Property in Totana
Totana offers a good selection of rural properties close to expat communities and within an easy drive of the beach
The most sought after areas among non-Spanish buyers are in La Charca, Mortí and El Pareton
Totana (click for full information) is a municipality of 288 square kilometres with a population of just over 30,000 in the south-west of the Region of Murcia. This places it close to the beaches of the southern Costa Cálida in Mazarrón and closer still to the mountains and protected park of the Sierra Espuña, which climb to a maximum height of over 1,500 metres, and the climate of the municipality is slightly wetter than neighbouring Mazarrón.
This is because the main town itself lies on the flat agricultural plains at the foor of the Sierra Espuña which rears up behind it, so clouds tend to release their load over the sierra. The result is green forests in the areas of foothills at the foot of the sierra and orchards of citrus trees surrounding the northern areas of the town, which then flattens into drier, flatter agricultural areas.
UK buyers may be put off by the word "rain", but those who have spent summer after parched summer with temperatures in the mid 30's on the coast, often wish they had looked at the areas slightly inland around Alhama de Murcia and Totana, as the green fruit orchards and forests are a magnet for coastal residents seeking respite from the intense summer heat, yet are still close enough to enjoy the coastal beaches and the warmer temperatures of the region.
Property in Totana is concentrated mainly around the market town itself, where 25,000 of the municipality’s 30,000 people live, although many of the properties preferred by international buyers are scattered in the countryside and foothills of the Sierra Espuña.
Although Totana is very popular for days out among expats in Mazarrón and at Condado de Alhama, few northern Europeans actually live here compared to areas such as Mazarrón. According to the Town Hall residential roll, under 1,000 EU nationals live in the municipality, as opposed to more than 7,000 in neighbouring Mazarrón.
This, of course, is a positive attraction for those who enjoy the company of fellow expats and the clubs, societies, shops selling custard powder and British bars, but like to go home to a slice of real Spain away from the uniformity of rows of white villas and apartment blocks which is the standard offering on the urbanisations of Camposol and Condado de Alhama.
Totana lies in the flood plain of the Guadalentín valley, as do Lorca to the west and Alhama de Murcia to the east, and this is what makes the land here so fertile and suitable for crop farming. However, in among the farming concerns there are some villages and attractive rural properties in the southern part of the municipality, particularly in Cantareros and El Paretón. These two villages merge into each other approximately five kilometres from the Condado de Alhama resort, offering a mixture of new townhouses and apartments alongside older rural houses, some of which have been renovated. In addition, the medical services and schools of Totana and the beaches of Mazarrón are fairly close at hand, although large shopping centres are rather further away in Lorca, Cartagena and Murcia.
Real estate in the centre of Totana itself follows a typical pattern: most of the homes are apartments or flats, with the older properties in the centre complemented by more modern developments where the town has grown outwards as the population has doubled since the 1970s. Located within half an hour’s drive of both the regional capital of Murcia and the beaches of Mazarrón, Totana has become an increasingly popular place to live among the Spanish as the road network has improved over the last thirty years.
The town lies in the shadow of Sierra Espuña, and many of the more attractive properties are in the lower slopes of the mountains near the Santuario de Santa Eulalia. Some of the impressive chalets in La Charca and Mortí date back to the mid-20th century, when the better-off residents of the town and of Murcia built country residences alongside the vineyards on these south-facing slopes, and this is still very definitely a “des res” part of the municipality. New-build properties also exist along the picturesque road up to the Sanctuary and Aledo, notably in the Residencial Espuña, which consists of small individual chalets, each with its own pool.
There are also some fairly substantial modern detatched properties in this area, always popular with international buyers.
The northern part of the municipality lies in the beautiful regional park of Sierra Espuña, which is largely covered in dense pine forests: while this is of course an attraction for visitors, its protected status means that no residential property is available except for the sprinkling of rural properties off the MU-503 road which skirts around the western side of Sierra Espuña.
As a whole, Totana is a good-sized town on the main motorway between Murcia and Andalucía, offering easy access to both mountains and beaches, and is a very real prospect for buyers looking for the “real” experience of living in a rural area of Spain with the comfort of a larger expat community nearby.
