Only one of the three plots of land in Orihuela Costa, offered for sale by tender for a second occasion by the municipal council in less than 6 months, has resulted in a bid.
Indeed there are two bids for the same plot at El Garbanzuelo, while neither of the plots at La Cuerda next to Lomas de Don Juan and PAU 21 in Colinas Golf, attracted any offers.
It is understood that the winning bid for the 6,951 square metre plot, with a building area of 3,659 square metres, in the El Garbanzuelo sector, in the extreme northwest of the municipality, bordering Torrevieja and the motorway, was made by the company Oasis Hills SL, for the amount of 565,000 euros.
So for the second occasion, the plots in La Cuerda next to Lomas de Don Juan and PAU 21 in Colinas Golf, have received no offers and as such the municipal council will achieve just half a million euro of income as opposed to the amount that they had anticipated of 21 million euros.
PAU-21, (Colinas Golf Resort), has an area of 38,539 square metres of land, of which 24,194 meters may be used for construction, with an appraised value of 14.4 million euros.
However the Amigos de Sierra Escalona had registered an appeal to try to remove the land from the sale. The ecologists referred to the enormous environmental value of the area in which the luxury residences would be located, where large forest areas have already been destroyed in recent years, with urban approval, in the heart of the protected landscape.
The second plot is located in the La Cuerda sector, at the access to Villamartín from the N-332 in Aguamarina, with an area of 15,861 square metres and 7,726 square metres of construction land. This area is located between La Regia and Castillo de Don Juan, on the second line of the Oriolana coast. The appraisal in this case was 4.2 million euros. Similarly, no bids have been received.
The tender opening process took place this Tuesday at the Orihuela City Town Hall. It was the second time this year that the City Council tried to move this process forward. In May, during the state of alarm, the three lots were didn’t attract a single bid and the auction was abandoned.
The auction of municipally owned and developable land on the Orihuela Costa has been a solid source of financing for the municipality for more than two decades with the residents of the coast seeing few benefits from the sales despite the promises of Orihuela politicians.
Councillor Almagro said that after this second attempt, the municipality has no intention of promoting a third auction to dispose of the two lots that have failed to receive any bids, and neither, he has qualified, are the appraised values going to be lowered.
