Nikki Beach White Party

Confirmation that Marbella is the best place on the planet came with the news that America’s First Lady and her younger daughter, Sasha, nine, will spend four days in the seaside resort, staying at the five star Villa Padierna based in Los Flamingos Golf Resort. This Hotel was known as the Ritz Carlton until for legal reason they were no longer able to use the name.

Officially President Barack Obama will not be making the trip, nor would the couple’s elder daughter Malia, 12, who is going to an American summer camp. However don’t be surprised if the President shows up here in Marbella even though its been denied by the White House who released an official statement released by the White House read: “The First Lady will travel to Spain next week for a private, mother-daughter trip with longtime family friends. President Obama will not be joining this trip.”

Sources quoted in the Spanish media said the Obama party had booked 30 rooms at the resort, which start at 250 euros for a standard double, rising to between 2,200 and 5000 euros for a private villa within the gardens.

For us living in Marbella we know this Hotel very well but lets face it its not even Marbella, its in bloody Estepona.

Anyway it’s a big PR boost for Marbella and Costa del Sol property

So truth time how many of you have lived in Marbella and you still haven’t made the effort to learn Spanish and with the modern advances of the internet there really isn’t any excuse.

Fiona Gonzales of Teach Yourself Spanish

So for those of you who want to teach yourself Spanish and take the ball by the horns so to speak I came across this fantastic website click Teach Yourself Spanish to see for yourself. Now being a guy its hard not to be impressed with such a stunning lady as Fiona Gonzales and if I was going to get some advice on how to learn Spanish Id defo be getting it from her but that’s all as she is head over heal in love with her fella (lucky guy) so we will have to stick to Spanish.

For those of you who want to give Fiona a swerve but want easy Spanish lessons then get online find that Spanish course and starting mixing with the local Spanish who are wonderful people by the way.

Sir Sean Connery was facing a fresh probe into alleged financial irregularities today after a judge widened his investigation into the former 007.

Connery, 79, and second wife Micheline Roquebrune, 81, are already being investigated over the sale of a seaside Marbella property they owned in the millionaires’ playground of Marbella in southern Spain.

Sean Connery In Marbella Property Probe?

Today it emerged judge Ricardo Puyol also wants to quiz the pair over a separate multi-million pound land sale in Malaga six years ago.

Investigators believe a property firm linked to Connery and his wife may have failed to pay tax on the sale of development rights to land it owned on the outskirts of the city.

Local newspaper Sur  published a report by police and tax authorities alleging that the company omitted to pay £1.4m in corporation tax.

Puyol is said to have ordered a formal request for the former James Bond and his wife to appear before him to give evidence.

The request is expected to be made through a rogatory letter to authorities in the Bahamas where the couple have their official residence.

Sur said Spanish authorities were keen to quiz Connery as soon as possible because the alleged tax irregularities will become spent on July 25.

The Scot does not figure as a director of Montelagares, the Spanish firm reportedly identified in court papers as the company behind the July 2004 land sale linked to Connery.

But a lawyer at the Madrid law firm he has used is named as a former director.

The firm, Diaz-Bastien & Truan, is also under investigation over the sale of Connery’s beachside mansion in Marbella, Casa Malibu, and the subsequent reclassification of the land.

It is thought to have represented the former 007 in the sale of the house.

 Exclusive: Police previously raided a property firm in Marbella, Spain in a probe into the sale of a house in the millionaire’s playground

Police raided their offices in Marbella and Madrid in May in an operation codenamed Goldfinger after the 1964 Bond film, and seized 30,000 documents.

The extension of the Connery probe comes less than a month after the Scot was reportedly ordered to pay £2.75m to a court investigating the sale of Casa Malibu.

Connery, knighted in 2000, and his wife were given 30 days to pay the deposit as a bond against possible future compensation.

Judge Ricardo Puyol is investigating alleged irregularities in the reclassification of the land after the actor sold it for a reported £5.5 million in 1998. In 2004 and 2005 a four-storey block of 72 luxury flats was built on the land, apparently despite a 1986 planning regulation which said only five homes could be constructed on it.

Spain’s Court of Audit is said to have estimated the Spanish taxman was owed £2.25m over the sale of the house. Neither Connery or his wife have been arrested or charged with any offence.

The couple bought Casa Malibu after their wedding in 1975 and lived there until the late 90s.

They entertained stars including Richard Burton, Michael Caine, Omar Sharif and George Best in the magnificent whitewashed villa.

Flats on the site are currently selling for around £2m which is more than a lot of Marbella Villas

Well we would all love to make money in the Spanish property recession here in Costa del Sol. So I am going to tell you some full proof secrets on how to make money with property Costa del Sol

Marbella Villas

PROPERTY COSTA DEL SOL SECRETS

1                    Manage your expectations which are really difficult for people trying to find the impossible. The property market here is in recession but it’s not a 1929 Wall Street crash and whilst you can buy some fantastic deal you can’t buy at 25% of 2007 prices but amazingly some people think you can. So get real with your expectations

2                    Find an agent you can trust and ideally deal with just that agent. Here in Spain all agents work together with other peoples properties as well as there own and if you find a good agent you can trust you can access the whole market through that agent. The benefits to this are obvious in that you wont have another agent trying to rubbish another agents property and if the agent sees some loyalty from the buyers they are much more likely to pull out all the stops to make a deal happen on the clients terms even if that it taking less commission.

3                    Know your Locations. In property Costa del Sol different locations have different prices so one property might be deemed to be better value for money in say Calahonda because the property in Marbella is €100,000 more  but in reality the better value for money and investment could well be the property in Marbella

4                    Price per square meter is a major factor you should consider when buying as to whether it’s a great deal or not. Right now you can buy some brilliant properties at under 2000 Euros per square meter and the reality is you couldn’t build them for that.

So I hope you found these tips really useful and you use them to take advantage of the Costa del Sol property recession.

Viva Espana

Property Costa del Sol in Marbella is extremely quiet at the moment but  who cares we  have our nation playing in a world cup final tomorrow and I will be watching it in the park lane bar in Nueva Andalucia cheering on my adopted country since 2002.

Logic dictates Spain should win in a canter with only Robben having a chance of making the Spanish X1 but as we know logic doesn’t always apply in Football.

However when players such as Fabregas, Navas, Pepe Reina, Silva and Marchena cant get in the team you know Spain have a great side and I can’t wait to watch Xabi and  Xavi hopefully turn on the style.

So as we say here in Spain Viva Espana

Loathe her or love her but Angeles Muñoz is certainly doing her best to promote property Costa del Sol & Marbella and it looks like that all her hard work and obvious self promotion is now paying off  with the news that the new owner of Malaga Football Club, Abdullah ben Nasser Al-Thani, has announced that he will invest a large amount of money in a Marbella project.

Boost for Marbella

Al-Thani said after a meeting with Mayor Angeles Muñoz in Marbella that he is in advanced negotiations in a major project in Marbella, related to the tourism industry. He did not reveal exactly what kind of investment project it was.

Angeles Munoz claimed after the reunion with the Qatari sheik that this was wonderful news for the city of Marbella. She looked very excited about the plans, but could not either identify exactly what they were.

Until further information comes from the mayor or the sheik, one can only speculate what the spectacular plans consist of. All we know for know is that the Qatari will invest money into something related with tourism in Marbella. Sundream Blog is very hopeful it will create much needed employment for the citizens of Marbella.

This is great news for Marbella and this blog who has been championing the causes of our wonderful Mayor of Marbella who has been heavily criticized for self promotion and wasting public money. What we pointed out to the idiots who were criticizing her was you only needed one deal like this and you were miles ahead of the game so well done Angeles.