We have a holiday home between Dolores and Catral about 15 minutes drive from Orihuela. We consider it to be an ideal location - 25 minutes to Alicante Airport, 15 minutes to beaches at Guardamar and 15 mins the other way to the mountains and 5 golf courses within 30 minutes. The towns retain their Spanish character with a good selection of tapas bars and restaurants. It is an up and coming area, made more so with the announcement last month that a golf course is to be built on the outskirts of Dolores. You already get more for your money than nearer to the coast but prices are likely to increase.
A friend of ours has just put a deposit on a 2 bed apartment in a 3 storey block with sun terrace and pool on the roof, a couple of minutes from Dolores centre. The cost was 94,000 euros with 20% down and nothing further to pay until completion next Spring. There is info on the area on http://www.aytodolores.es.
Beware who you deal with. Our friend originally was buying through Palmera Properties who wanted almost 5,000 euros arrangement fee. He saved this and got exactly the same apartment using an independant promoter in Dolores.
Hope this helps. Jim.

Thanks Jim,

I will pass info on which is very helpful.

Not quite sure how far you are from murcia has i have to say murcia imho is one of the fastest growing areas in spain and there are a few big projects ongoing with some more in the pipeline and reguarding rentals i can see it being saturated over the next couple of years in its favour there is a new airport scheduled to being built in 2007 i believe with also a new express rail line with a projected two hours to madrid in the pipeline.

At the moment murcia is a lovely traditional spanish area but obviously with the amount of building going on i have to say unfortunately it could be slightly spoiled in my view. .

We are currently in the process of having a apartment being built on one of the golf courses and at this moment of time dont have to rely on rentals and will be using it for a nice bolt hole for a few summer/long weekends and also winter breaks. and hopefully a bit of an investment over the next few years.