I have been living in a cave for five years and I wouldn’t live anywhere else! My cool cave can be found in the beautiful village of Galera in the Granada Province of Spain.

I can almost guess what you are thinking – he lives in a dark, damp, smelly hole in the ground so why tell the world about it! WRONG, my unique rural property in Spain is a cave house, it has three bedrooms, is comfortable and very modern in all but appearance - imagine a whitewashed country cottage.

Just to show you how modern a cave house can be, we have satellite TV, satellite internet, telephone, mains electric, mains water and mains sewerage. The rooms are dry, many have good size windows to let in natural daylight and, importantly, in this extreme climate of hot dry summers and cold mid-winter nights my cave home keeps an even temperature all year round thanks to it’s natural geothermal heating for the winter and cooling for the summer.

Because my cave house is built into the west side of a hill I have the most spectacular views stretching many miles to the Sagra Mountains and for three hundred days of the year I can watch the sunrise as I eat my breakfast.

Cave houses in some parts of Spain have been home to man for thousands of years. Their popularity has risen and fallen as the centuries passed, today demand is soaring. Many people, both Spanish and other nationalities, are looking for a different lifestyle and homes that are affordable and eco-friendly.

Most modernised cave houses consist of two parts, the part that is cave and built underground with conventional rooms built onto the front. In this way you get the best of both worlds. So cave houses have light, airy living rooms to the front and cooler cave bedrooms to the back. Almost everyone loves to sleep in the cave rooms, they are quiet, cool, dark and natural. Many people swear that their cave bedrooms have a calming effect, connecting with inherited memories from our earliest creation. This sense of tranquillity induces a deeper sleep resulting in improvements in both physical and mental health.

Cave houses have a number of distinct advantages compared to conventionally built houses:

o A cave house is significantly cheaper. Cave houses are 20 to40% cheaper than an equivalent conventional property. As examples, it is still possible to buy a three bedroom cave house, fully modernised for under 100,000€ and four bedrooms for 115,000€.

o Each cave home is uniquely in its design. Almost all the modernised cave homes have been rebuild from much older dwellings, originally hewn out by hand one or two hundred years ago, as a result no two caves homes are alike. There is no danger of ending up with a home exactly like that of your neighbours.

o Because the cave rooms are sunk into the rock they maintain roughly the same temperature summer and winter, between 13 and 18°C. There is absolutely no need for air conditioning in the summer and winter heating requirements are significantly lower than in conventionally built houses. As a result power consumption and costs are much lower.

o Recently renovated cave houses can come with double block cavity insulated external wall, double glazed windows and extra roof insulation making them beautifully cool in the summer and cosily warm on those winter nights, providing additional comfort and economy.

o They have a quaintness and charm rarely found in so called “modern properties”, yet they have all the facilities you expect from a new home. Electricity, mains water, mains sewerage, telephone, satellite TV and broadband Internet are all available enabling you to have the best of both worlds.

o Low maintenance is another benefit. With few external walls and often no roof to worry about, maintenance costs can be kept to a minimum.

I can easily sleep at night, close to nature and knowing my eco-home didn’t cost the earth.

For the last five years Les Edwards has been running a niche real estate business in the north of Granada Province, Spain - Spanish Inland Properties SL. Working closely with his good friend Pedro, of Cortijos y Cuevas Andaluces SL, they buy ruined cave homes which are then totally renovated turning them into modern eco-homes with all modern conveniences ready to be sold for clients looking for a different life in Spain.

Click Here To Pass This Article Along To Your Friends

Popularity: 2% [?]

Bookmark to:
         

If you're new here, you may first want to get a copy of my information and resources jam packed handbook on your right. Thanks for visiting!