People & Places
Discovering inland Spain
The legendary stories about La Mancha and neighbouring Aragon may be fictional, but the cheap property and untouched natural beauty are very real
'In a place in La Mancha, whose name I do not care to recall,' begins Miguel Cervantes's world famous novel Don Quixote set in the Spanish inland region of Castilla la Mancha. The phrase remains as apt today as five hundred years ago when Cervantes wrote it, as Castilla la Mancha luxuriates in relative obscurity, at least as far as tourists and homebuyers are concerned. As with the neighbouring region of Aragon, Castilla la Mancha never took off as a hotspot for Brits in the same way the Costas did. It's a shame for those purchasers who have missed out on the ancient cities and villages literally dripping with historical and architectural gems, but it has also been a loss for the regions of Castilla la Mancha and Aragon.
The degree of neglect that creeps in as money is siphoned off by the government to more popular, and populated, areas inevitably means the transport, commercial and economic infrastructures in both regions stagnated somewhat in years past. Whether as holidaymakers or homebuyers, it's generally agreed that when the British move into an area, prices rise and the area prospers. Just look at the Costa Brava and, more recently, the Canary Islands. While the former hitched its wagon onto the tourist cart that rolled into Spain in the 1970s and 80s, the latter is enjoying the second wave of Spanish exploration with the aid of cheap airlines and package holiday deals. However, there is an upside to being a late bloomer. Carl Donaldson of Finca Parcs, one of the fewdevelopers in Castilla la Mancha, explains that, "while the Costas are traditionally popular regions in which to buy property, there is no escaping the fact that they are becoming over-developed. As a result of this, people who once would have bought on the Costas are now looking inland. "Unlike the coastal resorts where you can expect to see a Burger King and Macdonalds on every corner and be disturbed by rowdy revellers leaving a night club at four in the morning, inland Spain offers a more tranquil lifestyle."
Land of the giants
Castilla la Mancha covers an area of just under 80,000 square kilometres, with a population of around 1.9 million, making it one of spain's most sparsely populated autonomous regions. In 2004, only 366 British people were recorded as living in Castilla la Mancha, compared to around 48,000 in nearby Madrid and roughly 52,000 in Malaga. This is despite the fact that the region has some of the cheapest property prices in Spain, at approximately 1,300 euros per square metre, according to the Spanish Ministry of Housing. Guadalajara, for example, is Castilla la Mancha's most northerly province, and lies only 50 kilometres east of Madrid.
The contrast in price, however, is stark, as any Madrileño (a native of Madrid) will tell you. Towns like El Casar, Horche and even the capital, Guadalajara, are some of the most expensive in Castilla la Mancha, with an average price of about 1,800 euros per square metre, but are still vastly cheaper than living in Madrid. There is an abundance of hearty local dishes and arquitectura negra (literally 'black architecture' named after the houses layered in black slate), and you could completely forget you were only 30 minutes from the hectic flurry and glossy chic of Madrid. Most of the small population lives in the capital, and a majority of the scattered villages consist of only 200 or so residents.
For anyone who is considering working in Madrid, but is hesitant to stump up the wheelbarrows of cash required for even the most bijou of apartments, Guadalajara offers the low prices and ambience of a peaceful village, but is close enough for the daily commute into Madrid. Below Guadalajara is the province of Cuenca. Wedged between Valencia in the south east and Madrid in the north west, how this fascinating province has been passed over by both Spanish and British tourists is quite remarkable. It was designated a 'Patrimony of Humanity' by UNESCO in 1996, and one look at its dramatic gorges, the unbelievable ciudad encantada ('enchanted city') nature reserve and the hanging houses clinging to the cliff face in the capital makes it easy to understand why. Just over 200,000 people were living in the province at the last count, and a quarter reside in the the city of Cuenca itself. While most of Castilla la Mancha is made up of arid landscapes, Cuenca has the lush forests and greenery that lends the whole city a resonating vibrancy. Prices there reflect Cuenca's status as an unknown destination: in the latest Spanish Property Insight report it was named as the province with the lowest cost of living and property experts Kyero put the average house price at 72,000 euros, a hefty 71 per cent less than the national average. The price of property dipped slightly last quarter, though on average it has seen real growth.
Toledo, to the west of Cuenca, is another richly endowed province with sombre, sandy coloured buildings and winding streets that seem such a short step away from the Spain in which Cervantes once imagined errant knights gallivanting about hundreds of years ago. The provincial and regional capital, Toledo, covers 15,000 square kilometres and is divided in half by the River Tagus, which cleaves through it from east to west. It has a population numbering fewer than half a million and was once the capital of Spain before the title was moved to Madrid, about an hour and a half away, in the 16th century. Known as the 'city of three cultures' because of its Arabic, Jewish and Christian communities who have lived together in the city throughout history, the city is now being connected via high speed train links to Madrid, which would prove a real boost to property prices which are still relatively cheap at 1,300 euros per square metre.
If you feel like the gym has been paying off lately, maybe a trip to Consuegra, a small town south of Toledo, is in order. There, you can try and succeed where Don Quixote failed, and tip over one of the huge windmills he mistook for a giant, giving a whole new meaning to the term 'windpower'.
Forgetting any kind of exertion whatsoever, the province of Ciudad Real below Toledo offers the temptation of one of the world's largest red grape vineyards in the world in Valdepenas. Villanueva de los Infantes in Ciudad Nueva is also a town that compels you to stop and drink it in. The wooden balconies and Renaissance style façades are quietly elegant and, in typical Spanish fashion, there are numerous cafés and cervecerías ('pubs') to occupy the day.
In 2005 property prices rose by 20.6 per cent in Ciudad Real, compared to a national average of 12.8 per cent, mainly due to the same railway links that proved such a boon in Toledo. It has some of the cheapest real estate in the whole of Spain and you can expect to pay around 985 euros per square metre in the province.
Albacete is the most southern province, and shares borders with Granada, Murcia, Jaén, Alicante and Valencia. This could possibly be the reason property prices there are higher than you'd expect in most quiet, out-of-the-way towns and villages. For around 1,200 euros a metre you can live either in the south-eastern quarter of the province in the foothills of the Sierra de Segura, or buy in the town of Cancarix, a short drive from Alicante or Granada.
Royal returns
Other than being the home to Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine, the region of Aragon has received little other press in the centuries since. Its three provinces are geographically quite dissimilar; Huesca, dominated by the Pyrenees; Zaragoza, a mainly rural province; and Teruel, whose tourist board was so optimistic about the province's ability to attract tourists it launched a promotional campaign called 'Teruel exists'. Teruel is an example of an Aragon town that should, by any calculation, have all the right ingredients to attract tourists who want to see 'authentic Spain'. While the provinces of Huesca and Zaragoza are more suited to hikers and day trips, Teruel could arguably be said to have more to hold your interest. It is the poorest of the Aragonese provinces, but there are a number of attractions, including a number of spectacular castles and the noisy tambor y bombo villages (where drums are banged continuously in Easter processions). There is also a suspiciously educational theme park, Dinopolis, dedicated to dinosaurs and palaeontology. The greatest appeal of the province of Teruel lies in the dramatic mountains of El Maestrazgo, with their associations with another legendary knight, El Cid. Property prices in Teruel are the second lowest in the country, with an average of 920 euros a square metre, compared to 1,500 euros a square metre in Huesca and 1,800 euroa a square metre in 1,900 in Zaragoza.
Getting there
Neither Aragon nor Castilla la Mancha have their own airports, although Castilla la Mancha is effectively served by Madrid International airport, and both Easyjet and British Airways fly to Madrid Barajas airport, which is approximately 40 kilometres away. Aragon can be most easily reached by Barcelona airport, although this is still about a 250 kilometre trek to reach the region by car or bus.
Betting on the future
Things might get decidedly less tranquil in the Castilla la Mancha province of Ciudad Real with the construction of a roughly 4,600-square-metre casino, a luxury hotel with 850 rooms, a 2,800-square-metre spa centre, a shopping mall and a 3,000-seat theatre. The project is the brainchild of Harrah's, the world's largest casino operator, and is set to be completed some time in 2008. While the sprinkling of Don Quixote aficionados and cultural tourists who visit the region each year might be slightly perturbed by the idea of a casino complex alongside some of Spain's most romantic and historical buildings, there can be no denying the increased revenue it could potentially generate.
Meanwhile, over in Aragon, a government cash injection is to be spent on a motorway linking the town of Teruel with Valencia in the south and Zaragoza, the provincial capital of Aragon, in the north. Needless to say, the area is unlikely to stay off property hunter's maps for very long, and already the tentative twitchings of the property market could indicate future rises.
Best of the rest
Going up
Inland regions throughout Spain saw a surge in popularity in the 2005/06 period, though the costas remained the top destination for British buyers. Aragon, as a region, has seen property prices rise by 16.1 per cent over the last year, making it the number one performer in the property market. Only Galicia and Communidad de Valenciana came close to its increase, with 15 and 14.6 per cent rises, respectively. Jaén in the Andalucian region rose above the regional average with a 21.7 per cent rise, though property prices are still significantly lower than the rest of the region at around 970 euros per square metre.
Up by around nine per cent in the last quarter, Lugo in Galicia has also risen 18 per cent over the last 12 months and is rapidly catching up with Coruña, which has average property prices of around 1,300 euros per square metre. Unsurprisingly, Madrid has the highest property prices, with the average property going for 2,800 per square metre, an almost ten per cent rise in a year.
Going down
The Spanish property market did look as though it was going to level off at the beginning of 2006, but the housing market in Spain is notoriously erratic and began 2006 on an upturn. There were, however, some parts of the country that saw a slowing down of property prices. While it has still risen in the long term, Cáceres in Extremaduras fell slightly in the last quarter to an average of 936 euros per square metre. The Navarra region saw the smallest overall growth over the last year, at only 6.6 per cent, although in Murcia last quater saw only a small rise in property prices, just 0.7 per cent.
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