The resurrection of one of Murcia's forgotten resorts
There are few things more symbolic of Spain’s pre-2008 property boom than the half-finished golf resort.
Across Murcia in particular, ambitious masterplans were launched during the years when almost any combination of golf course, sunshine and off-plan property seemed capable of attracting buyers from across northern Europe. Some became successful established resorts. Others were caught brutally by the financial crisis and spent the following decade as reminders of a very different property market.
Sierra Golf was firmly in the second camp.
But after years of relative obscurity, the resort is beginning to look rather different — and recent developments suggest that one of Murcia’s most ambitious residential projects could finally be preparing for a second life.
The original Sierra Golf story
Sierra Golf is located inland from the Mar Menor, in the Campo de Murcia close to Balsicas and Avileses.
The original project began in the mid-2000s and formed part of a vast tourist-residential masterplan combining housing, hotels, environmental areas and golf.
Then came 2008.
Like numerous large-scale developments across southeastern Spain, progress effectively stopped. According to Murcia Plaza, only around 30% of the wider urbanisation had been completed when the project stalled.
Homes had already been constructed around part of the golf course, but the much larger vision never materialised.
For years, Sierra Golf therefore occupied a slightly strange position in the Murcia property market: an existing residential community and golf course sitting inside a project that had never remotely reached its intended scale.
A very long road back
The interesting part of the story began well before the latest announcements.
Moorstyle España, the developer known commercially as Urmosa, became involved with Sierra Golf years ago and has gradually been repositioning the project.
The golf course itself has been expanded and New Sierra Golf is now operating as an 18-hole course, a significant change from the original nine-hole setup.
And the resort is no longer merely hosting enthusiastic holiday golfers.
In September 2026, New Sierra Golf will host the XXXVII Spanish PGA Championship, part of the TUMI Spain Golf Tour, from 14–16 September.
That may sound like a relatively small detail, but it is an important marker of how far the golf operation has come.
A resort that spent years associated with the unfinished property boom is now hosting one of Spain’s main professional golf events.
Then came the 2024 restart
The bigger residential story emerged publicly in July 2024.
Murcia City Council approved the initial reactivation of the unfinished urbanisation, recognising a new developer for the project and opening the way for the remaining phases to progress.
The scale is enormous.
The wider planning area covers around 500 hectares, including approximately 1.32 million square metres of tourist-residential land, 677,000 square metres of sporting and environmental land and extensive additional environmental areas.
The overall planning framework contemplated around 2,900 homes, developed across nine phases.
In other words, this was never supposed to be a small golf urbanisation.
If completed anywhere close to its original ambitions, it would become one of the larger resort-style residential developments in inland Murcia.
And now Urmosa has dropped something rather more interesting
This is where the story suddenly becomes much more current.
URMOSA's own website now includes “New Sierra Golf – Próximamente” among its active development categories, in other words, the development will be launched soon.
Other sources describe URMOSA as being “about to launch” a new project at New Sierra Golf consisting of 2,200 homes overlooking its 18-hole golf course.
That is a considerably more concrete statement than simply saying that the old masterplan is being reactivated.
There is not yet a publicly available commercial launch with the information buyers would normally expect — detailed plans, property types, pricing and individual phases — so there are still plenty of unanswered questions.
Murcia’s golf resorts are waking up again
New Sierra Golf also isn't happening in isolation.
Across Murcia, several large resort developments that struggled after the financial crisis are experiencing renewed investment.
Peraleja Golf is being revived.
Hacienda del Álamo — now Santa Elena Golf — has new investment and residential construction.
Corvera is being reborn as Corvera Hills.
Altaona has developed into a significant new-build market.
Condado de Alhama is entering another period of expansion.
The common factor is fairly obvious.
Residential prices across many established Spanish coastal markets have risen sharply, while Murcia still offers large amounts of land, existing golf infrastructure and considerably lower entry prices.
Developers can therefore offer space, golf, pools and modern property at price levels that have become increasingly difficult to find on the Costa Blanca, and almost impossible in many parts of the Costa del Sol.
That makes the resurrection of projects once considered casualties of 2008 considerably easier to understand.
Could New Sierra Golf actually work this time?
Potentially, yes.
The golf course is now operational at 18 holes.
Professional tournaments are arriving.
The urban planning process has been reactivated.
URMOSA has a long-established development business and is publicly presenting New Sierra Golf as an upcoming project. Its current commercial information refers specifically to 2,200 future homes.
But there is one enormous variable still missing:
Price.
That will determine a huge amount.
New Sierra Golf does not currently compete with the premium end of the Costa del Sol or even the more expensive areas of the Costa Blanca.
Its potential advantage is almost the opposite.
It can offer buyers space, golf and a modern home at a comparatively accessible price point.
If the new residential phases are priced accordingly, the international market could be substantial, particularly among British, Dutch, Belgian and other northern European buyers already familiar with Murcia's resort market.
If pricing tries to run too far ahead of the location and existing resort infrastructure, the proposition becomes much less obvious.
The existing homes make the potential transformation fascinating
One of the unusual aspects of New Sierra Golf is that it isn't starting from scratch.
There is already an existing community, and older properties on the resort can still appear at extremely low prices compared with modern Spanish new build.
Now imagine that same environment after several years of new residential construction, improved landscaping, stronger commercial facilities and an increasingly established 18-hole golf operation.
The gap between what Sierra Golf has historically been perceived as and what New Sierra Golf could eventually become is enormous.
Of course, that transformation is not guaranteed.
Large masterplans take years to build, and the history of Spanish property gives buyers plenty of reasons to distinguish carefully between ambitious plans and projects that are actually being delivered.
But for the first time in a long time, there are several tangible pieces coming together.
One to watch closely
At Portfolio Deluxe, we think New Sierra Golf is now one of the more interesting projects to watch in the Murcia new-build market.
Not because 2,200 homes are suddenly going to appear overnight.
They won't.
The interesting part is the direction of travel.
A development that effectively froze after the financial crisis now has an 18-hole golf course, a major professional tournament, renewed planning momentum and an established developer publicly saying that a very substantial residential launch is coming.
There is still a lot we want to know, particularly the first phase, property types, prices, building timeline and exact positioning of the new homes.
But the old Sierra Golf story appears to be coming to an end.
New Sierra Golf might finally be beginning.
