The property buyers area guide for Pinar de Campoverde

Pinar de Campoverde is a small inland village located at the foot of the Sierra de Escalona mountain range, in the southernmost quarter of the Alicante province.

Literally translated as "the Pine Forest of the Green Field", the village is uncommonly green and verdant given the low levels of rainfall and the abundance of dry warm weather more typically associated with this area of South Costa Blanca.

Pinar de Campoverde is characterised by an elevated position that not only affords many of the properties in the area stunning views over vast orange groves and pine forests to the north and west but also across the coastal plains to the Mediterranean and Mar Menor Seas to the southeast.

Small white dots perch amongst the rich forests on the hillside, and the elevation provides a welcome sea breeze that cools the village throughout the hotter summer month. The village has always been a popular summer and weekend retreat for families from the Spanish capital city of Madrid, many of whom still own holiday homes in the neighbourhood.

LOCATION

The area falls under the jurisdiction of Pilar de la Horadada Town Hall, and the Mediterranean coastal town is also the closest to Pinar de Campoverde. Council-administered taxes tend to be lower than the average for the area, with the municipality appearing as the third cheapest area to tax a car.

The village is almost equidistant from the cities of Murcia (54 km) to the northwest, and Cartagena (49 km) to the south on the Costa Calida shoreline, and an hour from Alicante.

The nearest main town is Pilar de La Horadada (7.3 km), and the nearest city is the coastal metropolitan area of Torrevieja (26 km) to the northeast. There is easy access to both the N-332 coast road and the AP-7 motorway.

An 18-hole championship golf course is located midway between Pinar de Campoverde and Pilar de la Horadada.

The simply spectacular Lo Romero golf course opened in 2008. Located on the site of an old pear and apple orchard, and a relative newcomer to the Costa Blanca golf circuit, the mammoth course exceeds six kilometres in length.

The Lo Romero golf course makes good use of water hazards, and the club boasts what is possibly one of the most challenging holes on the entire Costa Blanca golf circuit: the infamous 18th hole is played from an elevated tee which overlooks the Mar Menor and the Mediterranean Sea, down to an island green completely surrounded by a wide waterway and accessible only by footbridge.

Rich in Mediterranean flora and fauna, as is emblematic of this part of Spain, Lo Romero golf club is listed as the most popular tourist attraction in the Pilar de la Horadada area according to the online travel website TripAdvisor.

HISTORY

Relatively young, during the mid-1980s Pinar de Campoverde was simply a small urbanisation popular with Spanish holidaymakers who built large villas sparsely amongst the thick Mediterranean woodland.

Originally connected with the coast by nothing more than a dusty track that was all but impassable during wet weather, everything changed just over 20 years ago, as what was just a small village became incorporated into the Pilar de La Horadada municipality.

The council contributed significantly to improving the archaic infrastructure by installing a network of roads and ensuring that essential services such as communications, electricity and water connections were firmly established.

GEOGRAPHY

Pinar de Campoverde benefits from the healthy and temperate Mediterranean climate, characterised by relatively low rainfall, a median average of more than 300 days of sunshine each year, long warm summers and short mild dry winters.

Originally the area had been nothing more than a large pine forest and had very little agricultural importance until much of the forested area was cleared for orange and lemon plantations during the late 1970s.

Bordered to the north and east by the Rio Seco, a dry river that originates in the mountain range to the north of Pinar de Campoverde and provides drainage for rainfall feeding into the Mediterranean Sea basin at Mil Palmeras beach.

With a maximum height of just 345 metres above sea level, the Sierra de Escalona mountain range is comparably small, and as a result, the Rio Seco spends the vast majority of its year in drought.

Most of its course runs through a deep canyon with successive layers of exposed sandstone strata, and persistent millennia of annual floodwater have contributed to the abundant flora present in the area today.

The area Natural de Rio Seco to the northeast of Pinar de Campoverde provides a preserved natural park for residents and visitors to enjoy the majestic beauty of this unique area and affords guests essential facilities such as toilets, picnic areas, and paths that wind through the deeply forested area.

The natural park is home to a wide variety of wildlife such as species of owls, hedgehogs, and long-tailed lizards.

Hunting birds dominate the skies above the village, and it's an everyday occurrence to see kestrels, sparrowhawks, peregrine falcons, and great Bonelli eagles; a large indigenous bird of prey up to 65 cm in length and with an average wingspan exceeding 150 cm.

Red squirrels are endemic to the area and occupy the upper branches of the pine trees throughout the village.

Due to the infrequent rainfall, the Seco River is one of the few sites in the Valencian community where you can find floral species typical of a river environment. Wild thyme, rosemary, reeds, and tamarind rose shrubs form a small part of Pinar de Campoverde's rich floral wealth.

FACILITIES

Commercial centres are strategically located locally to offer all the crucial amenities required to cater for most aspects of modern living, with shops, vets, banks, a pharmacy, and supermarkets; including an Iceland store offering a full range of British food products from the iconic retailer and Waitrose branded products.

Today's modern village has a veritable array of bars and restaurants that cater for every taste and international flavour, and the Avenida Pino to the north of the older part of the area is renowned for its concentrated selection of fine dining eateries and casual bistros.

Local company Avatel Telecom has an office in Pinar de Campoverde offering fibre optic internet connections with speeds up to 600Mb with the ability to suspend the service - particularly useful for seasonal property owners.

The company also offers television packages, and there are plenty of local companies who can install a more traditional satellite TV system using the latest high-gain antennas, so you can watch television from almost any country in northern Europe without having a large and unsightly receiving dish.

Public transport in Pinar de Campoverde is limited, with four return buses per day connecting the town to the coast during the summer months of July and August, but only two return services per day at all other times of the year.

The local buses connect Pinar de Campoverde with Lo Romera Golf course, Pilar de La Horadada, Torre de La Horadada (with stops at El Mojon and Playa de Las Higuericas beaches), and terminate at Mil Palmeras.

A taxi transfer from Alicante-Elche airport costs around €85 per vehicle (each way), with an estimated journey time of 55 minutes. A similar airport transfer from Murcia-Corvera airport to Pinar de Campoverde costs around €70 per vehicle.

PROPERTIES

With fundamental improvements to essential services and improved accessibility, larger-scale developers moved into the area in 2001 and 2002 to provide higher-density more affordable properties.

The new building work that transformed the village effectively created two distinctive areas, with the older Pinar de Campoverde typically defined by detached villas occupying large private plots, with elevated countryside views and plenty of space between neighbouring properties.

Many of the older properties in the area take advantage of the natural elevation of the locale, and despite being 11.4km from the nearest beach it's not uncommon for many of the villas to offer spectacular countryside and Mediterranean Sea views.

Newer Pinar de Campoverde only covers about 30% of the village, yet the higher-density housing accounts for 50% of all properties.

The newer style properties offer villas on inevitably smaller and more manageable plot sizes and a variety of townhouses and apartments. Usually offering greater value at the expense of sheer space, these newer properties typically require less maintenance than older-style properties and are built to adhere to more modern building standards.

The area was developed by builders offering individual plots with a variety of distinctly different villa designs to avoid having street after street of seemingly identical properties, and as a result, differing personal choices mean that the finished appearance of the village has been tailored by the people who live there.

While some areas of the Costa Blanca saw supersonic growth and almost immediate expansion, Pinar de Campoverde's development was significantly less hurried. More akin to a fine wine, Pinar de Campoverde has matured over the better part of the past two decades.

Perhaps, as a result, the area portrays a sense of quality and thoughtful town planning which is sadly lacking in many similar developments further south.

The newer part of the village is well established, interspersed with parks and green zones which are meticulously maintained.

SUMMARY

Pinar de Campoverde is universally popular, and today the resident population is still dominated by indigenous Spanish people, with a familiar mix of British, German, French, Dutch and Scandinavian expatriates settled within the community.

The village will appeal to those looking for a more verdant, more naturally beautiful area. Overseas property buyers who don't want to feel that their home is just part of a sprawling urban jungle will find Pinar de Campoverde magnetically attractive and aesthetically pleasing.

Its uniqueness, its sense of community, and the feeling that this village is part of the real Spain, natural Spain - and not the heavily commercialised areas normally associated with expatriate life on the Iberian peninsula. That's the attraction.

Living close to the splendour of Mediterranean nature is one thing, but living within it is something that Pinar de Campoverde offers in substantial measure.

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Data included in the graphics are correct at the date of publication. Price per square metre is for illustration only, and calculated from the prices of resale properties available on our website at that time. For official market data, please contact us.