It was originally set up by Les, Sharon and Craig Edwards who came to the lovely and largely undiscovered village of Galera,set in Spain's beautiful northern Andalusia in October 2002. At that time they felt that they were pioneers being one of the first non-Spanish families to live in the area and certainly the first to open a business. They started their Galera life by running the 'La Zalona', a lovely restaurant specialising intraditional Spanish food - what else in this very Spanish area!
Sean and Sally Lummis
What was it that attracted them to Galera? Firstly, it is a very beautiful village, with its centre consisting of large prosperous looking village houses, regularly set out in narrow straight sunny streets. As a complete contrast, in the surrounding valleys are hundreds of cave homes, some abandoned and derelict but with many others beautifully restored to provide comfortable, attractive homes. Galera has an air of tranquillity that visitors quickly notice. The pace of life is slow and the people very friendly. A visitor once said that he had been to over 200 villages in Spain and this was among the most beautiful he had seen - a compliment indeed.
Early in 2003, Sharon, Les and Craig realised another opportunity was staring them in the face - there were properties in this area, at very realistic prices,that many people from the UK would love, but no-one was presenting them to the British market in the right way. With Craig's perfect Spanish and Les' web design and promotion skills, they believed they had the tools to get things moving.
Not wanting to do this entirely on their own, they worked with a few trusted and experienced Spanish partners. Within a few weeks they had teamed up with a couple of Spanish builders, opened a Spanish estate agency and developed their first website. Spanish Inland Properties S.L. was born.
The company is now owned by Sean Lummis, who moved to Spain in 2005 with his partner Sally. They fell in love with the cave houses when they came out for a weekend break just to visit the area and ended up buying the second one they viewed!! It needed complete renovation and so they spent 7 months living in an out-house with a tin roof, mice and barely enough electricity to power a mobile phone charger whilst they renovated the cave which was a very steep learning cave, stressful and cost a lot more than they expected but it was well worth it! It was during this time they learnt so much about the cave houses which Sean specialises in selling. While they were renovating the cave they became good friends with Sharon, Les and Craig Edwards who offered them work at Spanish Inland Properties. So they then started working at Spanish Inland Properties, Sally carrying out the administration and secretarial work full time in the Galera office and Sean taking out clients to view properties.
Now in 2014, Les has taken a step back from the business and Sean now owns the company with wife Sally who carries out marketing work from home.
Sean's experience, contacts and knowledge of the properties for sale and areas make him a fantastic estate agent, he offers a very personal service and he speaks English and Spanish. Sean enjoys meeting new clients and guiding them through the whole buying process from start to finish and helping make their dreams a reality.
Spanish Inland are still working with various Spanish partners and over the years they have expanded local contacts, property finders and have a Spanish arm. Spanish Inland Properties is going from strength to strength and hopes to be helping many more clients find their dream properties in this rural area of Andalucia in the future!
