June 22, 2006
Building a Villa on Flamingos Golf (1)
Filip Vercauteren | Fincalena
Since the 23 of June 2005, Fincalena has been doing the building coordination for this rather exceptional villa and on this blog we would like to comment about the project, i.e. all the steps involved in building a villa in Spain, the things you have to look out for, a general guide for prices etc. The goal is to give the interested reader a good view on the challenges that one has to face when he decides to build a house in Spain.
The client of this particular villa hired us on the basis of our small and specialized knowledge and dedication. He preferred us above the likes of bigger companies such as MDCI, mainly on the argument that he gets our full attention and that we look for the best architect, the best builder etc. as opposed to the ones linked to the house. The most important thing was that he was convinced that he needed a project manager; some people here try to do everything themselves leaving the road wide open to all kind of unpleasant surprises during construction, not to mention that it is very difficult to have a good approximation of the real building costs if you are not surrounded by the best people in the field.
The first task was to find the architect that would fit our client, who was looking for a unique villa respecting Spanish architecture but not copying too much of the Hacienda-style either.
My first thought was to use Melvin Villarroel, who we worked together with on a previous project and is the most famous architect on the Costa Del Sol. Three important reasons why we decided not to use him was that he has become so famous that you do not get his personal attention anymore, rather, the drawings would be done by some talented kid in the backroom, but it would not be by the hand of the master himself. Secondly, his office has expanded so much that it is suffering from bureaucratic disease; it took me 3 days to get a simple copy of the general plans of the houses we built with them, not to mention the backlog that was created when we solicited the license of first occupation. Finally, there is also a price element to have the best of the best: architecture charges can go up as high as 10% of the building cost. So we decided to search for an equally talented but less famous architect.
We were recommended Gustavo Kloster, but we decided after a first drawing that the style my client liked and the one that is being used by this architect were just too different to each other. The third one, Francisco Martinez, came recommended by my previous boss and he earned his reputation by drawing the very successful project Golf Gardens in Rio Real, Marbella. This guy is extremely talented, young and ambitious, but still hasn’t really made in the big leagues mostly because of his age (32). He made an original drawing and it was love at first sight: Both the client and I were very impressed by the quality of his drawings and the unique style that appeared to be exactly what we were looking for. We made the decision to continue with this architect and we made arrangements to negotiate the contract. He asked for 6% of the building cost, which was fair given the fact that 10% is quite common here. After some negotiating, we closed of at around 4,5% of the total building cost. I was very happy to have him on board as I knew he was going to be very dedicated to the job and I was satisfied for the price that we obtained. After that, the real work could start and the first year was almost entirely dedicated to designing the perfect house, given the fact that my client is not in a hurry and a true perfectionist. But that will be the subject of the second blog about the project.
Category: Our Time in Spain