Murcia set to experience tourist boom

Permalink: Murcia set to experience tourist boom
by Gill Montia

Murcia, Spain’s Moorish region that incorporates the Costa Calida, is attracting greater interest from British property investors.

UK flights are available direct and travelling time is around 2.5 hours. A new international airport is planned for the region in 2009, with passenger figures estimated at three million during the first year of operation.

The area is already experiencing a surge in tourism and according to the Spanish Ministry of Housing, it has become the country’s third most popular province (after Alicante and Malaga) for foreign property investors.

While property prices have been rising consistently, they are still below the national average.

Local property developer, Casas de Lorca, reported a 6% rise in prices on new build villas in 2007, while average resales prices rose by 4%.

Murcia is famous for the Mar Menor, Europe’s largest salt water lagoon; the landscape, which is dominated by citrus fruit and vegetable farming, tends to be arid.

The coastline has missed the worst of the country’s overdevelopment plague and inland villages and towns retain their Spanish in character.

Historical cities, such as Murcia, the port of Cartagena and the renaissance town of Lorca, are of particular interest to the discerning tourist.