Discreet to a tee

Karen Robinson, The Sunday Times, 1 October 2000

To be in possession of a golf buggy with white Rolls-Royce bodywork - including the silver Spirit of Ecstasy perched on the bonnet - is to make a certain statement about your establishment. And when the sales director of the San Roque Club cruises the fairways in this distinguished vehicle, and points out that villa owners on his estate have the buffer zone of two golf courses between them and the houses on neighbouring Sotogrande - as though that opulent enclave of golf, polo and visiting Spanish royalty were the local sink estate - you start to get the message.

San Roque may not have the glitz of nearby Marbella or the high-profile brand name of Sotogrande, but it is quietly, expensively exclusive. In a way, it always has been. The 340-acre hillside estate on which the golf course and 98 generous-sized villa plots now sit was purchased in 1987 from the sherry-making Domecq dynasty, who used it as their summer retreat. The magnificent hacienda that is now part of the discreet and luxurious San Roque hotel was their holiday home.

The hotel and golf course came first, and now, on the strength of the property boom that began in Marbella three years ago and is spreading west, the residential element of San Roque is coming into its own.

You don't have to love golf to live there, but it certainly helps. All the house plots border the fairways of the existing Tony Jacklin-designed course (a second San Roque 18-hole course will begin construction next year) and though their designs are perfectly adapted to the Mediterranean climate, the house-types all have names such as the Turnberry, the Wentworth and the Augusta.

The price of a house includes the golf club joining fee, and if you tire of the course at the bottom of your garden, there are several other world-class courses in the immediate neighbourhood (including Valderrama and Sotogrande), with more planned.

If all this golf, in a climate that is sunny and bright enough to play all year round (except in the searing heat of high summer) sounds like an ideal environment, a little patience is required. It takes about a year from buying your plot to having a house ready to move into. A healthy budget is also fairly vital. "We don't like to have cheap houses here," says Josef Dobrounig, the sales director. Clients must use San Roque as their developer, following or adapting one of the approved house styles, and plot-buying for speculation is severely discouraged.

There is a time limit between buying and building, with a penalty buy-back clause for those who fail to comply.

A dozen houses have already been completed. The plots are being sold phase by phase so all the building in each area is done simultaneously. Although San Roque undertakes to deliver your finished house in accordance with a specification detailing every aspect of design and construction, you can, as Naomi Greatbanks of Knight Frank, which is marketing the scheme in Britain, says "employ your own project manager if you don't have time to pop down frequently to keep an eye on the work.

"It's not cheap - you pay them a percentage of the total cost of the job - but there are some good people locally, including one English person in San Roque."

The substantial houses are a reflection of the trend for such places to be the owners' primary home. According to Barry Randal-Williams, Knight Frank's local estate agency partner: "Roads, hospitals - very important for buyers in their 50s and 60s - and the phone system, which used to be prehistoric, have all improved dramatically. It means that people can spend months each year out of their offices - and the property market has changed accordingly. What people want now is something of a much higher specification than the old two-bed, two-bath holiday apartment."

The Wentworth design has an enclosed courtyard - a suntrap right through the winter - and generous terracing with plenty of shade. There is a master suite with integral dressing room and home office and four other bedrooms, a garage and a swimming pool.

Prices at San Roque start at about £375,000 for a two or three-bedroom house on a 2,000sq m plot. For that you would get the house with a fairly basic kitchen, landscaped garden with automatic irrigation system and pool, plus golf club joining fee and membership of the San Roque Club.

The club, based at the hotel, offers concessions on its services, including riding at the equestrian centre, and free use of the pool and the summer shuttle bus to the beach. On top of that, add local taxes of 7% (or more if you delay between plot purchase and construction).

About £2,000 a year covers basic estate services, including security and outdoor maintenance. Prices for larger plots and houses are expected to go as high as £750,000.