The apartment in Torrevieja was the star prize of the One two threethe most popular TVE contest of the 70s and 80s, which helped promote the city of Alicante as a tourist destination for sun and beach. The legendary program presented, among others, by the popular Mayra Gómez Kemp had an audience that exceeded 20 million viewers each week and introduced motorhomes and mass coastal residential tourism to the retinas of all Spaniards.
In 2024, 40 years later, the municipality of Torrevieja – with an absolute majority of the PP – wants to imitate this massive effect with one of the most watched programs on television, The anthill (Antena 3), directed and presented by Pablo Motos. The same mayor of the city, Eduardo Dolón (PP), appeared at a press conference to explain the impact study of the initiative promoted by the city council and which will have a cost of 701,800 euros, which will be covered by a sponsorship contract. without competition. The calculations made by the Torrevieja City Council predict an economic impact of between 6 and 7 million euros.
The campaign will run for a total of 9 months, from Monday, September 2 to June 2025, in a show that has 2.5 million viewers every evening, while its social networks (Instagram, Facebook and X) have an average of 2.6 million followers.
During this time, The anthill It will have a specific section to promote a contest whose prize is to raffle a house worth more than 300,000 euros, and simultaneously images highlighting the most relevant tourist products in Torrevieja will be projected. Participation in the contest must be done by means of a cinema ticket: there will be a screening in the theaters during which Pablo Motos will explain the mechanism of the contest and tourist images of the city will appear.
The mayor of Torrevieja has recognised the role played by One two three in the 80s to promote the city as a residential destination, “being today the destination par excellence for this tourism in Spain.” But he adds that the city “has evolved radically since then,” among which stands out the increase in population, going from just over 12,000 inhabitants at the beginning of the 80s, to almost 90,000 today.
Apartments of today and yesterday
As for the apartment that is the subject of the televised draw, it is located in an area of Torrevieja that is undergoing urban development, in Cornelita, specifically in the Nature Views development of the developer MPC Group.
On the website of this real estate agency, two types of apartments with similar economic characteristics are offered, these are two duplexes of 75 square meters and two rooms valued at 285,000 euros (ground floor) and 289,000 euros (upper floor).
But the crown jewels of the awards One two three of the 80s have lost all their shine today. 40 years later the apartments are abandoned, the buildings, some bungalows of about 50 square meters, They are a shadow of what they used to be..
The apartments were in the private urbanization of La Torreta, they suffered from the real estate crisis and are now in unpaved streets, with rats, cockroaches, weeds and are considered a dangerous area; but the fact that it is private makes municipal intervention difficult. All this has caused its value to fall by a quarter, from the initial 120,000 euros to 30,000 euros.
