Minho Villas: Luxury Spanish / Portuguese Riverfront Quinta For Sale

Prestigious luxury quinta / villa (large family home) immediately overlooking the River Minho (see above photo for our view) on the Portuguese / Spanish border for sale directly by the owners. Extremely rare riverfront location with direct river access complete with private river / boat access, immediate access to Monção Portugal, Salvaterra de Miño Galicia (Spain) and beyond to Vigo (25 minutes) and Porto (1 hour). The business zone of Porriño (Espana) and future (2010) high speed rail link station (to Europe) in Valença (Portugal) are each just 15 minutes away. We are in a virtually crime free area. We also separately have an extra plot of land for sale onto which can be built one or two 4 bedroom houses.

Our grounds are opposite a mostly hidden from view large brickworks on the Spanish side. This is the site for the new low level / impact "Vigo Dry Port" which will not affect our quality of life due to river conservation regulations but is sending property prices locally very high, in spite of housing price slumps elsewhere. Our quinta therefore should be of interest to any senior management connected with this project such as Citroen - Peugeot who will be using a large section of the dry port to park vehicles manufactured in their massive Porriño car plant. Our quinta may also be of interest to property developers as five to six more luxury houses could be built in our grounds (including the separate plot) to turn it into a gated luxury housing estate.

Located in the most prestiguous suberb of the historic fortified town of Monção (Portugal) with its ancient architecture and sidewalk cafes, a road bridge across the River Minho (Rio Miño) takes you to fast developing Salvaterra with its designer shops and tapas bars. Our villa is almost literally in both Spain and Portugal; we pay low Portuguese ultility bills, etc. while our views are of the border River Miño and the Galician mountains beyond.

We have the right to call our villa a "quinta" (a principle home of the area) but have not bothered even though it is by far the highest quality home here. Laid out over three floors, we have 5 bedrooms (one with en suite bathroom), a total of 4 bathrooms, a large family lounge, a study, a large dining room, large TV lounge, very large kitchen, breakfast room & kitchen, guest lounge, office, laundy room, adega (wine store) and large utility room.

We have approximately 10,500 sqm of grounds with around another 3,500 sqm in an adjacent plot available separately. In addition anotherl 7,200 sqm of adjoining woodland is also available if required from a neighbour. We can never be overlooked by anyone due to a) owning the land that overlooks us, b) neighboring woodland being protected by "preservation order" (designated permanent rustic land), c) river conservation / building permit regulations; the later making our house extremely rare as very few homes exist overlooking rivers and no new permits can be issued now because of a conservation treaty between Spain and Portugal. The river is a designated International conservation area so the views from our house over the river and Galicia Spain are pretty much guaranteed.

Currently around 9000 sqm of our land (including what our quinta is built upon) is "Urbano" title; expanding this title to the remaining 1500 sqm should not be a problem. Even allowing for building restrictions regarding proximity to the river, it is likely two more substantial houses (three if the other 1500 sqm is included) could be built in the grounds (where the main fruit orchard and vineyard are at the moment) if required to form an exclusive gated riverside community with swimming pool just outside fast booming Monção. For details of the separate additional 3,500 sqm plot of land, please see Extra Land

Our granite and wood rich grounds have everything from 255 grape vines (234 for quality Alvarinho white wine, the rest for eating), 2 small streams feeding our duck pond / irrigation tank, around 80 fruit and nut trees (including cherry, plum, walnut, hazelnut, sweet chestnut, orange, lime, lemon, clementine, peach, apple, pear, nectarine, pomegranate, persimmon, quince, black / red and white figs), kiwi fruit vines, olive trees, oak trees, cork oak trees, summer house, pagoda, garages, dog kennels, gate house, family garden, flower gardens and of course a full length swimming pool with children's section; all sectioned with child safety in mind.

Our villa / quinta sits on top of a hill / bank overlooking the River Minho a good distance above the flood line, so if and when the Rio Miño floods just the lower grounds (vegetable patch, lower pathway, secondary fruit garden) would be affected; the hydroelectric dam much further up the river in Spain makes this highly unlikely in any event. Across the river from us is a "praia fluvial", literally a "River Beach" where the Spanish authorities bring truckloads of sand each year for families to sit, enjoy and swim; consequently, we have a rare combined riverfront and beachfront villa!