Townhouse for sale in Sax, Alicante

Wow, what a beautiful example of a terraced property in an incredible location just 25 metres from the High Street (Gran Via), a one-minute walk to the best bakery in town and all amenities within a couple of minutes' walk.

The owner has put so much thought and a whole ton of love into reforming the property so it works perfectly as a family home or for an investor, a perfect Airbnb and in an area where a license would be a formality and we would estimate a nightly rate of no less than 100€ plus extras. If choosing as an investment, then first-year return based on as little as 25% occupancy would return over 9,000€.

What a great choice as a first-time buyer´s property, as the house is being sold at a very realistic price and a mortgage valuation should be a piece of cake. In fact a young couple with a child for example, could live here and have more kids without even considering having to move to something bigger, as there are four bedrooms and, on the upper level reached from the patio is the most excellent teenager´s room and hallway that gives them some privacy.

On entering the property from the street, where there is ample on-street parking available, and it is not affected by the Monday market which disrupts so many streets in the area, you have a small hallway and then the beautiful open-plan lounge/diner through to the galley kitchen. It´s all finished off with great consideration, smooth lines and blank canvases ready for you to put your own stamp on it.

There are two bedrooms off the lounge/diner; both are doubles, and the largest bedroom is off the kitchen where there is a small patio and a family bathroom.

The stairs to the more private are that I mentioned before are here off the patio and lead to a small dressing room and another double bedroom.

There is lots of natural light and new double-glazed windows to ensure the house can run economically.

I imagine the first people to view will have little hesitation.

Why Sax?

There are no traffic lights, it has a 13th-century castle, one of seven on the castle route but ours is the best and there are no traffic lights, parking meters and hardly enough crime to even mention due to the town having full employment. 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 we are only eight minutes’ drive away from the AVE station at Villena.

The AVE is the high-speed train from Alicante to Madrid which has only four stops. From boarding the train will 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 Madrid.

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, 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 a UK Department Store, for example, the chances are they could have been made in Sax or nearby Elda and we now supply 60% of the footwear used in all Spanish hospitals. It is an incredible feat. No pun intended.

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.

Sax is small enough for everyone to know each other and a family who has a son or daughter who is a criminal brings shame on the family. I suppose it´s like when I was growing up in the North West during the 60´s.

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 a cinema showing films in English with Spanish subtitles. There are also six gyms in Sax and a superb one in the shopping mall along with Ten Pin Bowling etc Sushi Restaurant and many others.

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.

However, he didn´t like the idea of going into pharmacy as a career so he is studying law and working as my business partner. He already has a diploma in Spanish Property Law.

For health, Sax and Spain, in general, is far superior to the UK. In the town, we have a new Health Centre with eight doctors, two nurses, a diabetes clinic and a 24/7 Emergency Walk/In Centre. We have three pharmacies, two of which have at least one person who speaks English and their advice is always excellent.

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 Fuente del Cura 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 Gastrobar and the stunning, in my opinion, Condumio.

In Elda, ten minutes in the other direction there is Xambel, Xhagar, Fabrica, La Sirena and Tenaz, all very good restaurants and surprisingly inexpensive. In most bars and cafes, a coffee and toast for breakfast will cost no more than 2,50€ 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 as there are very few building permits left in either of the towns and yet they are growing. So, come look around and enjoy.