Great news for anyone who has bought property in Ronda or who plans to buy property in Spain, the new Eroski shopping center which has been talked about for the last few years looks like it may finally happen.
This is a big deal in Ronda because high unemployment will be somewhat alleviated as construction gets underway, scheduled for the beginning of ground clearing in March, but the entire project could take as much as three years to build.
The ground to be used comprises the old football ground in Ronda, which also includes the area below it that used to be the old fair ground, and some vacant land to the side that fronts onto one of the two Mercadona supermarkets. Across the ring road is one of the old Supersol hypermarkets and the new fair ground.
The plan is to build a shopping center bigger than the La Cañada center at Marbella, and also lease back some of the ground level to the town hall for a new transport center. The Supersol across the ring road will be closed and the land rezoned.
Ronda Ayuntamiento have been dragging their heels on this for a while as they tried to get other developers interested, I think they were hoping to get some competition, unfortunately Ronda isn't exactly a main town in Andalusia and Eroski have been the only bidders.
The new shopping center is going to hit central retailers quite hard since most shoppers from the surrounding villages are likely to go directly to the new center where adequate parking is promised.
If you're not familiar with Ronda, the old football ground is about 1.5km out of the center, making it far enough away that older people without transport won't want to walk, but Ronda is quite quickly expanding with projects the population may exceed 45,000 by 2015.
Investing in property for a holiday home or long term gain may actually turn out to be a wise move now, and there is an over supply of apartments and townhouses right now, most of which have been built in the last 2-3 years. Many are being sold at 70% their original asking price, with potential for more price reductions as the crisis in Spain takes hold.
I'm aware of several expat property owners being forced to cut their losses and move away from Ronda, I'd estimate as many as 50-60 properties that have been renovated to northern European standards will become available within the next six months, and very few of them will be bought by Spaniards so the canny cash investor prepared to pay in sterling rather than Euros may pick up a bargain compared against future values.
