It should come as no surprise that Torrenueva Costa has the largest percentage of second homes in Granada and the third in the whole of Spain.

In the 70s and 80s on the 1st of September, the chiringuitos would literally disappear – they were not permanent structures back then. The town was almost empty because all of those flats were holiday homes; not like nowadays when 2nd-homes are all rented out to tourists, but for somewhere exclusively for the owners when they came on holiday.

Second homeowners came from as close as Motril and as far afield as Madrid. Even Uncle Tom’s Cabin (A bar) would shut up shop during off season. Rumour had it that the guy who ran it had originally turned up one day and set up a chambao on the beach and sold beers and wine. After a few years he set up operations in a bar, which is now sadly long closed down

It was as exciting during the summer as it was boring during the winter. During the heat of summer, all the flats used to have their blinds down to keep out the flama (heat) so that even in summer around four in the afternoon, it seemed a ghost town.

Anyway, enough of reminiscence and back to today’s facts. According to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), 34,2% of dwellings are second homes, used only “sporadically,” judging by electricity consumption; i.e. dwellings that only use between 250 to 750 kilowatts a year, which is a consumption equivalent to one to three months’ occupation.

On a provincial level, one in every six dwellings is a second home with the Costa Tropical; Gualchos, Almuñécar, Polopos and Salobreña, also have more than 20% with a maximum of only three months a year occupied.

Lastly, Almuñécar has 63.20% of its dwelling that are “not habituales,” making it the second municipality in Spain with more than 20,000 inhabitants with the least first residences.

(News/Noticias: Torrenueva Costa, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)