuasion, maybe the clients are seduced in the sun drinking vino tinto! So, in the end she needs a buyer with excess of a million euros to have a punt to invest and probably make very little income if any.
Going by the photos it looks seriously overpriced. Set up an Eco farm, just from scratch…right. Restaurant, the only time anyone will want to risk those roads is Sunday lunch.
We bought and renovated a cortijo around there. Hassle and more hassle. Our friends didn’t want to come see us except lunchtimes because of the state of roads. Nothing to do in the evenings. By the time it was finished we had decided we didn’t want to live there. Fortunately it was in those days when you could actually sell. Made quite a few bob too.
You could get a choice of beautiful chateaux in lots of acres, some with a lake for half the price of that dump.
Something odd here, the one shown in the article is on for 500k, but the only one on for 950k is not that one and, the 950k hasn’t even got a roof nor proper standing walls.
So to buy for 950k, add 100k transaction costs, then renovate for 2-300k if you’re lucky, then get your licences/permits, this is going to cost someone best part of 1.4 million euros to run an isolated bar or restaurant where the only patrons will be 3 expat old soaks, 2 local farmers, an itinerant tramp passing through and 2 stray dogs and a few cats. Between them they will spend 30 euros a week on the busiest weekends and all on booze.
However, put the 1.4 million into the London rental market and get 48k or more a year for doing nothing not even change a barrel, or even to invest in a Spanish City top end rental. Margarita, how much will your fees be to turn this into a productive eco farm and how many 1000’s of euros per year will it then bring in? This sounds like flying a kite, maybe investing in kites would be better.
You are all forgetting two key things; this has 39 hectares (a lot of land) and, if You know the valley you will realise how few decent sized places there are around there… Not to mention it’s less than an hour from Marbella.
This is also not a place for costa couples who need constant entertainment and people around – it’s a very distinct certain sort of buyer.
Good luck Margarita with the sale which I think will come in time
Have looked on the website Jon and the only one showing that photo with that amount of land including the riverside land totalling 44 hectares is advertised at 500k not 950k as in the article. This would make a huge difference as to viability of any project. Perhaps this can be clarified first?
Another on at 950k doesn’t look anything like it because it is a complete shell of a ruin and would cost a fortune to renovate. Confused of Esher!
I don’t think unbuildable land fetches a high price. There is no history of the land being suitable for agriculture except the pie in the sky Eco farm suggestion. If the land was any good it would have been cultivated. Basically it looks like a ruin. I admire the sales agent, an expert in renovation, farming and opening a restaurant. Not many people can juggle so many balls!
“This is also not a place for costa couples who need constant entertainment and people around – it’s a very distinct certain sort of buyer.”
I know the valley Jon, because I was the person who looked at your current property before you even discovered it, back in the late 1990’s. I’m sure it could be made into a lovely place, but my bugbear is with these silly estate agent promotions. Even you say it’s not a place where there are “people around”, so how is any form of business going to work then? Businesses need customers the last time I looked. I have clients (and good friends) in less isolated places who have shut down their restaurant/rural retreat, and a garden centre, in 2014, purely because of a lack of customers. “The opportunities it offers are endless” is, unfortunately, not reality. I would pay no more than 300K for that property. Making it a viable tourist business (with all its laws and regulations) could cost in the order of double that amount, very easily.