This is a truly lovely and very well constructed finca and just a ten minute walk to the town of Sax and a little less to a Mini Market and a very good Bar/Restaurant. In fact, the location could hardly be better as the property also gives you fabulous views of Sax Castle and the mountains, but it must be said, there is a certain amount of traffic noise from the Autovia, it is not as noticeable from the garden areas but can be heard more clearly by the swimming pool. This has been taken into consideration in the price.

The property is within a community of five Spanish-owned properties. Originally, it was one large family that owned all the fincas.

You enter the grounds of the property via the gates at the side, which takes you into a parking area where there are two garages and a carport and other spaces for cars.

It is hard not to notice, to the left, a patch of ground that has been ploughed frequently and is approximately 800m2 and ready for fruit trees and/vegetables and everything grows wonderfully well other than citrus due to the height above sea level but, during the season, oranges and lemons can be bought at the market for around 80c per kilo.

The finca is entered via a spacious conservatory which is a lovely area for capturing the winter sunshine and that leads through the main door to a hallway with three of the four bedrooms to the left and right. All the bedrooms are doubles and one backs onto one of the garages, which I would reform into an en-suite bathroom, as there is the previously mentioned second garage and carport.

At the end of the hallway is the open plan lounge/diner/kitchen, which is a lovely space and the kitchen has recently been upgraded.

To the right is the family bathroom and another bedroom.

The interior is bone dry due to the quality of the build and the roof is in first-class condition. The foundations were put in so that a second level could be built if required.

Why Sax?

There are no traffic lights, it has a 13th-century castle and there are no parking meters or fee paying car parks. What? That isn´t enough?

Sax is so popular because it is far enough inland to be “inland” yet it is only 30 minutes to Alicante Airport and 35 minutes to the beach.  Access is by the A31 Dual Carriageway Alicante to Madrid Autovia (Motorway to you) which runs just outside of the town, by rail and coach from Alicante so you can go to the beach and not have to take your car, and now we are only five minutes away from the AVE station at Villena.

The AVE is the high-speed train from Alicante to Madrid which has only four stops and we are five minutes away from a station that onboarding will you have you in Madrid in 2hrs 9mins for as little as 9€ if you are lucky enough, but around 25€ if not.

Let us stick with the town of Sax for now rather than escaping to the beach or the capital city. Sax is dominated by its 13th-century castle known as the Headlight And Guardian Of The Border a landscape of history and rock. When driving back home to Sax after daylight the sight of the castle, fully lit, and seemingly floating in the air is one of the most welcoming sights I have ever experienced. It´s a sign we are almost home.

Commercially, Sax was only affected in a minor way by the economic crash as it is the home of three major international businesses selling “persianas y toldos”, window blinds and sun canopies and a shoe industry that means if you recently bought a pair of shoes in Debenhams, for example, the chances are they could have been made in Sax or nearby Elda. 

Both Sax and the smaller town of Salinas just eight minutes drive away have close to full employment and lots of opportunity which means our crime statistics are very low and both towns are safe in a way that is hard to imagine if you have arrived from the UK or Holland. Walking around whatever time of day or night is a pleasure rather than something to fear.

Recently we have seen the opening of a Consum supermarket, the equivalent of a Waitrose or Marks & Spencer Food Hall whilst there has been a Hiperber and Dia, both excellent supermarkets for as long as I can remember, and if that isn´t enough there is a Carrefour (Think Tesco) eight minutes’ drive away within a shopping mall complex that has two cinemas one of which shows films in English with Spanish subtitles.

Sax is served wonderfully well with schools, our son was eight when we moved here and reluctantly, we put him into a state school, he always went to a private school in Manchester, and within six months he was fluent in two languages and following five years in a secondary school went on to study Pharmacy at Complutense in Madrid one of Spain´s most famous and prestigious universities.

For health, Sax and Spain, in general, is far superior to the UK. In the town, we have a brand new Health Centre with eight doctors, two nurses, a diabetes clinics and a 24/7 Emergency Walk/In Centre.

Ten minutes away in Elda is the remarkable award-winning University Hospital El Virgen De Salud where the surgeons are second to none and the food is atrocious, well it can’t all be good!! Newly opened is the Fibromyalgia centre offering support and therapies for those suffering from acute pain.

There are now three Language Schools in the town and the town hall ran a scheme for language swapping that may be run again. Learning Spanish is a lot less difficult than it may seem and there are new ways of learning that concentrate on conversational Spanish.

There are restaurants and bars aplenty with prices that are at first beyond belief and a three or four-course lunch of good quality can easily be found for 13€ or less. For a special occasion, there is Casa Mami and El Fuente restaurant at the hotel of the same name which are a little more expensive but great food experiences can be had.

Nearby Villena, ten minutes or so up the A31, has some excellent restaurants including the very fashionable Tita´s Gastronimo and the stunning, in my opinion, Condumio. Coffee and toast for breakfast will cost no more than 2€ and the coffee is possibly the best in Europe.

Our biggest challenge these days is finding properties as opposed to selling them as Sax and Salinas as both have become incredibly popular and there are no building permits left in either of the towns and yet they are growing. So, come look around and enjoy.