Gran Canaria Estate Agents

If you want to get away from the nightlife and sprawling resorts with mass appeal have a look at Aquamarina Resort where tasteful and luxurious apartments and bungalows nestle in small bays with secluded beaches just a short stroll from the golf course. Set on the south east coast the resort enjoys a quieter pace of life with subtle landscaping retaining the character and nature of the unspoilt Gran Canaria.

Aquamar and Montemarina apartments and bungalows are built to a high standard and decorated in a stylish manner that sits well in this peaceful location. An exclusive selection of shops and restaurants are part of this close knit community where peace and quiet are assured. Despite these much sought after qualities, prices have remained at a very tempting rate and Aquamarina are local experts who can provide lots of tips and advice on how to get the most out of your new home.

The Aquamarina website will tempt you with all the basic details you need but the quiet nature of the area can only be truly appreciated during lazy days and restful nights in the comfort of your new home.

When you are looking for properties for sale and for rent in Gran Canaria as an investment,  you need to ensure that your Real Estate Agent talks your language.  With over 29 years of experience in the property sector in Gran Canaria, Cárdenas Real Estate certainly know their market.

Now with their introduction pages in 16 languages, they are talking to investors and prospective clients throughout Europe and beyond.  It goes without saying that the team at Cardenas Real Estate go the extra mile when searching for a property for sale or rent throughout the many regions in Gran Canaria including the popular areas of as Maspalomas , Playa del Inglés, Monte León,  Playa del Inglés, San Agustín and many more. A great Estate Agent in a great location!

	Bulgarian		Ceština		Dansk		Eesti		Français
	Italiano		Latviešu		Lietuviu		Magyar		Nederlands
	polski		Russian		Romanian		Slovenšcina		Suomi
	Svenska

Fed up of paying high Estate Agency prices? Then why not take a look at dwood-property.com, your local low cost fixed fee Estate Agency Network, which has just recently been launched by David Wood and his team. Having been in the property industry for over two decades, including the Canary Islands and  emerging markets like Cape Verde off the north west coast of Africa, David has launched this new venture based on his experience of buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants looking for a fair deal in the property marketplace. Take a look at their blog, dwood-property.info and keep up to date with this innovative company.

Rolling sand dunes, vibrant nightlife and a great modern golf course, no wonder Maspalomas in the south of Gran Canaria is such a property investment hot spot. There is always something exciting going on, and this Saturday June 21, the 19 th annual Moda Calida (Hot Fashion) fashion show takes place around the Faro (lighthouse) de Maspalomas. Liz Hurley is the guest of honour and her prescence alone will guarantee a large crowd.

This is where the best designer swimwear from all over the World goes on display, with some of the most attractive models taking to the catwalk. Top names like XTC, Eva Divine and Deli Codina will be strutting their stuff in a preview of what the beautiful people will be wearing on the beaches next year.

With such a great beach setting, it attracts top designers and this year there will be around 70 leading fashion journalists from all corners of the globe, hoping to pick up an exclusive. The spotlight of the fashion World will be firmly focused on Gran Canaria.

Those lucky enough to live in Gran Canaria will take it in their stride, they are used to seeing such colourful displays on their beaches, this is an island of flair and pride. The queue of Brits looking to relocate to this temperate island shows no sign of slowing. Cardenas Real Estate are experts in the Maspalomas area and can guide prospective buyers to the best properties around. The fashion show may not be here all year, but the beaches and the weather are, don’t you wish you were here?

Gran Canaria is a paradise island; a miniature continent blessed with some truly exquisite natural resources, including miles and miles of endless sandy beaches, spectacular sand dunes and a perfect year round climate.

It’s the third largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, located 130 miles off the coast of West Africa. Its two closest neighbours are Fuerteventura and Tenerife. The capital of Gran Canaria is Las Palmas, a large cosmopolitan city, located in the Northeast of the island.

It’s like perpetual springtime all year round on this idyllic island. Air temperatures ranges from a balmy 18ºC in winter to a soothing 22ºC in the summer. It’s never too hot or too cold. You’ll see people (normal people) swimming in the Atlantic Ocean and sunbathing on the beaches, in the middle of winter!

This is one of the island’s biggest appeals – the beaches and climate. It’s also one of the reasons more and more people are choosing to make permanent moves down here.

Gran Canaria has long been a popular choice with UK and northern European investors. There’s now a very large English speaking expat community, another appeal for UK homebuyers, who’ll find many top-class apartments, villas and new developments on sale throughout the island.

A Miniature Continent
Within its small geographical size of just 50 kms (side to side) Gran Canaria has a fantastically diverse variety of landscape, flora and fauna. It’s home to an overwhelming array of natural beauty, and all within this very small size – justifiably a “miniature continent”.

Like the other Canary Islands, Gran Canaria is volcanic in origin.

Gran Canaria Beaches
Gran Canaria has some of the best beaches in the Canary Islands. It has over 235 kilometres of coastline with some of the most popular white sandy beaches in Europe. An absolute must see is hugely impressive sand dune region of Maspalomas and the untouched Güigüi beach.

There’s also a huge variety of beach here: long sandy stretches packed with tourists; secluded coves; family beaches; party beaches; gay beaches; nudist beaches; and some completely deserted beaches – the perfect getaway.

The two most well known are of course, Maspalomas and Playa des Ingles. Maspalomas (with it’s spectacular dunes) is regarded by many to be the most beautiful on the island. It’s a huge stretch of fine white sand with crystal clear turquoise waters, surrounded these glorious sand dunes.

Playa del Ingles is definitely one of the most well known (and popular) beaches in the archipelago. It’s probably one of the most well known in Europe, in fact. Located in the south, between Maspalomas and San Agustín, it’s 3 kms long and remains packed all throughout the year.

The south of Gran Canaria is normally a lot sunnier than the north and attracts significantly more tourists. During the summer months of July and August it can get incredibly packed – sometimes too packed.

If this doesn’t sound to appealing, try the west coast or some of the inland areas. During the busy summer months, these areas remains almost completely free of tourists and provide some of the most spectacular landscapes and scenery on the island.

Things to do and see
Apart from the beaches, there’s plenty of things to do and see here.

There’s a wide variety of both land and water sports available. You can also go camel trekking, visit Gran Canaria’s traditional Canarian towns and villages, check out the stunningly beautiful natural parks, go to the water parks or even go gambling.

One of the Island’s highlights has to be the charming little village of Puerto de Mogan, (also known as “Little Venice”).

Visually, Gran Canaria is stunning – with its massive white sandy beaches, endless blue skies, lush green mountains and surreal golden sand dunes. It’s also got some of the best hotels, nightclubs, bars and cafés in Europe.

Buying property on Gran Canaria
Despite the recent property scare on the mainland, the Canary Islands are still an attractive option with excellent (year round) rental potential, some very affordable properties and significant returns through capital appreciation.

Gran Canaria attracts more and more investors and homebuyers every year. Buying a property here is very easy, as all the real estate agents (like Cardenas Real Estate, Monte Leon and Canary homes, for example) speak English. There’s also a huge British expat community on the island, which means you’ll feel right at home as soon as you arrive.

Ramón Sánchez Bruhn
Marketing Director
Telephone: +34 928 15 06 50

Cardenas win prestigious Bellevue Best Property Agents award

Arguineguín, Gran Canaria, Spain, 2007.

Cardenas Real Estate, one of the most well established agents in Gran Canaria has recently won the Bellevue award because of their “professionalism, market knowledge, experience, choice/variety of properties, and, in particular, quality of service.”

The Bellevue Property Awards
The aim of the Bellevue Best Property Agents initiative is to support and encourage the highest of standards within the real estate industry, throughout the world.

Their logo conveys the same message wherever you see it, whether it’s on the internet or on an estate agents wall – it says exceptional quality.

This award is only valid for one year. Best property agents need to continuously prove their worth as they are reassessed at the end of it, for further certification.

If there are any material irregularities or justifiable complaints about the agent, Bellevue will immediately remove the agent from the list, and to forbid use of the logo.

Belleveue are continually looking for professional, trustworthy agents and developers, in order to enhance their list and ultimately make the whole buying and selling process easier for both buyer and seller. This year one of the lucky winners was Cardenas Real Estate.

Cardenas Real Estate
Cardenas Real estate have been around for over 26 years. Within this time they have developed an in-depth knowledge of the local property Market in Gran Canaria.

Dealing specifically with non-resident customers, the staff are all bilingual and the website can be seen in Spanish, German and English.

With a strict no hard sales approach, honesty and reliability are common factors found amongst all of the staff members. Their aim is to find the right property for you, not just the best sale for them.

Cardenas also provides an extensive after sales service, meaning you’ll probably be their client for many years after the property transaction.

Languages spoken in the office (to date) include: Spanish, English, German, Norwegian, French and Italian.

Background
Cardenas Real Estate was set up back in 1980 in Arguineguín, Gran Canaria. In 2000 two new offices were opened in Puerto Rico and Playa de Mogán.

The owners are Mr. Antonio García de Cárdenas and his wife Mrs. Rolande Chagrin, who after spending many years in the hotel industry gave themselves over to the real estate profession.

Mr. Cárdenas is a certified real estate agent and speaks fluent English and German. Mrs. Chagrin is a certified translator in English, French, German and Spanish.

Their daughter currently runs the sales department. She speaks fluent German, English, French and Norwegian.

Contact Details:
Arguineguin
C/ La Lajilla, 2
35120 – Arguineguín
Gran Canaria
Telephone:+34 928 15 06 50
Fax: +34 928 15 05 83
e-mail: info@cardenas-grancanaria.com

Puerto Rico
Address: Av. Tomás Roca Bosch, 6
Bungl. Costa Rica, 1
35130 – Puerto Rico
Gran Canaria
Spain
Telephone: +34 928 15 30 57
Fax: +34 928 15 36 02
e-mail: info@cardenas-grancanaria.com

Playa de Mogan
Address: Pasaje de los Pescadores, 8
35138 – Playa de Mogán
Gran Canaria
Spain
Telephone: +34 928 56 59 66
Fax: +34 928 56 59 88
e-mail: info@cardenas-grancanaria.com

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A recent article by Simon Lambert (21 July 2007) “Make your holiday home dream a reality”, discusses some of the potential pitfalls of buying your own dream property in the sun.

“Prospective purchasers are urged to apply the same checks to buying property abroad as they would at home, and not get carried away with the romance of owning a home abroad”.

After spending two weeks in the non-stop sunshine, who’d want to go back to gloomy northern Europe, with it semi permanent rain and ever present cloud…

The climate is the one of the main reasons UK homebuyers are looking to set up a new life for themselves abroad. Other factors like better standard of living are of course a welcome bonus.

But, before you take the plunge it’s very important that you thouroughly research the local market and the property itself. You need to find out about how the different laws and taxes will affect you.

Research
“One of the main reasons why potential buyers encounter problems with overseas home purchases is a lack of research and the temptation to follow the easy route of trusting legal advice supplied by estate agents or developers”.

Getting a bilingual solicitor is essential. A soliticor that’s independent of the developer or agent will (of course) give more impartial advice. Ideally you should get a British solicitor to check all the documents as well. Pay particular attention to permission for building work and contracts.

You need to fully investigate the legal and planning situations in your chosen country. If it’s a buy to let investment you need to find out exactly how much rent people in the area are really paying, despite what the agent might say.

You can check with the local tourist offices and councils. The internet (LINK) provides a wealth of information about most property investment areas and the buying procedures involved.

Emerging Markets
“Experts warn investing in emerging markets requires caution”.

More so than traditional markets like Spain and the Canary Islands, all emerging markets do need very careful research.

For example Bulgaria, which saw massive enthusiasm over the past few years is now experiencing difficulties. Like some parts of Spain, it has experienced mass overbuilding. People who got in at the beginning are now trying to sell their two bedroom apartments in Bansko and Sunny Beach and reinvest in more favourable areas.

Buying a home in Thailand can be tricky. If you’re a non-resident (which you are) you can’t legally own a freehold property in your own name. So, to get round this you need to actually set up a Thai company, where you can “only hold 49% of the shares, along with seven Thai nominees”.

Traditional markets
UK buyers can get 2 dollars to the pound at the moment, meaning greater spending power if you’re considering investing in Florida, a well established and popular homebuying area, but prices here are falling due to an oversupply of new homes, so if you’re thinking of buying in order to sell quickly at a profit, think again.

On the other hand if you are looking at the long term potential of the area, you need to ask yourself what fundamentals benefits does the area have, as property markets will invariably fluctuate.

Similarly, Spain has been affected by overbuilding (along with other factors). But the market has gone down before in the past, so is still widely regarded as a safe long term investment.

Spain and the Canary Islands have everything for the UK homebuyer – the sun, the beaches, excellent cuisine, vibrant nightlife, good infrastructure, good education system, a spectacular and diverse landscape, art, music and culture, as well as a massive expat community of English speakers.

But again, research is the key to a safe, secure and happy investment.

If you are looking to buy property for sale in Gran Canaria, using the online property search of Canary Homes Online will quickly match your criteria with several available properties.  Maria from Canary Homes Online was quick to make her website www.canaryhomesonline.com  user friendly and this has certainly been achieved.