Pego ghost urbanisation under the hammer
Penya Rotja, unfinished since 2008, is on the market for €15.4m
A 'GHOST town' between Monte Pego and Pego town is set to be auctioned with a reserve price of just over €15.4 million, over 11 years after work stopped on building the planned 1,183 villas.
Developers started to 'blow up' the Penya Rotja mountain in 2003 and carve out roads, which have since been surfaced and even have lamp posts and zebra crossings in place – but no houses.
A few breeze-block shells spoil the view, and much of the building material has been plundered since the company behind the projected urbanisation went bankrupt and downed tools in early 2008.
Now, the unfinished – or barely-started – Penya Rotja residential complex is seeking a new owner to complete it.
It has not been revealed whether any of the properties had already been sold off-plan up to 16 years ago before the developers went out of business.
The golf course, hotel and clubhouse planned at the same time at the foot of the urbanisation appeared to have been forgotten, but the promoters have now announced they intend to forge ahead and have the green open sometime in 2021.
It has written to the 113 landowners affected and set up a helpdesk at the town hall to 'find out what they want to do' with their plots.
They can opt to retain ownership of their terrain, which is mainly made up of orange groves, meaning technically, once all or part of it is occupied by a golf course, it will increase in value – although they will not be able to use it unless they are golfers themselves.
Otherwise, they can choose to sell it to the developers, although the likely settlement price will be subject to a rating scale applied to 'rustic' or nonbuilding land.
Owners - or in some cases, where they are deceased, their beneficiaries – will now have to wade through a mountain of paperwork and complications are expected.
Already, the promoters of Pego Golf have found the size of several plots does not match the figures on the deeds, which were drawn up generations ago.
Pego council says it will 'not get involved' in the process, according to head of planning Laura Castellà.
“It's nothing to do with us,” she says.
But local authorities are generally in favour of turning this sleepy, rugged area of countryside into a golf club.
“This is a chance to change our economic model, since no authority, not even the regional government, has been capable of solving the problems faced by the farming industry in all these years,” Sra Castellà says.
Residents who will be looking out at an 18-hole course from their Monte Pego homes have long held mixed views on the idea, but had assumed the plans were dead and buried more than a decade ago.