Some questions about the area - Help please

Hello everyone!

Please forgive, if this is asked elsewhere, the site is hugely helpful on much of the minutiae, but I wan't to ask a few things in one go

We've been looking at Costa Blanca to relocate and most homes we see that take our fancy are around Quesada / Rojales and Greater Torrevieja in general.

So, the questions are (and bear with me)

About Quesada:
Are there any areas with dubious Habitation certification?
Are there areas to avoid?
Are all areas under the beady eye of an Urbanisation President or are there areas adopted by the council?
Which areas are most cosmopolitan?- We want to live in a mix of nationalities, ages and lifestyles rather than ghettos
Can we walk to most local services within the community (Health, retail, restaurants, sporting etc)
What are public transport links like to the wider area?
Are all utility services connected to the main grids?

Lots of questions, like I said - sorry!

Thanks, Paul

Hi Paul,
We have moved your post into its own topic as it could be lost in the other topic.

Hope you get lots of helpful answers.

Jan

Here is my two-pennorth...`

Habitation certificates should be something you abogado sorts out...

Areas to avoid will be determined on your wants. No place is bad in Quesada... just some are more suitable than others ... for you....

Some Presidents are not so good but many are brilliant... we have a great one. It`s compulsory for an urbanization to have a president. If no one volunteers then names of everyone on the urbanization goes into a a hat and one is pulled out. Someone IS going to be president, like it or not..!!
In that case someone who is drawn out might not want to be president so could do a minimalist job... but usually someone will volunteer and be good at it....There are some bad stories about, but few will comment when everything is going well..

Pretty much all of Quesada is cosmopolitan... some more so than others... but Rojales town and Benimar are pretty muched mixed...

You will have to look carefully and ask the right questions for your location. Not everyone wants to be next to a busy , noisy bar. The centre of Quesada is very busy all year long and all the services you could need are close by. Rojales and Benijofar are okay for services..but if you choose to live on the top of the urbanization there are few services and a just a few bars and one supermarket...Rojales and the centre of Quesada is a bit far to walk... especially back up the hill after a night out..

Public transport will take you most local places, but as Martin said, they are not very often so get a time table from the Rojales Town hall..Taxis are okay ..but remember if you go out of the area they can`come and pick you up... so you can get a Rojales taxi to take you to Torrevieja for about 20€ but you will have to get a Torrrevieja taxi back... maybe 22€..

All Quesada has clean water and now natural gas is being put in many areas...

Please don`t be worried about asking... that`s what we do... if we don`t know, we will say so and someone else will know...

..

Quesada itself should have no problem (like other areas) with habitation certificates. The place was "built" by Justo Quesada and he split the town into two and made his son and daughter responsible for half each. Other builders have to satisfy them that all is legal. Unlike other places, I have never heard of a habitation certificate problem in this area.

There are plenty of properties not on urbanisations. Opinions vary on urb or not but, if you are new to the area, it is a good way to meet people and get some answers to what is in the area. Plus community pools and gardens will be maintained for you, ideal if you are getting on a bit.

I've heard the odd muttering about power crazy presidents but extremely rare and are generally got rid of as soon as poss. Always good to ask a neighbour when looking around.

Areas are diverse. Some you need a car to get anywhere and others a short walk to places. Others are on very steep hills and others virtually flat so it's a good idea to recce the area to see what suits you.

(When we first came to look at Quesada some 10 years ago, we drove up to the arches by Don De and promptly turned around and left. Some 3 years later we were taken to a different area and decided this was the place to be so have a good look around).

We don't have natural gas in our area of Dona Pepa 2 as yet. We did use a fliter on our water system to start but now drink it straight from the tap (via a bottle in the fridge) and it's fine. No need to lug bottles of water back from the supermarket but, of course, wherever you are a change of water can upset you a bit to start.

Have a good time looking around. Quesada is truly an all year round town.

There are a lot of good points and comments here that should already have given you lots of food for thought, but maybe I can add a couple of points to the discussion.
First of all, as Marcliff says, there shouldn't be any problem with habitation certificates in general on Quesada. The whole area is urbanised and there aren't any "hotspots" of illegal builders. Just watch for extensions to a property that haven't got permission etc. but your lawyer will check out the paperwork for any potential house anyway and they will need the habitation certificate to go to the notary for completion.
On the point of presidents, this refers to whether a property is on a community or not. They are all on Urbanisations, but some are on a community and not others. Communities are set up (with presidents) when there are elements shared between neighbours, such as swimming pools, non adopted access roads etc. if there's no shared elements then normally there's no community and therefore no president. The non community houses are normally detached villas on plots of 300m2 or more, so your budget and search criteria should determine whether these are something you'll be looking at, or whether a community with a president is for you. To be honest, i've never had any issues with community presidents, even though I've heard the usual stories, so don't be too afraid of this.
Close proximity to shops and services etc is something you should take on a case to case basis, but there's plenty of commercials around, so again this shouldn't be an issue, dependent upon just how close you want to be to them.
Most of Quesada is very mixed in nationalities, due mainly to the fact that it's been over 40 years in build, so many different markets have come and gone in that time, although the British and Dutch markets have been consistently strong, so you'll find a lot of both nationalities in Quesada.
Public transport is almost nonexistent, but can be entertaining if you manage to find something resembling a bus, but count on owning or hiring a car if you're here.
As for mains services.. Water and electricity are never a problem, always connected or available. Mains gas is making it's way around the urbanisation now and most areas either have it or will do soon. Mains drains are also connected to all properties except for the occasional old villa in one of the original parts of the urbanisation.
I hope this is helpful, but the main thing to do is your home work and this forum is one of the best places for that.
Good luck and enjoy your search

keep it up

Thanks everyone. Is Quesada town centre the bit just inside the arches or is there another section?

Yes that is the town centre as most people call it. There is everything you need in this small but nice area. I live within a 10 min walk from here on the Benijofar side of the border, unfortunately our property is up for sale due to personal reasons and I want to go back to UK. This has nothing to do with the area we live, I find Atalaya Park a great place with everything in walking distance. You will love the area wherever you decide to buy so good luck.

pdlespana wrote:Thanks everyone. Is Quesada town centre the bit just inside the arches or is there another section?

Hi,
As Lizmoore has said above, yes that is the town centre of Quesada but there are other 'sections' which are also part of Quesada - Sorry if you know this but just to clarify, if you see properties described as being in the following areas you will still be pretty close to Quesada town too:

Dona Pepa 2 is about 15 minutes walk to town and is often described as being close to the Consum commercial area, with bars (serving food at certain times), restaurants ( Wok and Lizarran's Tapas restaurant) Shops Lidls, Comsum and various smaller shops including a Ferreteria. Another part of Dona Pepa1 can also be described as being in the Coopers bar area, which has bars, restaurants and a decent medium/small sized supermarket called Gama which has all essentials and more. This part is equally as accessible to Quesada town (around 10 to 15 minutes walk approx.)

Dona Pepa 1 (Walking distance to Quesada town can be around 25 to 35 minutes depending where you are and how fast you walk) This area is often described as being in the Hotel Laguna area. It has good number of bars & restaurants (Italian, Chinese, Tapas, Spanish & English Bistro style)- The nearest big supermarket, Consum, is walkable but a bit far for carrying shopping and car would be highly advisable for this.

The upper part of Quesada is often known as the Clapton's bar area (which is now Mono's bar) about 20 minutes approx walk from the town but going downhill there and uphill coming back.

There are a few upper parts of Quesada, another one may be described as 'the Country club area' and can take about 25 minutes approx to walk to town(again going downhill there and uphill coming back). This area has The country club bar & restaurant and The Club.

Obviously if you have a car, these places are all quite close by - It's just that, even if you have a car it's good to know the walking or staggering distance if you want to have a drink or three!


To get your bearings, the places mentioned above and most of the local and some not so local bars and restaurants are shown on our home page for information, with maps and locations:

Click on this link to go straight there:
List of restaurants & Bars in Quesada & surroundings.

Others will probably tell you about other areas - The Golf course area may be mentioned when looking for properties and it's a lovely area with lots of bars/Restaurants and a good big supermarket called Supervalu - It's closer to the Spanish town of Rojales but is not really walkable to Quesada town due to steep hills.

Hope this helps.

Jan