Recently I came across a statement from a company I worked for over 20 years ago. I had long forgotten that when I left the job I had a pension fund that was frozen until I was 60. The statement projected my pension would pay out around 1,200gbp per year. Wow! Hardly life-changing….I had heard rumours that one could access these funds now through a scheme called QROPS so, being a bit skint, I took it to a financial advisor here to see what he could do.

Within a few days he had discovered the fund was now worth a considerable sum (not saying how much but it had 4 noughts on the end!). Even better, because I had been living outside UK for over 5 years, the fund could be taken as a lump sum immediately via a third party pension company. Happy days!!  The whole process took about 8 weeks.  Since then 3 of our friends now have payments in the pipeline, one of them has dug up three small pensions from days gone by…what a happy bunny he is!

Obviously it isn´t always in your best interests to take it out but at least you have the option. Terry, our (now) friendly advisor, has this to say:

“We often are asked about personal finances but recently UK pensions, often termed frozen pensions, is by far the most frequent enquiry.  You cannot open local newspapers without seeing advertisements for transferring pensions overseas. QROPS [pronounced Q Rops] is the buzz word with all manner of claims and benefits.

WHAT IS QROPS?

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs [HMRC] allows you to move UK pensions to benefit from International Pensions rules under Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes [QROPS].  If you have a UK Pension you can withdraw 100% OF THE FUND UK TAX FREE if you have been non resident for 5 UK tax years

WHICH PENSIONS CAN BENEFIT FROM QROPS?

UK State pensions cannot be transferred into QROPS. Holders of Personal Pensions, however large or small, including pension drawdown and all privately held arrangements will benefit significantly.  Occupational Pensions such as Civil Service, NHS and other public and private sector final salary schemes can be transferred but sometimes the existing benefits are too valuable. If you are a holder of such a pension you need to talk to our expert personally who can advise the best course of action for your circumstances.

WHAT IF I DON´T WANT TO CASH IT IN?

In many cases, QROPS can provide many benefits over leaving the pension in the UK.  So whether you are 20 years old or beyond pensionable age and you have a UK pension fund, we suggest you review what and where it is held, in order to take advantage of the generous tax savings available via QROPS.

But don’t take any risks. Speak to us and we will give you a full explanation of  QROPS and carry out a FREE, NO OBLIGATION ASSESSMENT of your pension arrangement and to ascertain whether QROPS is right for you.”

So… if you think you may have an old UK pension fund lurking in the background or if you need more information on any aspect of QROPS, contact us and we will pass your details on to Terry

Not good news for the struggling tourist sector here and not good news for those expats who go back for Christmas etc, many of whom will now have to make the long boring journey to Alicante airport. Cheers Michael…!

Apparently RyanAir has the huff because the Murcian Tourist Board “has failed to promote the area” to UK tourists. Personally I think it has more to do with the fact that AirNostrum, a Spanish airline, has been given a nice chunk of promotional money which O´Leary thinks should rightfully have gone to his company, seeing as RyanAir brings 50% of total traffic through Murcia airport. Maybe he has a point but it is the travelling public who will suffer most.

No announcement has been made as to whether the flights will be brought back for next summer.

UPDATE – 15 AUGUST 2010

Now Air Berlin has joined the party announcing it will discontinue flights to Palma de Mallorca from April next year.  Damn and blast…how will I get my Mallorca fix now???

They also cite Murcia Tourist Board for failure to promote the area in Germany, though I fail to see what that has that got to do with flights from Murcia to Mallorca…..Is O´Leary taking his friends home too?

Good on yer Jet2 who are now advertising as “Proud to serve Murcia Airport”

We arrived with plenty of time to spare so took advantage of the excellent practice facilities, were a pyramid of Callaway balls awaited at each position on the driving range, and on the first tee we were presented with named bag badges, nice touches. And so off we went, the  course wanders through the forest with some open holes, interesting par 3´s, a couple of pictureque lakes and a monster 600yard par 5.

The course is built away from housing unlike most courses here where buildings line the fairways, so you get the impression of being back in the English countryside at times.  Despite a first-hole fiasco, we managed a decent round with several of us scoring in the 30´s. Looking at the card afterwards we all seemed to do better on the back nine indicating this is slightly easier than the front. The greens are fast and the ball lands and sticks like it should, on occasions you need to think your way as some of the approaches are quite narrow.

On the whole a very enjoyable course, which seems to be built and run properly. Its not overly long playing-wise but the distances from green to tee make a buggy essential rather than optional. Tee times are 12 minutes apart so no queueing, the staff couldn´t be more helpful and the clubhouse facilities are top quality. The course costs a little more to play than the average around here but this is a superior course and there are some decent summer deals so we recommend you give it a try soon.

Thanks to Andy and Stuart from Fuegos Golf Society for arranging a great day, including breakfast and a hog roast…if only England had whipped the Yanks it would have been a perfect day!!

Get your bucket and spades out because we have some great Blue Flag beaches right here on our doorstep. In Orihuela Costa are Flamenca Beach, Cala Capitan, Cabo Roig, Campoamor, Barranco Rubio and Mil Palmeras. In Torrevieja Los Naufragos and Cala Pietras get the nod and either side there are 3 beaches in Guardamar and 3 more in the Pilar de Horadada area. Marina International and the RCN Marina, both in Torrevieja, are accreditted along with Cabo Roig marina. Great news for these beaches and indeed, the area as a whole….the Town Halls work very hard to achieve the distinction of these awards and the criteria is stiff.

Which brings me to thinking; I bet there are many beaches who probably just missed out on some minor point and I also know there are many superb coves and natural dune areas hereabouts, too small to be classified as beaches but which are little gems in their own right. Maybe they could have two classifications, Blue and, I don´t know, green? Or light blue? Or would that de-value the kudos attached to the Blue Flag? Whatever….just get out and explore!!

Now where did I put my surfboard…??

We at Premier have worked very hard over the winter trying to stay focused on the needs of the changing market, introducing new products and building good working relationships with local agents and other information websites. We would like to put on record a BIG thank you to everyone who has helped us and encouraged us through some tough times.  The results of our efforts are beginning to show and we have every reason to be pleased with ourselves and optimistic about the coming year.

Statistics from our website are particularly encouraging: the number of unique visitors has increased 10-fold in the last 6  months, we are now getting an average of 54 visits per day. There are also signs that we are beginning to attract the elusive Scandinavian winter-over market with Sweden, Germany, Finland and The Netherlands all featuring in our top ten source countries for visitors to the site. Our analysis program shows us 6 of our 10 search phrases rank in the top 30 entries for Google and Yahoo…happy days!

Rental enquiries from all types of advertising are up by 61% on the same time last year and we are converting 26% of these into bookings, not too shabby at all!! We rented out 3 properties long term last month and as of yesterday we have 62 holiday weeks booked out this summer, more than the whole of last year already…

There is always room for improvement and we still need more properties but we firmly believe that right now no-one locally does more to help owners in their pursuit of rentals. We have also expanded our area to include San Pedro, Los Alcazares, Roda and the Polaris Golf resorts. If you have a good quality property and need help renting it, now is the time to act…..

Francisco Camps, the President of Valencia region travelled to the USA to be told the good news by Bill Gates himself and said he hoped Torrevieja will become the new reference centre in Europe for innovations in health. Representatives from Microsoft and various European Health organisations will be in town next month to meet with local officials to get the project under way.

Way to go guys! Wonder if they can do anything innovative with the food??

Time takes its toll on all properties and frequent rentals, while bringing you a welcome second income, often means your house is not in the best shape for your own visits or for attracting new tenants. Now is the time to get it sorted!!

We offer a range of services from a simple Spring Clean & Appliance Check to a Full Refurbishment.

And it needn´t cost the earth. Wherever possible we source good quality second hand furniture and fittings and there is a plentiful supply right now, with so many people selling up and going home. The 4 bed villa with underbuild example we show below took two weeks and the owner was “absolutely staggered, it looks amazing!”. We will do an initial inspection and report for you costing 60€, if you subsequently commission us to carry out the work this fee is deducted from your final bill.

So if your bedroom looks like this….		And you want it to look like this…..

then you need to contact us NOW!!

TO SEE MORE PICTURES OF THIS VILLA RE-VAMP CLICK HERE (pdf file)

TO SEE PICTURES OF A RECENT TERRACE RE-VAMP CLICK HERE (pdf file)

Get the edge on your rental rivals and enjoy your next holiday……[contact-form]

To help you Premier Rentals has launched another new service, slickly named Vamp-It-Up. In short we take your property and give it a thorough overhaul with the sole aim of making it more attractive to potential renters, thus increasing your rental income. As an added benefit you get to enjoy your own time here at leisure instead of spending it “doing up the place”. Everybody wins…

We will shortly be posting Before and After pictures of some properties we have recently refurbished. If you want an independant opinion and cost estimate CONTACT US NOW!!

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The property market in the Valencia region crashed spectacularly in 2009 with over 60% of construction projects postponed or cancelled, due to a combination of lack of buyers, banks withdrawing funding and developers going into administration, leaving thousands of buyers not knowing whether their dream home will ever be completed or indeed, whether they will get their deposits back if they are not. Prices for existing houses in this area have dropped by over a quarter, leaving thousands of owners in negative equity and still paying over the odds for their mortgage. And the rental market has fared no better, there being fewer new arrivals, less disposable income and thousands of properties on the market.

Tourism took a huge knock too with 11 million Brits paying us a visit compared to 17 million in 2008, principally due to the recession and the woefully weak British pound. The exchange rate took its toll too on residents here on fixed incomes  from the UK, who saw their monthly income dive by a third. Bars and restaurants have taken the brunt of El Crisis (as they call the recession here) with the triple whammy of less tourists, residents with less disposable income and those tourists who did arrive opting for cheap takeaways and home cooking. The only winners were the supermarkets who, I understand, made a hefty profit in 2009. Many establishments have closed their doors in the last year and, while some would say there were too many anyway, its always sad to see peoples´ hard work and dreams go up in smoke.

So…worrying times but are we still living the dream? I guess not in the commonly perceived sense of the phrase…work is hard to come by, but then it always has been…businesses are struggling, but then there is a worldwide recession on…people stuck in negative equity, its happened before…rising prices, its still cheaper to live here than in UK. On the other hand, whilst its cold here right now, we know we will get a summer, by the end of March we will be in shorts and T-shirts, the roads are jam-free, the pace of life is relaxed, people are generally more friendly and happy, nobody works on Sundays, beer is cheap and you can still smoke in bars.

Its not quite “The Dream” but on the whole I´d rather be here than there….

Salud!

TO SEE ALL NEWS ITEMS CLICK HERE

PLUS..

For non-Quara owners…If you book your tee times at Villamartin, Las Ramblas or La Finca on-line its on average 5€ cheaper..book via www.grupquara.com. I doubt you can combine the offers but i´ll certainly give it a try and let you know.

PLUS..

Keep an eye on the noticeboards at the courses…they often have open competitions, anyone can enter as long as you are registered with the Spanish Golf Federation and green fees are often discounted, plus you have a chance of some good prizes, typically green fees or shop vouchers. Worst case scenario you get a cheap round of golf. Best case scenario you win too…I recently entered a torneo at Las Ramblas, green fee was 30€ and I came third and won 3 green fees… Good day at the office!!

TO SEE ALL NEWS ITEMS CLICK HERE

We love this event! The Spanish have warmed to the idea now and come down to the front to cheer on all the runners, the tourists stand open-mouthed as their pleasant Sunday stroll along the beach is invaded by hundreds of Santas, huffing and puffing their way along or even just walking and chatting away…. Of course its all for a good cause, the cancer charity A.E.C.C has benefitted from around 26,000€ from this event and once all the sponsorship money is in this year, they anticipate cracking the 30,000€ mark.

In addition to our sponsorship money for the Santa Run, Premier organised a race-night and Christmas quiz at PB´s bar in Los Dolses, raising another 216€ for the cause. Thanks to Phil and the Birds, to Bryn and Carol, our bookmakers, and to everyone who took part.

The Santa Run is organised by Steve Nyland who, since his own bone marrow transplant at an early age, has raised thousands of euros for many different charities and taken part in several World transplant athletics and cycling events winning medals for England. A great guy!!

The A.E.C.C is a national charity which aims to reduce cancer fatalities through early detection. Funded solely from donations, they run screening programmes for breast, cervical and prostate cancer, which can be cured or controlled if detected early enough. The local branch is run by Alan and Jackie James, themselves recovered cancer victims, who work sooo hard all year round to raise money for the cause. If you want to find out more about the work of the A.E.C.C or want to organise an event or make a donation, have a look at their website http://www.aecctorrevieja.org/

TO SEE ALL NEWS ITEMS CLICK HERE

All this seems to indicate that now is the time to buy…we know for a fact that there are crazy bargains to be had right now and we know of buyers offering way below the asking price and getting it…if you have been waiting for the right time to buy, all the indications are that this is it!!

Speaking to Estate Agent friends here all the signs are that investors and bargain hunters have started a mini buying spree and they are already running out of bargain basement properties to sell.  If you are interested in investment opportunities contact us now!!

Spanish property market recovery?

Latest figures show an increase in Spanish property sales for two months in a row, May and June. However house prices are still at their lowest level for years as buyers are primarily in the cash/investor sector, snapping up bargains in the distressed and repossessed market.  Estate agents warn it will still be some time before we see prices begin to rise…..that won´t happen until the banks start to lend again, probably not until next year or even 2011.

Good news for the rental market though, more people than ever need or want to rent their home in the sun and demand is still high, so if you are reasonable with your price there is a good chance of long-term rental over the winter. We are also seeing an increase in holiday enquiries for next year,  many have  foregone their holiday this year but are keen to get early bargains to ensure they don´t miss out next year.

Good prices is the key to rental bookings at the moment…our advice is to do whatever you can now to get those weeks booked…a bird in the hand….!! If you need help or advice with long term or holiday rental give us a call or email us

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The reality, however, is not so easy. There are two main issues. The first obvious and biggest problem is you may live 2000 miles away..how will you deal with any problems that may arise? Secondly, the current recession has resulted in a massive increase in available properties, with the inevitable consequence that prices have plummetted. How do you attract potential renters to your property and achieve a reasonable return?

Whether you are looking for long term rental for regular income or holiday rentals to help with the bills, the basic rules are the same. Here are our top 10 tips

1. Price your property realistically

2. Kit your property out with good quality furniture and fixtures, with matching bed sets and towels

3. Employ a local, legal, and reliable agency to act on your behalf

4. Ensure you are legally covered with Public Liability and Contents Insurance

5. Keep it simple but homely; remove personal items such as photos, souvenirs etc, if possible keep a locked cupboard or room to store these items

6. Pictures say a thousand words, think “Showhouse” when you present your property – lay tables, put out sunbeds, decorate patios

7. Install aircon, heating, UK TV, grilles, alarm and safety equipment such as fire extinguishers and smoke alarms

8. Provide as many extras as you can afford e.g. Internet access, Playstation, pool toys, books & games, welcome pack

9. Research other similar properties in your area and be realistic about your rental goals
   

10. Work together with a local, reliable agency to identify your target market and use a variety of local and international advertising methods. You may want to think about targetting specialist markets such as walking groups, disabled, people with young children or retired winter-overs.
    

For personal advice give us a call or email and we´ll be happy to discuss your own circumstances and how we can help [contact-form]

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The rest will belong to those poor unfortunates who couldn´t get their phones registered in time due to the chaotic registering system whereby one made several trips to the relevant office and queued for hours only to find the computer systems were down (it took me 4 attempts). Predictably, during the last fortnight before switch-off you couldn´t even get near the phone shops..luckily i started my quest in September and finally got it done end of October, it took all of 3 minutes…

Some people I know just gave up and bought a new one, so I guess some of those 30,000 will now be in the bin. The next question is what happens to all the credit already paid into those unregistered phones? So far none of the suppliers seem able to answer that one.. quelle surprise!!

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Things have settled down here, most people have switched to Torresat, Simulsat or have clubbed together to get a communal dish (more about those later). Still can´t get sports at home but soap fans are happy. Those bars who haven´t got the horrendously expensive Sky system are managing to get most sporting events using a combination of Torresat, ShowSports and Spanish TV. Occasionally the commentary comes in Spanish or Arabic (?!) but hooray, we get to see all the goals, tries, record-breaking runs and 12 foot putts so alls well with the world!

The latest rumour has it that Sky and other exponents of pay-to-view, including the BBC, have been found by the European courts to be acting illegally by withholding rights to view throughout Europe and they will be obliged to un-protect their frequencies in the near future. Maybe the wailers were right then?! Time will tell….

For now I´ll finish with a word of caution to those thinking of getting a communal aerial. We were lulled into the “one-off payment” idea, with the promise of 200 channels and the dish being installed in the communal grounds. Two months down the line and we have only about 10 channels we can watch properly, over half don´t work at all and the rest are pop music, shopping or Muslim channels. We get BBC1, ITV1 and some other ITV stuff, all repeats…apparently, being the furthest house from the dish means the cable is too long, weakening the signal..am not convinced. On hindsight we should have withheld payment until we got a satisfactory system, now we have a fight on our hands to get our money back. Can´t see that happening can you?

Paying monthly has its advantages, if you don´t get the service you just cancel the direct debit and go elsewhere…Job done! Meanwhile I guess its down to the beach for some hookey DVDs to tide us through the winter… Pass the remote!

The weather´s great but can I watch Corrie?

Receiving English TV channels in Spain used to be a simple affair..you got a small dish and a receiver box installed for around 400€, coughed up 20€ a month to the supplier and got 30 odd channels including all the terrestial channels plus Sky Sports, Sky Movies, UK Gold, History channel etc etc. Happy days!!

The problem was it was all illegal so when Telmicro, the biggest supplier in the area, was shut down in August 2008 by the Guardia and the directors thrown in jail, it goes without saying there was pandemonium amongst the British expats living here. Not being big telly-watchers and what with it being summer and all, we took the high ground and looked on with smug amusement as the cafes, bars and urbanisations buzzed with rumour, rage and conjecture. “We are EU citizens, we have a right to watch English telly!” they wailed…..er..no, you are in Spain dear!!

We weren´t unaffected however, as for some reason beyond me, British holiday-makers need to watch telly on holiday, meaning several of our rental properties were now deficient of an essential item with which to attract the tourists…So we set about finding alternative suppliers, the next biggest company was Torresat, who cleaned up their act, deleted all their illegal channels and replaced them with about 80 new ones, needless to say they had a field day over the next few months. They still had their problems however, as they had insufficient antennas in place so if you weren´t in line-of-sight of one you couldn´t get a signal….Plus they were no longer broadcasting Sky or any of the associated channels. This was a big problem for the local bars who relied on big sports events to fill seats. Most have now bought new systems but it must have made a huge hole in their profits.

On the domestic front new companies have sprung up everywhere offering packages of all sorts from big community installations to 1m dishes from Portugal of all places! Still we weren´t tempted although winter was coming on and inevitably we would start to miss cosy evenings in with David Attenborough, Jeremy Clarkson et al. We were rewarded for our patience when Simulsat bought out the remains of Telmicro at the end of 2008, all we needed was a new box and were were up and running again, albeit with restricted channels. So now we have English TV and sometimes we can get sports on the Spanish channels. If we can´t then we have to go watch it in a bar…Shame…Cheers!!

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Guest of honour this time out was Pablo Riestra, Director of Golf at Roda who generously sponsored the event and presented the prizes to the winning teams, the par 3 sharpshooters and the long drivers. Everyone agreed the course was hugely enjoyable, being in excellent condition and to quote the winning team captain “a pretty tough track”. Muchas gracias to Pablo and his helpful, friendly staff….this is how golf courses should be run…

The competition was fierce and open but Peysu Resales got to grips with it early and emerged runaway winners, with OPI Rentals coming in second on countback. Many thanks to Don Reynolds and Stuart Davey from Blue Sky Golf for providing the refreshments and also to our sponsors – Roda Golf, Designer Brands Golf Clothing, The Great Golf Company.  

After a lightning wash and brush up we reconvened in all our glory for a three course dinner with wine flowing and entertainment provided by Eduardos. We held a raffle and auction with great prizes including a break at La Manga, an inflatable jet-ski, a light aircraft flight and a basket of whacky wine donated by Wine by Design.

 Overall the day proved extremely enjoyable and successful raising a fantastic 3770€ for the A.E.C.C, the local cancer charity who do such good work with screening and early diagnosis of cancer as well as helping the terminally ill and their families.

To find out more about the work of the A.E.C.C visit their website. If you wish to organise an event or make a donation call their office on Wednesday mornings on 965 716 679 or email them  at info@aecctorrevieja.org