FAQ

Ambera is a new name for a new way of living that we are generating in the Ambera communities that we will build. The name works internationally and contains elements from “amber”, which has a warm gold-brown colour and is used as a gem in jewellery which is said to have healing effects – something which we think reflects Ambera’s vision.

As an owner

You get your own privately-owned house or apartment. It is yours (freehold) and can be sold, inherited, financed and used at your discretion. Terms and conditions for subletting, community-rules and snd so forth will be published in connection with sales start.

Through Ambera’s low monthly community fee, you are granted free access to and use of shared common areas: First and foremost, an Activity Centre with more than where several rooms are dedicated to activities.

The low monthly community fee covers external maintenance of all properties to maintain the high standard on the Ambera properties. Maintenance of all common infrastructure and gardening of all common areas are also included.

Benefits of owning in Ambera Desert Springs are detailed here

As a member of Ambera Community

You get access to all of our upcoming European projects.

You become a part of an active and social community.

A Lifestyle Director is responsible for helping organise activities and reserve amenities that you need for your activities, free of charge.

The Ambera team will broker benefit programs with relevant service providers such as airlines, health services, insurance companies, carpool services and other institutions for the mutual benefit of the Ambera Community.

Ambera Desert Springs – benefits

A reduced fee for use of sports facilities: Golf on the Desert Springs PGA-course, paddle tennis, tennis and exercise room.

Pools are available at no extra expense.

Access to the Club House. Desert Springs restaurants are open to all Ambera members.

Through Ambera’s low monthly community fee, you are granted free access to and use of shared common areas – first and foremost, an Activity Centre with more than 1,000 sqm, where several rooms are dedicated to activities such as:

• All-purpose rooms for workshops, games, painting, classes, yoga, etc. – or anything you want to do

• Common rooms for mingling and just meeting your friends

• Community Kitchen where you can invite friends to a gourmet dinner or cooking class

• Music room for dancing, theatre group, or watching movies together

• Cafe

Taking advantage of people is the last thing we want to do. We think that most of the other current offerings on the market are taking advantage of people – giving them very little service for sky-high prices and expecting people to be grateful for it. What we’re trying to do is offer an opportunity for a new and better life for people who are approaching retirement, or who have already stopped working.

We’re talking about a very resourceful, experienced generation who are fully capable of making informed decisions about whether they want to buy a home in Ambera or not. All of our residents will be people who have made a very active, conscious decision about how they wish to spend their lives at the end or after their professional careers. What we want to do is give them the opportunity to live life to the fullest.

We have no interest in and no intention of isolating people. Quite the opposite, in fact. We are targeting people who are 55 or older mainly because they are the people who stand to benefit the most from this project, and those who can contribute the most. We want Ambera to be a wonderful, lively community year-round, and people have more time on their hands when they don’t work as much. Families with school-age children typically do not have the opportunity to spend the whole year or several months in this kind of community in Southern Spain.

That being said, we want to make our community a fantastic place for younger people to visit. If you visit one of the many second home communities in Spain today, you will meet very few young people. We think this is less because the residents have been isolated, and more because there’s nothing for people to do there, and no enticement to visit. This is what we want to change.

Ambera is going to be a dream destination for visiting children and grandchildren. We will make it easy to get to us, convenient to stay with us, and there will be tons of fun activities for people of all ages to choose from. Our goal is that, instead of having to entice people to come visit, you’ll actually have to encourage them to leave! With so many visitors, we think that Ambera will have the biggest variety in age of all second home communities in Spain.

Ambera is not aiming at the luxury market segment, which is traditionally very exclusive. True luxury, in our eyes, is having lots of options for things to do, and having a great social environment. This is dependent on the people in the community. No matter how much money you have, there is no such thing as an “exclusive community” – having a wide range of people is what makes communities work.

Consequently, Ambera is trying to offer affordable homes by building large scale projects, where the cost for the amenities will be distributed among many units. The homes will not be cheap, but considering all the facilities and corresponding possibilities, we believe that we really offer a lot of value for your money. 

For those who have a challenge raising the equity necessary to buy, or who for various reasons don’t want to buy, we will offer rental homes as an option.

The reason we can offer a wide variety of amenities and activities for reasonable prices is that we will build large scale, i.e. many homes in one project, reducing the cost per person. After completion, most of our groups and activities will be run by our homeowners as community members on a voluntary basis, which will enable Ambera to cover the operational cost with an affordable monthly fee which will grant access to everything – from tennis courts and ballet classes, to health centres and gardening services.

Whether you live in the smallest apartment or the largest villa, all members will have the same rights and opportunities at Ambera. Our hope is that it will become irrelevant how much money you have, because everybody can have a great life regardless of the size of their wallets.

There are two main principles that are important here: Scale, and community-run groups and activities.

By building large communities, we can split the costs for operations, shared facilities and activities, and other running expenses between many homes. This makes living in Ambera much cheaper per person than if we were to build smaller communities. We’ve visited over 100 such communities in America, where this principle works extremely well, and the community members love the lifestyle they can afford in such a setting.

In order to create an active and social community, we are going to employ what we call a ‘Lifestyle Director’. This person’s job is to make it fun and easy for our community members to join and create clubs and activities. We will help facilitate the activities, but our members will have the most control over how they are run. A retired journalist might start a writing class, a piano teacher might decide to lead the community orchestra, a hobby carpenter might teach a woodworking course, and so on. By making it easy to get started, we will create an encouraging culture where contributing your skills and talents makes life more fun for everyone.

Our goal is to make Ambera affordable for as many people as possible, not just the wealthiest. The price of buying a home and living in an Ambera community will depend on the land plots we purchase, and how large each project ends up being. Land close to the sea is more expensive than plots inland, and the more homes we can split the costs for the amenities between, the cheaper it becomes per household.

Ambera at Desert Springs as our first project is located close to the sea, because many of our followers and future residents have told us that this is important to them. As such, the price level of our first project might be a bit higher than some of our future projects. Please, refer to our home sales section for concrete prices, which will be available in autumn of 2020.

For those who prefer to rent a home, Ambera will also be offering long-term rental homes. Just like the house prices, the rent will be determined by the size and location of the community.

The monthly community fee – which covers activities, property maintenance, and common areas – can sometimes be as low as $150 per household in US projects. We are aiming for a similar price level in Ambera at Desert Springs and future projects. Please subscribe to our newsletter for more information and go to our Facebook page for frequent updates on our progress.

Ambera is a real estate development company. That means we buy land plots, hire architects, plan, design, and build homes, sell them to residents, and then operate them. Through this process, we make money. It is important to us that everyone involved in creating this value chain gets their fair share. At the same time, we are determined to make Ambera affordable for our residents. We are not building a luxury project for the rich and wealthy, but an affordable project for everybody.

Ambera is building homes where people live for longer periods of time, because residents and not visitors make a community. We believe this is necessary in order to establish an active and social community. Regular holiday homes are typically used or rented for only a few days or weeks throughout the year, and most owners/visitors are not interested in getting to know their neighbors or engage in the wider community during their stay. These types of communities transform into “ghost towns” in the off season – and we think there are enough of those already.

Ambera’s designs will reflect the fact that they are long-term homes. Typically, holiday homes have as many beds and bedrooms as possible, little (if any) storage space, and small, efficient living room areas. They’re little more than a place to sleep, and maybe have a guest over for a nightcap. Ambera’s homes are intended for year-round use, with plenty of storage options, spacious living areas, and functional spaces that will prove useful for longer stays. Our homes will be places to live.

We have visited over 100 Active 55+ Communities in the USA – out of 2,000 such projects that currently exist – and by examining what works, what doesn’t, and what could be improved, we are confident we can develop a successful, functioning project. Homes and their values in successful US Active 55+ Communities actually tend to appreciate faster than similar homes in the same area.” – bracketed because I don’t know how much you want to focus on the ‘investment’ area.

The key is to not create yet another holiday home ghost town (there are enough of those in Spanish coastal areas already, and property values plummet in them), but a vibrant year-round community filled with permanent residents. This will make Ambera homes sought-after and desirable, securing your investment.

Ambera’s first project will be built as an extension of Desert Springs Golf Resort and Spa – an already-existing 400-unit project in Almeria, Spain – with an award-winning golf course, a restaurant, and various sports and recreational facilities. 

Ambera is also in discussions with various landowners in Spain and other European countries about potential future communities. We hope to create some projects near larger cities all over Europe. For these projects we’d extend our concept to include both active 55+ adults (our current target group) and younger families with children. We feel these groups have different needs which complement each other. Families with children need to maintain work/life balance, get their kids to school/kindergarten, get them to their leisure activities (and enjoy a few of their own), and often find there aren’t enough hours in the day. Conversely, active 55+ adults without dependents usually have more time available, and gain satisfaction from being able to engage in the community and help each other out. Our eventual goal is to organise our communities in such a way that we can “match up” these two groups through a joint activity centre and organisation platform. If we can meet everyone’s needs, it’s a win-win scenario for everyone involved.

Absolutely. But nobody is saying that you have to. At Ambera, your freedom (and privacy) is always our top priority. No-one ever tells you to do anything, but there will always be plenty of interesting things you can choose to be a part of if you wish. 

We are trying to create an active, social community, that is true. But enforcing participation goes against the core principle of Ambera – choosing your future. Ambera facilitates socialisation by offering a wide range of interest groups and activities, and helping people create their own. Our residents will be the ones choosing whether or not to socialise, and where and when to do so – it will always be on your terms.

Ambera is for anyone and everyone who has the time and desire to engage in the community. This includes golfers, cyclists, scuba divers, bridge players, budding linguists, and enthusiasts about activities and topics of all kinds. Ambera is not an exclusive “luxury” project. “Luxury”, in our eyes, comes from having lots of options for things to do, and having a great social environment. All the money in the world can’t buy good neighbours – it’s dependent on the people in the community. Our goal is to provide homes at prices that should be affordable for the European Middle Class, starting at around €180,000 for our first project in Desert Springs.

Ambera is in discussions with various landowners in Spain and other European countries about potential future communities. Our eventual goal is to have a network of one or more Ambera communities close to every major European city. This network would enable co-operation, exchanges, and joint activities across national borders. As a homeowner in any one Ambera project, you will be a member of the family, and will be welcome in every Ambera community in the world, and it will be easy to find friends with common interests.

For projects which will be located close to larger cities, we’d be looking at an extended version of our existing concept, including both 55+ adults (our current target group) and younger families with children. We feel these groups have different needs which complement each other. Families with children need to maintain work/life balance, get their kids to school/kindergarten, get them to their leisure activities (and enjoy a few of their own), and often find there aren’t enough hours in the day. Conversely, 55+ adults without dependents usually have more time available, and gain satisfaction from being able to engage in the community and help each other out. Our eventual goal is to organise our communities in such a way that we can “match up” these two groups through a joint activity centre and organisation platform. If we can meet everyone’s needs, it’s a win-win scenario for everyone involved.

It is actually impossible for Ambera to have a soul without building hundreds or thousands of properties. 

The heart of every Ambera community is the Activity Centre, but the soul of Ambera is its residents. The Activity Centre will make it easy for our homeowners to engage in the community and help them get going with new ideas and activities. However, if we only have a couple of hundred residents, then not only will the centre be perpetually empty (rememberthat some people will be at home with a book, others in the towns nearby, and others on holiday visiting friends) and unable to offer many activities, but each resident will have to pay a lot of money for its upkeep. 

By building many properties in each community we: attract lots of residents with different interests, knowledge, and resources; get to take advantage of “economies of scale”, which reduce the cost of building each home and running all the facilities (meaning it’s easier for our residents to afford); and ensure that there will always be plenty of people at Ambera able to participate in the community. Without enough people, Ambera has no soul.

It is easier to build a project that is based on the Ambera concept from scratch, because we can develop a master plan and other elements to exactly match our specifications. Having said that, we are absolutely open to implementing the Ambera concept in existing projects, as long as they have clear borders and the space for an activity centre. 

We think that residents that live in an Ambera community most of the year won’t be considered as traditional tourists. They will engage in both the Ambera community and also in activities in the local area, i.e. neighbouring villages. Wehave heard from many of you that you are interested in learning Spanish (or the local language in future communities elsewhere), which will allow you to integrate and communicate with the local population.

Each Ambera community is of course also open to local buyers, who we expect to show just as much interest as international buyers. With Desert Springs, we have received several inquiries from Spanish people who are interested in buying a home.