Parador are Agents, they deal with many developers.

You will not get a different price from a builder/developer by dealing direct or by going through Parador.

They have been in business on the Costa Blanca for 10 years and are well established.

bought a property with them last year and it all went pretty much smooth

my dad bought with Atlas international the year before and it couldnt have been any different and he is still having problems with them

just dont let any pressure you and ask as many questions as you want

Try looking for a forum for the resort you have in mind and then look on the threads for peoples buying experiances.

I know people who shelled out £600 to join their Owners Club and regret it for various reasons. I also know people who bought on a complex and paid much more than their neighbours who bought through a local agent - they also managed to get their air con units thrown in with the price too!

If the prices were not higher than the local agent - I wonder how they manage to produce prime time TV adverts with celebs and other high profile marketing? Somebody is paying for it - it cant just be the small % the builder pays them for 'finding' the buyer.

When I set out to buy two years ago I joined a couple of forums (inc still using this one!) and really did my homework and decieded against the 'inspection trip' route and took a holiday and got to know the place without being 'tied' to anyone.

Owning a place abroad has been the best thing we ever did - I hope it is for you too!

I wouldn't be allowed to say on here the things that I have heard about them, just google!

I would advise anyone not to use the companies who advertise and run exhibitions in the UK. Just come over and window-shop. Try a few agents, don't let one latch on to you.

Jacky see my comments on the other thread about Parador inspection trips!!

what you need out here is to find an agent with integrity- not easy - but possible.

I agree wholeheartedly with Jacky and Bryn [i]AND [i] I have had personal dealings with Parador and other smaller agents. Professionally I have had dealings with MASA and others so wouldn't touch them with a barge pole but I won't go into that here. Staying on a personal level I would advise you to come "under your own steam" and visit local agents who, if they are genuine, will help with you with allsorts of things over and above their call of duty, when necessary. I visited the Costa Blanca many times before I bought my home and finally chose to buy in Denia. The agent I bought from is now a firm friend who I also work with from time to time. Spend your time and money doing your own research and trust your instincts; you will know what you want to buy when you see it. Just don't leave your brains or your calculator in UK
Hope this helps.

Once you've decided on a country and area, take a holiday there and visit the local agents. If you go on an inspection trip with Parador, they'll only show you their properties (obviously), and you might feel pressured to buy. Companies like Parador are only interested in getting you to go on their inspection trips, they're very reluctant to give you any in depth information about their developments until you get there.

My friend bought a villa from plan with Parador Properties and has nothing but trouble, 2 years on they still don't have any running water, it has to be delivered daily. They also have to pay an €20,000 for a retaining wall that they weren't told about. The whole thing has been a nightmare.
She paid for aftersales from Parador and that has been a waste of time, they haven't wanted to know about all the problems.

Sue

We went out on an inspection trip when we bought our property (over 5 yrs ago) The good thing is - if you get a good agent they will show you the area and give useful information. My advice would be, take a holiday or if possible rent for a few months in the area you want to buy. Dont buy on an inspection trip, it is too rushed and you dont know what you are buying. The sales on most countries, especially Spain are very slow. We look around where we have our property and re sale properties can be bought at very good prices. Go and take a look around the estate agents, go onto the web based sites that the owners are selling direct. Then if you see something you are interested in make a low offer, you can always increase it later. The big companies, like Parador, Atlas add on 10 / 20% for their commission and you cannot get this back in the short term if you need to sell.

Good luck house hunting.

I totally agree with the above.All these agents get a commision,someone has to pay for that?
Take trips out yourself and look at various areas you are interested in.Check web sites for rentals as also said,try before you buy,then you know what it is you really want

myself and my wife went on 4 day viewing trip in august 2006 with parador.and as a direct result of there misrepresentation of us we have lost 55 thousand euros with no prospect of getting it back even though they admitted making mistakes there is a lot more to this story. but my advise would leave parador well alone they didn't even give us our £500 pound back for the owners club that we joined. we were sold down the river by them we now have to pay back the money we borrowed for the payments we made. so we now have a mortgage that we didn't have before parador and the very reel possibility of having to sell hour home because of these people. I'm telling you this so you hopefully you will not be sucked in by there so called professionalism.

There is a link on another thread that suggests Parador are in liquidation.

Thanks Dave. Found HERE

Kath x

Last year we looked at some property with Parador. We already own a property in Spain, so we asked for a property valuation on our own property and viewed some properties they were selling. We did not proceed with Parador.
This last week we were contacted by the sales person who showed us around, asking if we still wanted to sell our property. She may have someone interested in buying. We would make a private sale and give her 10,000 euros for introducing the buyers.
What a cheek

That used to be the norm here janet. I introduced some friends to an estate agent, and when they bought from them, the agents gave me part of their commission. Same thing when we did sell our property here, we would be paying the commission to whoever introduced the buyer to us.

Ive bought through Parador in Crete and had no real problems. Though I agree no point in joining their members club. Total waste of money !!!!
I know they have gone into liquidation in the UK but this isnt I understand affecting their operations abroad.

I think the only implication is that they have stopped operating in the UK ie no more cheap introductory trips from the uk to visit properties. I was never sure how this worked for them anyway. They must have got good commission from sales !!! And if they still have offices abroad (and they do) how are they still operating in Spain etc? can anyone explain ?

regards
John

I bought a property in Cyprus via Parador. They were useless from beginnng to end. Despite early re-assurance it is clear they were poorly managed and organised and extremely poor communicators.

I visited last week and found an issue with air con units I purchased via parador. I tried to contact them to no avail - all calls going to answer machines, their website contact link does not work and all calls to UK head office are met with repeating message on their opening hours.

If anyone knows how to get in contact with anyone in parador with regards to Cyprus please let me know - I just need a contact number for the installers and i wont have to deal with Parador ever again!

It is my understanding that Parador Properties no longer exists.

They still have a few people working in their office which is just up the road from me in Spain, but I think that they are only dealing with completions of properties already sold. I understand that they are no longer bringing people out from the U.K. and elsewhere on tours.

The Company has kept the same name, but now is registered in Spain as a 'S.A' set up. All the logos on their remaining cars have been changed to reflect this.

Most of the management from the old Company moved to Polaris World, but aparently didn't do too well there, and are no longer with them.

Hi everybody out there who has dealt with PARADOR .We are about to lose 66,000euros.Is there anything we can do to get some of our money back .I found out last night 4/4/2009 they did not instruct a solicitor for me ,since 2007,we have been paying a solicitor(ANIORTE ABIGARDOS) direct ,but they have had each stage payment on time so how can POLARIS say they have no solicitor on file.

We should have been told Parador went bust ,without us finding out by accident.WE have been to Parador offices twice in Spain both times coming away no further on .They refused to tell us were the development was saying due to health and safety we could not go on site ok but we wanted to see the area , when we saw the area this year 2009 it was exactly what we did not want.

Our criteria was for a family of nine various ages and ten grandchildren and walking distance to the sea as many dont drive. Polaris told us we could have contacted them direct ,we gave PARADOR £600 to help us do what was necessary to buy in Spain(you dont give money to a solicitor then do the work yourself) do you ?.PARADOR ****** every person they took money off .I believe we were missold the property.Has anybody out there any helpful advice to give ,if we lose the 66,00euros is that it ,??or are we liable for the other 100,000 euros does anybody know?

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