A new David Lloyd Resort opening this month in south-east Spain is offering holiday homes for sale on a shared-ownership basis at prices as low as £24,000 with a potential for investment benefit.
The location is the Desert Springs Resort in south-east Spain, Europe’s only international award-winning luxury family resort and championship desert golf course in the Almanzora region of Almeria.
Former British tennis ace David Lloyd earmarked Desert Springs as an ideal location for the expansion of his business during a visit in July last year. In a radio interview with Jon Gaunt of the Sun online radio station Sun Talk, he said that he had been encouraged to visit Desert Springs by his friend Sir Ian ‘Beefy’ Botham who owns a holiday home there. David praised what he described as “a great resort” with good year-round weather and easy access from the UK.
Now, through The David Lloyd Resort at Desert Springs, properties can be purchased on a shared-ownership basis for the first time in the resort. They range from two-bedroom apartments to three-bedroom townhouses set in mature gardens. Some of the properties overlook the resort’s 72 par 18-hole Indiana golf course designed by former Great Britain and Ireland Golf Team Captain Peter McEvoy who was inspired by the desert courses of Arizona and California.
Simon Coaker, sales and marketing manager at Desert Springs, says that David Lloyd’s ownership scheme is attractive because it is based on a shared asset purchase between a set number of individuals.
“David Lloyd Resorts uses this principle to provide individuals with the opportunity to share in, and enjoy, exclusive property ownership that may previously have been unobtainable as a sole investor,” he said.
Explaining how the scheme operates, Nick Lawrence, sales and marketing director of David Lloyd Resorts, said: “Each property is divided into 13 shares, and sold at three different price levels which are based on seasonality. Shared owners hold a share in a chosen property based on the amount of equity invested, but all share equal occupancy rights. Each share entitles the owner to four weeks usage each year. These are two weeks reserved from a choice of price bands and two ‘freedom’ weeks enabling owners to explore the flexibility of the David Lloyd Resorts exchange programme by staying in our properties in Phuket, Canada, the West Indies, Turkey and Cyprus.”
He added: “Our business plan for Desert Springs is to sell each property after 10 years and, at that stage, return the proceeds to the 13 owners in a manner which is proportionate to their original equity investment.”
Among resort facilities which appealed to David Lloyd during his visit last year, and which property owners and visitors to Desert Springs can enjoy, is the Tennis Academy which includes two brand new tennis courts, two new paddle courts and a beach volley court. The tennis and paddle courts are finished with surfaces designed to give high bounce and add to the ease and pleasure of the game.
Also open is the Sierra Sports and Fitness Club with facilities for football, cricket and a gymnasium. Both the football pitch – inaugurated by Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Geoff Hurst, with its floodlights, shower and changing facilities, and referee changing room – and the cricket pitches are popular with school and clubs for pre-season warm weather training.
Places to eat at Desert Springs include the resort’s international award-winning El Torrente Restaurant and the family restaurant and bar within the Crocodile Club with its pools, sun lawns and sand play bunkers
Desert Springs www.almanzora.com
David Lloyd Resort www.davidlloydresorts.com/desert_springs.php