TV House Hunters Gill and Chris in Inland Granada, Spain
Cave homes are very unusual and something of an acquired taste, but when Gill and Chris Hendy saw them being featured on an episode of A Place in the Sun many years ago, it awakened something of a passion.
“The episode featured a couple looking for a budget-friendly home in Spain and viewed one in the area of Galera where they are built into the hills,” says Gill, 65 and newly retired after running a family business with Chris. And so began some very in-depth online research into cave homes. Built into the sides of the cliff faces in the Granada province of Andalusia, there are around 20,000 cave homes – located around 60-90 minutes from the coast.
You can find ones that are little more than two rooms, some modernised into chic holiday rentals or even boutique hotels. Some are only partial cave homes: although from the outside many look like a conventional buildings, they are in part cave with an out-build or extension, with gardens, roof terraces, hot tubs and above-ground swimming pools.
In April 2023, the couple flew out with a £90k budget and ended up buying the second property they viewed with the help of Laura Hamilton on an episode of the new series of A Place in the Sun, aired in January. The property that had only been on the market for a week in La Alqueria – a location where cave homes for sale start at €45,000.
“As soon as we saw the house fell in love with it and later realised that it reminded us of our barn conversion built on a hill in North Yorkshire. There were so many similarities it immediately felt like home.” They paid £76,000 for the two-bedroom property with all the furniture and white goods, only having to buy new bedding and towels.
The joy of cave homes is that they remain a fairly constant 18 degrees, so you don’t swelter in the peak summer, nor freeze during the winter. The couple have now experienced it in different seasons – they visit four or five times a year – and when their car outside registered 50 degrees last summer, it was ‘lovely and cool inside the house’.
In winter they use a log burner in the out-building, but when the sun is out and the sky is blue, winter never seems as harsh. The sunsets over the mountains can be stunning, as these pictures show. “We sleep amazingly well” says Gill.
But maintenance is key. A wooden terrace, left untreated, needed replacing, along with some tiles. They’ve created a shower room, converting a redundant storage space so they now have two bathrooms. “You need to let cave homes breathe – they ‘sweat’ – and it is quite normal to find a salt residue on small patches that just needs to be treated and repainted. The property is relatively remote, so you need a car – it’s 1hr 20 minutes from Granada airport, but the couple keep a car at Murcia airport which is an easy two-hour drive away – the valet parking costs around €400 a year.
They also have someone who keeps an eye on their property for a retainer taking care of necessary maintenance and the garden when they are not there – especially useful if there are any freak storms and also for security. Their running costs are relatively low, with approximate bills including council tax at around €200 per year, water and waste €40 a quarter and internet €26 a month. Electricity is the utility with the highest cost but can be managed by using power at the cheapest times in the day or night.
Gill and Chris love their new home: “We saw very many cave houses online for sale, even including the one next door to our house. We had some specific requirements including easy access and also windows! Since we bought we have seen many more caves and we know that none compare to ours – we are so happy with it.”
SEARCH FOR PROPERTY IN GRANADA
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