Harsh? Paying cash means you can at least afford it even if you over stretched yourself a bit but why buy something that requires 100,000 mortgage, I wouldn't borrow 1000 notes in another country anyway, and certainly not in a property to retire in. How do they sleep at night or is it that they know they won't be around long enough to pay it off, It don't make sense to me anyroad

Renting is better than borrowing that kind of cash any day yeah and folk should know that rich ppl don't need to show they have money and often live quite modestly where as it seems poor folk always over stretch them selves to try to appear rich, funny old world init?

This thing about moving back to England when you get too old... or when your life's companion dies: what is there in England? Maybe some of us have a patient family who would like to take us on, but for many of us, it's simply better to stay here: despite illness, old age and whatever else comes along. Living here in Spain can teach you how unpleasant life is in England.
But, the bottom line: do what you want, not what others want.

I would think that obtaining a mortgage with a 40% deposit is quite normal, anywhere. The trouble is, Spain isn't 'anywhere' at the moment.

House prices are plummeting for all the reasons discussed many times before, and will continue to do so, for all the reasons discussed many times before.

Those of us living in this beautiful country with our eyes open should be able to warn the many others who want to share our lifestyle that this is not the time to buy a house in Spain.

I suspect that buying is an English obsession, helped by our Maggie flogging off council houses. It seems to be in our bones - invest in bricks and mortar and everything will be fine.

Not in Spain it ain't.

I can not for the life of me understand why any one retiring would want to take a mortgage on with a reduced income ahead. As many have already said, there are plenty of cheap properties in Spain that will cater for every ones financial situation, I have seen some on eBay for 23 000 Euros, and to be fair they look ok to me.

Not posh enough for some I guess, that's probably why they end up going back to the UK skint.

The figures speak for themselves about people going back when they are in need of care.

For everypensioner expat who can speak and understand Spanish there are 10 that dont, so the reality for them is very hard to cope with, illness is nofun atthe best of times and to end your days not understanding what is going on is too horrible to contemplate for most, so back to UK is the only way out for most.

If anyone has to end their days in a 23k "vivienda" in Spain after working all their life in the UK, they would be better staying in the UK and having holdays in Benidorm.

Hi Spouter, yeah your right again of course, much better, if you really are determined to live here, to borrow £100 000 and possibly pay a huge deposit too at repayments of possibly 1000 a month or more,( if it's still based on £10 per £1000 per month), with only a pension to repay it and a good chance of losing the lot if you default. Oh and fancy properties have fancy rates and utility bills too, a pensioners favorite.

Why is living in a property you can afford in a place you want to live in so bad? I bet many on here own properties cheap like that, and good for them too. You sound like a snob to me or maybe you are one of the show off types who wouldn't be seen dead in anything you could afford

If you buy what you can afford you can make it comfortable, the only thing I can see against it is if you are a snob and a show off thinking your better than everyone else because the bank you borrowed money off lets you live in their house. I have seen it all over Spain and they all lived above their means, even the UK Gov' is paying for doing that now lol, and you still can't see that it's bad.

Take more water with it.....tool

Spouter, You changed my name and added it in an edit...... Most odd??????

Didn't you like the last one you called me?

Good post,well written, grammar:spot on........well expressed in a mature and eloquent way........I am way off being a pensioner though......20 years to go.

Not sure a 23k place would be easy to find, but when a terraced house in riot-prone Hackney goes for over 300k, you can see why Spain would appeal - after all you bought a place there yourself, didn't you?
Outside of the south of England you can of course find cheaper property (in fact, prices are decreasing now in many parts of the UK). But the long dark wet winter can put people off the UK, which is another reason why Spain appeals.
I really can't see prices going down too much further - unless prices decrease dramatically in places like England (which I admit is a possibility). People struggling to pay their mortgage on a 350k home in the UK (and remember unemployment is going steadily up there too) will simply sell and either rent or buy a cheapo place in Spain if the difference in price becomes too dramatic.
Having said that I can't see a dramatic improvement in the Spanish economy, unless they leave the Euro and have a devalued currency. But if that happens I think that prices would soar within a year, as people dive in to get bargains. You have to remember that more and more people can earn via the internet nowadays. It must be tempting to do that from a nice place on the Spanish coast rather than an inner city in the UK.

Thanks for the praise I know I'm doing well when you revert to picking on this kinda stuff I talk more sense pissed than you do sober lol

Seriously, 20 years to go, I got almost that b4 state pension too. Tell me will you buy what you can't afford when you become of age or will you be sensible? and if it's a choice of living what some might think of as a dream, would you rather not do it if you couldn't do it in something that you couldn't afford? I know you may not want to live abroad, but lets say if you did.

I doubt you could afford to rent on a state pension alone unless you rented your UK property and that could end up getting trashed. Just interested

I have already bought what I want, and I dont live abroad.

What makes you think that people struggling to pay a mortgage or downsizing in the UK want to come to Spain?

Most would choose to move to a cheaper house but still stay in the UK.

where did I say "most"? In fact I'm not sure most people would want to move to a cheaper place in the UK eg Grimsby or Stockport. You didn't, you bought in Spain! There are nice places outside the south of England that have reasonable prices. But they still have high council tax, dark winter days, town centres populated by drunken hooligans at night. There are reasons why Spain attracts millions of tourists each year, and it isn't solely down to climate.

If there weren't people in the Uk who wanted to move to Spain, this talkboard wouldn't exist! Think about it!