Velez Malaga

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firsttango
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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby firsttango » Sun Sep 04, 2016 5:05 pm

Paulinmalaga, you'll soon work out the areas to avoid on your walkabout, the drug areas will be pretty obvious...the smell alone should be a big clue. There are some lovely areas in Velez, it will be interesting to hear about your personal findings so please keep us updated.

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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby alisonb » Sun Sep 04, 2016 9:10 pm

Paulinmalaga - we love Velez, it's about 15 minutes from us and we visit 3 or 4 times a week. You said you're planning to walk the town top to bottom. That's definitely the right direction as if you do bottom to top, you'll be so worn out you won't know where you are! I agree with other posters about feeling safe in the centre. Even when Spain won the World Cup and the whole town was celebrating in the streets, there was no fighting or trouble that we saw. The atmosphere was brilliant and I wouldn't have had a problem being there on my own
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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Paulinmalaga » Sat Sep 10, 2016 12:00 pm

Just an update. We took our planned walk to discover the various areas of Velez Malaga in our attempt to familiarise and find an area that appealed to us. A brief drive through the area Free at Last pointed out (Carabanchel) did live up to their description and stopping to investigate further was immediately discounted. We parked up in the open air carpark in the centre of town ate afternoon and headed off on foot in still very hot conditions. We broke up our walk as you do with several pit stops Madrid Bar, Bar La Pena and a few others whose name escapes. Several areas stood out for us as interesting and with potential of exploring further and will be given to relevant local estate agents to see what if anything is available in these areas. Namely the area near the football club and what appeared to be a court building, several little areas close to the town hall, a lovely square with a café above a Mercadona supermarket, and a few streets near the theatre. We did find the aforementioned “arch” leading into an area called La Villa and had a good wander and stumbled upon a street with a house that was called Casa Pintura sadly it was closed but looked interesting and had great mosaic tiling outside, continued up the hill but it did deteriorate rapidly in both appearance and general atmosphere, and a few unsavoury looking characters were watching our every move so we did an about turn and eventually turned up on a street with a few interesting houses being renovated Calle Salvador Rueda. Time and energy ran out so ended up having a few Tapas at bar close to the car park , cant remember name but was near a hardware shop. Back next week to walk the areas we missed. All in all a very worthwhile venture. So far Velez has presented many lovely areas and as to be expected in a town of its size several not so pleasant.
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Free at Last
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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Free at Last » Sat Sep 10, 2016 1:15 pm

Calle Salvador Rueda is a nice street, but it's quite noisy. Firstly because there is quite a lot of traffic rattling over those cobblestones, and secondly because it's on the route for the majority of the Semana Santa processions which go on past 3.00 am with their wailing music and heavy drum beats (although that's only one week a year1).

La Casa de La Pintora is very nice, it is the studio and gallery of a respected local artist, Mari-Carmen Fernandez Rivera, who is a lovely lady. It is normally open in the mornings from Tuesday to Friday, but she has been suffering some ill health recently so is not always able to be there. She designed and created the mural on the front of the house herself.

https://es-es.facebook.com/lacasadelapintora

An Irish couple bought the house next door to La Casa de La Pintora last year, as a holiday home, and they love it here.

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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Paulinmalaga » Sat Sep 10, 2016 3:14 pm

Thank you Free at Last for the info and FB link will have a look. I take your point regarding the noise from the procession having experienced similar in Malaga City a few years ago. I must admit I didn't notice any cobblestones on the street Salvador Rueda?
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quebin
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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby quebin » Sat Sep 10, 2016 5:03 pm

Paulinmalaga wrote: We did find the aforementioned “arch” leading into an area called La Villa and had a good wander and stumbled upon a street with a house that was called Casa Pintura sadly it was closed but looked interesting and had great mosaic tiling outside, continued up the hill but it did deteriorate rapidly in both appearance and general atmosphere, and a few unsavoury looking characters were watching our every move so we did an about turn .
Appearances can be misleading they're completely harmless,mostly very friendly and occasionally provide authentic Flamenco entertainment. Real Spain.

I hope i'm allowed to post this link!
Read the reviews of a rental property, owned by an American ,that is just up the street from Casa Pintura.

https://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/accommodation/p8073056

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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Paulinmalaga » Sun Sep 11, 2016 12:51 pm

I totally agree that appearances can be deceiving and in all probability they are as you say all harmless, but nonetheless first impressions are often a good benchmark when looking for a location that you intend for long term living. I’m sure that for as your link to holiday reviews show that that particular rental property suited the visitors for a brief two week span, even the owners have only ever stayed there for a three week period. We like many I’m sure have stayed in places on holiday which we enjoyed immensely but would never wish to live there full time. The flamenco entertainment from locals would agreed be charming but for me after the third or forth time it would grate and simply become a nuisance. To us the area just didn’t appeal, it looked a bit run down and scruffy. It felt like an enclave and a bit claustrophobic in all honesty. Also the noise of the mopeds driven by very young looking kids around the narrow walkways would I imagine drive many bonkers, we narrowly avoided two but the noise was horrendous. As I said we saw many areas on our walkabout and most gave a far better first impression. But that is only our opinion.
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Wicksey
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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Wicksey » Sun Sep 11, 2016 1:29 pm

Stick to your instincts, Paul! We always laugh at Place in the Sun who obviously visit pueblos in the siesta when there is not a soul around, and the 'buyers' always say how lovely and quiet the area it! Try going back at 8pm or later when everybody is up and about, TVs and music is blaring out of the houses, the locals are having a shouted conversation whilst standing 100m away from each other and the dreaded motos are screaming through the streets.

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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Paulinmalaga » Wed Sep 21, 2016 4:05 pm

Narrowed the search and have four properties to look at on Friday and Saturday, two discovered on another walkabout and two via an inmobiliara also two to see in between Mercadona and Hospital area next week.
Did have a walk around "La Gloria", not as bad as we'd been lead to believe, but still not for us. Did meet by chance outside a bar near the funny trees at the bottom end of town a very informative couple who'd just sold their house in "La Villa" saying the noise had just got to much for them and it often felt as if they were living in a war zone. But had nothing bad to say about the town and its locals which was nice to hear.
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Globalista
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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Globalista » Mon Sep 26, 2016 8:00 am

Very interesting thread. Any comments on the renidero area very near the salud norte? Would one need heating in winter?

Free at Last
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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Free at Last » Mon Sep 26, 2016 8:13 am

You will need some heating in winter no matter where you live. We generally need it from mid/late November until March. A portable gas heater suffices for us, if you like to be very warm a wood burner or pellet stove would be better, if it's possible to fit one in the property.

The Reñidero area is OK, very convenient for all facilities but C/Reñidero itself is very busy with traffic. The Semana Santa processions don't go down Reñidero but they do go down C/Las Monjas which runs pretty much parallel to it so some noise from those might be experienced, same with the Féria de Dia for the Real Féria de San Miguel which will be happening later this week as they sometimes have bars set up in the street playing loud music (during the afternoons, not at night) , at the lower end of Reñidero closest to the town centre.

Globalista
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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Globalista » Wed Sep 28, 2016 1:40 am

Many thanks FAL!

Free at Last
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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Free at Last » Wed Oct 05, 2016 11:47 am

Being compared to a war zone or the Wild West :lol: obviously isn't affecting the housing market in La Villa. As well as the house sale referred to earlier I've just heard that another one only about 70m from me has been sold within 3 days of being listed with the agent, to Irish buyers (and the owner didn't sell at a loss). I did wonder why the property hadn't made it onto the agents' website after the owner had told me he was putting it on the market, and now I know, they never got the chance!

Quite a contrast from some areas which people fancy are "better" and they list their houses for sale at ridiculously inflated prices and then have to take them off the market 2 years or more later as surprise, surprise there has been no interest.

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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Paulinmalaga » Wed Oct 05, 2016 1:31 pm

If the property is cheap enough it will sell whatever the area is like and to be honest if you get offered a three bedroom house for €60k you can pretty much hazard a guess as to the area. I fail to see why you needed to mention the buyers were Irish ……So what? I only remarked on La Villa due to genuine feedback from people who’d experienced living there, nothing personal against the area. Sorry if it hit a nerve. Even one of the Property agents we are using who is a local steered us away from that area, which speaks volumes.
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Free at Last
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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Free at Last » Wed Oct 05, 2016 4:05 pm

The house which has just sold so quickly was not a 3 bed house for €60k, it is smaller than that and the asking price was over €70k, as a matter of fact. The nationality of the buyers was mentioned simply to demonstrate that not all foreign buyers shy away from the area, even if you do. When we were buying, a local agent steered us away from the area too, but we liked the house we bought more than any of the ones he showed us, and we haven't regretted buying it.

Funny actually, you mentioned you liked the streets close to the Town Hall in an earlier post. There's been a house for sale in one of those streets, which people who live there often seem to think is the bee's knees, for quite some time - priced at under €100k. Still nobody's interested, it seems.

You also mentioned the area between Mercadona and the hospital, which would be El Tomillar I suppose. We know a couple who rented there for six months, but didn't like it as the neighbours were noisy. The traffic along the main road, Avenida del Sol, is awful as it's used as a rat run by people wanting to avoid driving through the centre of Torre del Mar, plus you get at least 8 buses per hour along it, more at certain times of the day, not to mention ambulances going to and from the hospital and even helicopters now that the hospital has it's own landing pad. They tried renting for another 6 months in another area in the centre of Vélez, a flat area. But strangely enough the place they ended up buying was La Villa, because they saw a house and fell in love with it and the views they have.

Horses for courses. I just like to see a balanced picture presented, not just all one sided.

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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Paulinmalaga » Wed Oct 05, 2016 4:44 pm

Balanced? Sorry but reading your posts on this thread are anything but. You have picked on the areas I said we were looking at and slated each one for varying reasons. I'm sorry but I can only form my opinion from actually walking the area of La Villa, which I did on more than one occasion and listening to people who have lived there and taking into account the knowledge of local people, sadly all were scathing about the area. From also talking to local agents there are also houses in both La Villa and La Gloria that have been on the market for years even at very low prices. Many of which are a bit circumspect in the paperwork dept.

We did actually rent a house for 6 months just off ave del Sol called Ave Ruta Del Vino and suffered none of what you mention, yes the road was at certain times busy (ave del sol) as you'd expect any main road to be, but to me more preferable than moto's blasting noisily along narrow pedestrian streets and flamenco guitarists wailing away late at night, also the streets were always free of stray dogs and their mess!

Also in fairness we did meet a lady who lives near the town hall who hates it, says its too quiet at night and she's looking to move to an area with more "nightlife".

As you say its horses for courses
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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Gloops » Wed Nov 09, 2016 7:42 pm

Spent a couple of hours walking around Velez Malaga only last week. Its an experience I will not be repeating.

Unless there is a specific reason to live in that area, I would seriously consider looking elsewhere.

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peteroldracer
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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby peteroldracer » Wed Nov 09, 2016 9:16 pm

Velez is a big city, and even an Olympic race walker would barely scratch the surface in more than a couple of hours.
Perhaps a question of differing tastes?
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Re: Velez Malaga

Postby Inglis1 » Tue Dec 05, 2017 11:07 am

This is a very useful thread. We are planning to buy in Spain and have visited V-M twice. It seems a good location close to the beach at Torre Del Mar & good facilities. But we ideally are looking for a property where we can park up our camper so guess it will have to be out of town.


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