Pools, terraces and renovations in Rojales & Ciudad Quesada

What we usually build in Rojales and Ciudad Quesada

Rojales is really two places. Ciudad Quesada is a hillside urbanisation of around 12,000 people, built from 1972 onwards for foreign buyers, and its stock is mostly detached villas, bungalows and townhouses from the 1970s to the 2000s, many now due a serious update. So the typical brief here is a dated villa in central Quesada, Lo Pepín or Pueblo Bravo: replace the old pool with a new reinforced concrete shell, rebuild the terrace around it in non-slip porcelain, and redo the bathrooms and kitchen while the crew is on site. Listings for resale villas in Quesada typically show plots of 400 to 700 m2, where an 8 by 4 m pool sits comfortably with room for a lawn or a gravel garden, low-water planting and an outdoor shower. Newer villas by La Marquesa Golf are on tighter 275 to 335 m2 plots, so there we usually draw a 7 by 3 or 6 by 3 m pool. In Doña Pepa and Lo Marabú the townhouse patios are small: a compact pool, a pergola and good paving. Benimar and Pueblo Lucero bring more new-build work with sea views.

Getting it licensed in Rojales

The permit for a pool, a terrace or a renovation in Ciudad Quesada, Doña Pepa or Rojales old town goes through the Ayuntamiento de Rojales on Malecón de la Encantá; there is also a municipal office up in Quesada with English-speaking staff for residents of the urbanisation. ORIGEN draws up the project, gathers the paperwork and files the application on your behalf, as your representative, so you chase nothing yourself. You receive a copy of everything that goes in and of the licence when it comes out. How long the town hall takes is up to the town hall, and we start on site only once it is granted.

Working on the ground in Quesada and Rojales

Quesada sits about 100 m up on Pliocene sandstone and marl, so a pool dig meets firm, sometimes rocky ground, and hillside plots often need a retaining wall and a level platform first. Rojales old town is different: it sits at about 16 m on the Segura floodplain, a documented flood-risk zone, so there we look hard at drainage. The hill catches the Levante and Poniente breezes and full sun most of the year, with the salt lakes' humidity below, so we fit marine-grade stainless fixings, UV-stable finishes and proper shade. Streets in the older urbanisations are narrow, so we use mini excavators and conveyors, or a crane over the roof where a truck cannot reach the garden.

Ciudad Quesada, Doña Pepa, Benimar, La Marquesa