Winter ghost town

We were invited by friends to their holiday home in Islantilla. An abstract place at the best of times, in winter, this golf town is a ghost town.

First, a brief description of the place. Islantilla is a resort town in Andalucia, the south of Spain. It is about as far south as you can get. It is set around two themes; beach and golf. It is the golf resort that I find the most abstract. Susana and I play the odd round of golf, usually on the short par three courses. Although we quite enjoy the fresh air, it is not really countryside. It is meant to be, it just ends up a manicured reinterpretation of the countryside.

Islantilla turns this on its head, It is fundamentally urban golf, and the cities could learn a lot from it. Each of the fairways is flanked by development. What is surprising is the shear scale of development. We are not talking of a few villas set amongst the landscape, here we have pretty much continuous development so it is like driving a ball down Oxford Street.

The development style might change, sometimes country villa, sometimes town house and then three storey apartment block or five storey hotel. We are not talking about a few hundred homes, not even a few thousand, but tens of thousands.

Many are clustered around shared facilities, which does provide a buffer, or a continuation of the fairway. Obviously these are closed in winter.

Now this is a development for the car. The pedestrian is only catered for when on the golf course, and then usually in a golf cart. The houses and apartments turn their backs to the street. The road is as utilitarian as possible with open culverts and no pavements, just the occasional euro bin.

It looks like the development is constructed on dunes. The shifting sands have played havoc with the roads, which are cracked and deformed.

You can find here every style to find favour with every taste from Andalucian to modern European

That is the essence of the golf resort. The two resorts are bisected by a large road.

And down on the coast the scale really ramps up.

Every facility is provided for; church, bars, restaurants and retail. In winter, most of this is closed down, much of it permanently, maybe a result of the ‘crisis’, as the recession is referred to in Spain.

Nearly new, but deserted.

Oh dear, didn’t check the loading of those raised floor pedestals

We could only imagine what this place is like in Summer. It would seem that development is a success, a financial one. There are dwellings for sale, but not that many, especially considering the current economic conditions. Is such a development sustainable? Spain, like other European countries, goes on holiday in August. Most families are compelled to take their vacations then. The country closes down, except for the resorts.

Presumably owners of these properties find other times of the year to take advantage of their purchases. It has to be said, when we visited, late January, this cannot be considered high season, maybe less than 1% was occupied, only the golf hotels were doing any sort of trade.

Lack of occupation also leads to deterioration, not only in the infrastructure but also of the common parts.

It also gives a big problem to the retailers, few of them seem to be able to survive on just the peak time.

Such a development has a truly vast carbon footprint; all that infrastructure, concrete, asphalt, block, tile, sanitary ware. All to be used for two months out of twelve.

There must be other ways to increase the use of such developments. Renting does not seem an option. Supply massively outstrips demand, to the extent it would seem there would be no value in rental, except maybe over that one key month, which is not the point.

The deserted beach in winter.

Maybe motor homers give us a clue. Some of our ageing population in northern Europe are deciding to take advantage of the warmer winter weather in the south. This population is likely to grow massively. Perhaps the estate agents have got their demographic profiles wrong. They should be looking at this population as the key owners of these properties, who could then rent them out to families over the summer months.

Somehow we need to make better use of these facilities, as surely in their current form they cannot be considered sustainable.

GDR