Dreams that crumbled

Little Moorish architecture palaces surrounded by manicured lawns, perfective for the about-to-retire British couple wanting to flight grey skies and taxes on everything. God's wait room in the sun - with golf thrown in.

Peter - not his real name - had his dream. Five years ago, he and his wife sold their cottage in southwest England for £270,000.

They used half of the return to buy a house in United Kingdom for their two sons, and reserved half for their castle, a house in a new development called the Albatera Golf and state Club, 20 min by expressway from Alicante.

The Spanish developers, San Jose Inversiones, called the house designing an Amapola. They had lots of designing: Tulipans, Rositas and Marbellas - a tower here, a balcony there, whatever the client desired.

"It was right on the golf course of study with the mount in the background," says Peter. "The club was to have a swim pool and a bar; and if we wanted to go to the beach, it was only half an hour away."

Peter, who worked for a brewery before retirement, had it all worked out. He would rise in the morn, greet the mount and set off for a round of golf.

His wife, a keep-fit instructor, would offer buck private classes to other occupant to addendum their pension. They handed over £82,000 as a sedimentation and waited for the club to be built. It never was.

Today, the Albatera Golf and state Club consists of a few show homes, a row of apartments and nothing else.

It was pitched as a new La Manga - an upmarket resort combining golf with some 1,100 homes and two hotels. That is now mere hubris.

Peter, who doesn't want his identity known because he still hopes to get his money back, hasn't seen his deposit since 2003.

In May, San Jose was placed into administration, another casualty of Spain's imploding property market.

The company had failed to secure full planning permission for Albatera and other sites. Then the bank stopped lending.

San Jose claims it has assets of some £300 million, but says it needs a loan of more than £20 million to get things moving again.

In the meantime, Peter and his wife live in an apartment, waiting for their money. They and some 1,500 other buyers must wait to see if the company can be rescued.