Up until now Murcia's main selling point was price, with the Costa Cálida, as it is also known, attracting British buyers looking for value for money. Its other big attraction was a general lack of over-development compared to the cheaper areas of the south Costa Blanca and parts of the Costa del Sol. But Murcia's property market is changing fast, and with it the reference points that guided buyers in the past. Recently the OECD, The IMF, and even the Bank of Spain have expressed concern that Spain's turbo-charged property market is overheating. But if Spain's property market has been hot in recent years, then Murcia has been its white-hot molten core. According to government figures, average property prices in Murcia are up by 134% over 5 years to the end of 2005, trouncing the next best performance by Andalusia with 123%. Murcia's property price increases have been stellar by even Spain's robust standards, with property inflation hitting 26% in 2004, compared to the Spanish average of 17%, and foreign buyers – largely British – appear to be behind it. In 2005, however, Murcia's property market has cooled somewhat, with prices rising by 11.6%, compared to the national average of 12.8%, so some of the heat might have gone out of Murcia's property market. Before Murcia's property market blasted off around 1999, Spain's holiday property boom had largely passed it by. For centuries it was just a poor if beautiful backwater, though reasonable economic success came in the 80s when it reinvented itself as Europe's market garden and the undisputed iceberg lettuce king of the world. The reinvention process is once again under way, this time as a holiday home destination. It's not hard to see why. The climate on Murcia's coast is exceptional, with endless hours of sunshine, balmy temperatures, and low rainfall, all of which makes it irresistible to refugees from northern Europe's depressing weather. And coming late to the development game its 250 kilometres of beautiful coastline are still largely unexploited – a big asset in a market that is starting to kick against mindless over-development. Considering that Murcia has been largely overlooked until now it's ironic that Spain's holiday-home resort business kicked off in Murcia with the La Manga Club, 35 years ago. Established by a Californian rambler who fell in love with what was then wild countryside looking onto an extraordinary saltwater lagoon known as the Mar Menor, the La Manga Club was Spain's first residential golf development, and still retains its reputation as one of the classiest. A veritable celebrity-spotters paradise, it boasts a five-star Hyatt Regency hotel and spa, and is often chosen by leading football clubs as a place to train, relax, and bond in luxury surroundings. As a mature resort there is hardly any new property being built at the La Manga Club, though the developer Medgroup is offering a limited stock of properties in a type of leaseback agreement with the rental and management handled by the Hyatt hotel. The resale market is a different matter, though. According to Marilyn Sleep, head of Design Home Sales - an estate agency based out of the La Manga Club - the resale market on the resort is robust. "The Club's reputation gives people the confidence to buy here because they know what they are getting, unlike some other resorts. However, it is very exclusive, and villas here start at around 1 million euros, which is unusual for Murcia," explains Sleep. But whilst the La Manga Club has been in the limelight for years, Murcia as a whole is now definitely on the radar of British buyers in a way that it never was before. One explanation for this is the massive and super-slick marketing campaign being waged by just one developer – Polaris World. With six resorts and at total of around 30,000 properties, Polaris World's ambitions are almost pharaonic, with resorts rising like small cities out of the dusty plains of Murcia. Gordon Payne (64) and his wife Ann (62) from Malvern have recently relocated to Murcia, after buying a three-bedroom, three-bathroom villa on Polaris World's Mar Menor Golf Resort, just outside the town of Torre Pacheco and 15 minutes from the beaches of the Mar Menor. They paid 224,000 euros buying off-plan in July 2003, and spent another 18,000 euros putting in a pool. Though not investors they are far from unhappy that similar properties are now for sale at 400,000 euros without a pool. "We knew we didn't want the Costa del Sol because we don't think it offers value for money," explains Gordon over an ice-cold lunchtime pint in a bar looking onto the fairway. "So we started looking in the Costa Blanca, but found the over-development there oppressive, and just kept heading south until we reached Murcia. When we got here we know it was right." One week into their new life in Murcia, and despite snagging problems – today their aircon isn't working – Gordon and Ann are convinced they made the right decision. "I had a swim last night at midnight after eating out under the stars. For me that is quality of life," purrs Ann. Other notable developments in Murcia include the Hacienda del Alamo resort, inland at Fuente Alamo, which Sleep tips as the most likely to follow in the La Manga Club's well-heeled footsteps, and the Lorca Resort in the South of Murcia, half way between the picturesque town of Lorca and the beach at Aguilas. The Lorca Resort is unusual for being so far south, whilst most of the other developments are further north, and for it's undulating landscape in the foothills of the Sierra Almenara, complete with Eucalyptus forests and national park. But with so much new development going on, what about the resale market? "The resale action today is largely inland," explains Andrew Lupton, head of Stacks Relocation Spain – a relocation and buyer's agency based in Murcia city. "Coastal property is flat-lining after pricing itself out of the market, and rising crime and over-crowding are also conspiring to drive buyers inland." According to Lupton, a typical British client will have around 250,000 Euros to spend, and is looking for a three to four bedroom, two bathroom villa with a bit of land. However, interest is also growing in three-bedroom town houses in the attractive old quarters of inland towns such Lorca, Calasparra, Caravaca and Mula, which can be had for around 65,000 to 70,000 euros fully refurbished. Looking to the future he expects the coastal city of Cartagena to turn into a real jewel – Murcia's answer to Barcelona. There is no denying that Murcia's property market in has been transformed in recent years. However after four years of fine weather for the market, ominous clouds are gathering on the horizon. For a start the holiday-home market all over Spain is clearly cooling down, and Murcia has not escaped this trend. When the British economy starts to splutter and its house prices stagnate, the effects are soon felt on the Spanish costas. Now that Murcia's price advantage has largely evaporated, and with it Murcia's unique selling point, it looks likely that Murcia will struggle in a difficult market. In the short-term there is a risk that the market won't be able to absorb all the new properties being built in Murcia. Relative to other areas Murcia doesn't stand out for excessive building (48,000 new housing starts in 2004, compared to 97,000 in the Valencian Region and 146,000 in Andalusia), but by Murcian standards this is a tsunami of new properties. If an already slowing market can't digest this helping of new properties, then off-plan investors and developers may be in for a bellyache. Property investor Kevin Walsh certainly thinks this is likely. After paying a deposit for a town house on the Polaris World La Torre Resort, he got cold feet and backed out. "I was looking for pure financial gain, not a lifestyle investment," Walsh confesses. "Then it dawned on me how much they are building in a region that is still relatively underdeveloped from a tourism point of view, and I realised that there was a high chance that I would be stuck with a property that I didn't want and couldn't rent. I also doubt it's sustainable as there are currently 30-plus golf course developments under way in Murcia, and water already seems to be a major issue so it can only get worse. I invested in the Lake District instead." There are other issues too: the resale market is rife with unprofessional estate agents targeting British buyers, and the rapid rate of development has sucked in a number of greed-driven local developers with no experience of the complexities of realising home-buyer's dreams. Juan Bertomeu – a real estate lawyer who covers both Alicante and Murcia – describes it as "the Wild West", where planning permission is too often ignored and developers make little effort to deliver on their promises. And then there's the water issue, "the issue" as Andrew Lupton calls it. The endless sunshine that attracts buyers to Murcia is all very well, but the water has to come from somewhere. Spain is in the grip of the worst drought for years, making the situation more severe than normal, but even in normal years Murcia doesn't have the water it will need once all the properties and golf developments are built. Plans to solve the problem presently revolve around desalination plants, though the environmental cost of these is high, and Australia has just banned them for this very reason. For the time being Murcia doesn't appear to have a viable long-term solution that reconciles its real estate development plans and thirsty huertas, or market-gardens, with its lack of water.If they can solve the water problem and learn from the development mistakes of other coasts – a big if - then Murcia, with its lovely climate, scenery, and thus far unexploited coastline may turn out to be a good bet in the long-term. However, given Murcia's 'frontier' character British buyers have to tread especially carefully when buying there, and only deal with the most reputable companies. And in the short-term, if only the clouds gathering on the horizon contained nothing more welcome than rain.