What is a Property Hot Spot and what makes it hot? The answer is simple, people are buying more properties there than anywhere else of a comparable nature. Some parts of this region are established property hot spots and other parts are becoming property hot spots! But why? The answer is firstly that the national or regional governments put in more, or better infrastructure, and then the property developers follow and build homes and then the cheap airlines follow with flights into that region. The key is to buy at the right time - preferably as the area develops, after the infrastructure goes in but before the properties achieve their peak prices. So what are the key infrastructure components?

New Roads
• Various headlines over recent months say it all “Big Boost for Murcia’s Major Roads.” The busy motorways of Murcia are to receive big improvements which will cost more than €200 million and which are expected to significantly improve traffic flows. The Government has announced that work has been brought forward by 2 years and will now take place on several sections of the national network of roads that serve the region of Murcia. The work includes upgrading 23Km of A7 motorway between Alhama de Murcia and Alcantarilla at a cost of €60 million; upgrading the 16Km of A7 motorway at the Orihuela to Monteagudo interchange at a cost of €53 million; upgrading 9Km of the A30 Jumilla to Archena interchange at a cost of €24 million; upgrading 26Km of the A30 between Puerto de la Cadena and Cartagena at a cost of €51 million and upgrading 5Km of the A7 motorway interchange with the MU31 costing €17 million. This is because vehicle numbers are constantly increasing with 140,791 vehicles per day passing through one stretch of road connecting the regions capital city of Murcia with the port of Cartagena.
• In further announcements another €3.7 million is to be spent on improving the AP7 motorway and other main roads around Elche; another €1.17 million on roads at Font de la Figuera; another €6 million on roads around Alcoy and the cities/major towns of Benissa, Altea, Torrevieja, and Horadada are all highlighted as target areas for spending on infrastructure.
• In another €20 million road works programme the construction of a dual carriageway between Mazarron and the Puerto de Mazarron area was commenced turning the current N-332 into a faster, safer road.

New Airports and/or extensions to existing airports
• San Javier airport (currently the main airport for the northern Costa Calida region of Murcia and the southern Costa Blanca) will not be left by the wayside once the new international airport of Corvera opens (Corvera is a larger airport due to open in 2010 also in the region of Murcia making a total of 3 airports to serve the Murcia region, the airport at Alicante being the third). To ensure the continuing success of San Javier airport €70 million has been invested in building the second runway and improving facilities. The building of a larger terminal building is going ahead as well. The construction work on the new second runway is now completely finished and is now being tested before it officially opens in 2010 in time for the busy summer season.  
• In a separate announcement €149 million has been allocated to improve Alicante airport including an enhancement and extension to the terminal building and an automated luggage handling system plus an improvement to the roads leading to the airport.
• Corvera Airport. The construction work to build the new international airport at Corvera is well underway and the outline shapes of the passenger terminal, control towers and the 3 km runway can clearly be seen. The construction work was due to be finished by August 2010 but has been delayed to June 2011 and the airport will be operational in November 2011 recent press reports have announced. Once the new airport is open it will be capable of handling 16 flights per hour bringing in 2,200 passengers per hour and at full capacity 3 million passengers a year. For updates click on this highlighted text Corvera airport.

New train links - High Speed Train links opening
• “The AVE arrives!” The government in Madrid has announced that the province of Alicante will gain access to the ‘Alta Velocidad’ AVE high speed train link by the end of 2010. €203 million has already been spent in 2008 on planning and initial excavation work and another €40 million has been budgeted for. The General Budget of The State has a reserved allocated budget of another €243 million to be invested between now and 2012 which will finance the completion of the project. This will make the progress of navigating the Country far simpler for all, and will be extremely appealing to the thousands of Madrilenos who flock to the Costa Blanca for their Easter and Summer holidays.

New Schools
• Numerous new Schools have been built and opened in the last 1 to 2 years, the most notable being Kings College in Murcia, and more have been budgeted for including the sum of 3.8 million Euros for the new School at Fuente Alamo and a new international School is planned for the 3 Molinos Resort.

New Hospitals and Health Centres
• A new hospital has opened in Torrevieja (southern Costa Blanca) and numerous new health centres are now open, many with international staff able to speak numerous languages.

Cheap Flights
• The press, both in the UK and in Spain has been full of press announcements about more carriers coming into the local airports or the existing carriers expanding their schedules and putting on more flights to this region.
• “Ryanair to fly into Alicante”. Low cost airline Ryanair will be flying a new route into Alicante from Gatwick with flights operating daily. In Spain Ryanair operate 271 routes in 19 airports, and in 2007 flew 11 million passengers to and from the Spanish airports.
• “Ryanair opens new routes from Alicante to the UK”. Ryanair has announced 4 new routes from the main southern Costa Blanca airport at Alicante to destinations in the UK, Ireland and Poland. They are also basing a new Boeing 737-800Ng at Alicante. The new routes start in the Summer of 2009 and are to Bristol in the UK, Derry and Knock in Ireland, and to Breslavia in Poland, taking the total number of routes from Alicante by Ryanair to 32. 

Innovative developments by Spanish businesses committing to the region
• The recent headline read “Maldives or Murcia?” and the newspaper article was about Manuel Martinez, a businessman from Murcia who owns the Newsoft videogames company announcing that he is to build a replica of the islands and the luxury hotels found in the Maldives in Murcia. The project will include 200 luxury cabins, a sap, restaurants, a sports complex and a seawater lake costing €30million.

New Marinas
• “Marina given go-ahead.” Sailors will be delighted at the approval of a major new marina on the La Manga Strip, one of Europe’s busiest holiday destinations during the height of the summer when the population can swell from a few thousand to over a million people. Construction on the sports marina is to proceed with 950 berths to be provided and a new sea wall around the new marina.
• The new ‘Marina Salinas’ marina in the port of Torrevieja has opened with 724 new berths, which with the existing 2,000 plus of the other two marinas in the port of Torrevieja has made Torrevieja one of the major ports in the Valencian Community.

More international tourists arriving
• The city of Cartagena is proving more popular than ever as a destination for cruise ships with approximately 27,000 passengers disembarking in just 3 months alone between September and December. In 2009 42 ships will have visited Cartagena.
• “Murcia hits the spot for tourists” – The Region of Murcia is proving to be increasingly popular with overseas tourists according to data released by the Institute of Tourist Studies, with the Region attracting a total of 712,000 foreign visitors in 2008 (the last full tear of figures available when this item hit the press). This is an increase of 78,000 on 2007 numbers, up 12.2%. This puts the Region of Murcia almost at the top of the table for growth of international tourism, with only one other location seeing a larger growth in tourists in the whole of Spain. Hotel occupancy rates are bucking the trend with occupancy rates up 3.6%, above the national average. Hotel charges are also up 0.4% compared with a price fall of 2% nationally.

Growing numbers of foreign property owners way above national averages
• “15.8% are Foreigners.” According to the National Institute of Statistics 15.8% of the population of the Region of Murcia are now Foreigners, a rise of 11.8% over the last years available figures. This is now above the national average of 11.4% across the whole of Spain.

New Golf Courses
• At the end of 2009 another 8 golf courses are either planned, being built or have recently opened in the region, adding to the already impressive 'Golf Triangle' credentials of this part of Spain.

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