Richard Parfitt and Family: Why we built our own luxury home in Sotogrande?

“THERE is a lot of work involved but it is all part of the fun,” explains Richard Parfitt as he relates the first-hand experience of building his own home in Spain.

“Though you can leave the technical work to the experts, the overall decisions are really down to you. I have been very heavily involved and loved it.”

Richard and his family are currently building their own six-bedroom luxury villa in Sotogrande, complete with pool, spa, cinema room and gym.

“We wanted somewhere sunny, close to the UK and easy to get to, and the south of Spain seemed like the logical place,” he explains.

“We did a recce along the coast but we didn’t find anything we liked until the last day when we were shown Villa Oasis.”

“ARK were doing it on spec and hoping to find a buyer later, but it had got about halfway through and been put on ice. The project was waiting for someone to come along and rejuvenate it.”

“And we fell in love with it.”

A quality living environment on the Costa del Sol
“The area is great, there is high quality, low density housing and Sotogrande is very safe and secure, with wonderful views.”

“We started work on the villa in mid-March and the project progressed quickly as the home was already part built. The skeleton was therefore already in place, but there remains a lot of work involved in building your own home.”

“We weren’t completely unaware of this as we had previously built our house in the UK, but each time you have to think about everything from lighting to layout, where you want your electricity power points and your switches to be, etc. We got involved in all of that and we are now working with the interior designer deciding on the furnishings and selecting carpets and tiles.”

“We’ve enjoyed putting our mark on our home, for us it is part of the fun of it; the second stage is actually living in it.”

Finding the right project in Sotogrande
“When we started looking for a property we had wanted an indoor pool and not many properties provided that facility, at least not anything bigger than a foot spa. Villa Oasis had a large basement that hadn’t been developed, and we saw the potential and modified it,” adds Richard, who dubs himself as ‘somewhat of an amateur architect’.

He continues: “You have to realise from the outset that you are going to overspend. There is nothing sinister about this, it is purely a personal temptation every self-builder falls for. We could have kept to our budget but when you see something you like you always spend more but also make your home better.”

“As regards advice, I would tell people to do their Internet research. Look for recommendations for solicitors and agents etc. We did a lot of that and really took the time to dot the I’s and cross the T’s, so we left nothing undone that could trip us up later on.”

“It was a pretty big investment for us and Spain has received some bad press at times, but we found it to be unjustified. Things have run fantastically smoothly, and we are very happy.”

 

Originally published in October 2012, updated by Adam Neale in August 2018

By Adam Neale | Property News | August 20th, 2018

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