Please please dont do it.........As the previous link shows the pitfalls of currently trying to run a bar in a flooded market.


Edited Sorry just read the rest of the thread, I caught the first post and could see a repeat Thread appearing.

just to clarify,if you come to fuengirola with say 40k and buy a bar in 6 months you will be skint

if you come to fuengirola with 40k in 2 years you will be skint but would have one hell of a holiday

do that

Get some sound financial advice, invest it well and wait a few years for your son to finish school. Bide your time, think about what you want out of going to Spain (relaxation, more time with hubby, etc). If you are still considering a bar then take a bar job in the UK, get the experience, most people fail because they do not prepare in advance.

You would not apply for a job as an accountant if your a bricky, bar work sounds easy but it still takes learning the ropes, so apply for a job in a local bar and see just what is involved and then consider that your suppliers will be Spanish speaking, the legalities, licences and other paperwork will be in Spanish so then learn Spanish at the local college.

An old school exam term comes to mind, Fail to prepare, is preparing to fail so look to the future, do not discount Spain, you have 3/4 years till your son is finished at school, do your homework and have some good holidays all over Spain. Then see how you feel and follow your dreams.

It's not just bars as well, a franchise of the 'Tasty Bakery' has been started, place converted, opened, traded and now is closed with the Traspso for sale, all in 5 weeks here.

Latest projections from both S&P and AFI indicate that the Spanish property market will not bottom out until 2012. No way it will next year.

Who knows!?
I stopped taking too much notice of what the experts think sometime last year

You´re right of course, nobody knows. Indeed they are just as likely to keep falling until 2014 than they are to show an upturn next year.

As for ´experts´ predicting the market I share your cynicism. Many have been calling the bottom of the market, ´never a better time to buy´ and all that guff for the last three years. When I see the Tinsa stats showing a turnaround I may believe it. In the meantime my cash is staying out of Spanish property.

Do whatever it is you are already trained/qualified to do and are experienced in!

Why move to Spain (or anywhere) and make things more complicated for yourself by trying to start out from scratch doing something you have no experience in? Or look at moving somewhere where your skills are in demand. Or retrain in the UK for something that you want to do or that would be in demand in a country you want to move to. Or get licensee qualifications in the UK and get yourself a pub there if that's what you really want to do.

Don't give up employment in the UK just so you can move to Spain with no viable means to support you and yours.

I'm not including you in this generalisation, but if Spain operated a stricter immigration procedure (like Australia) whereby one had to score points based on education, qualifications and skills in demand in order to be able to immigrate, then just maybe there wouldn't be so many chancers and failures. And expat rip-off merchants: postmen masquerading as builders and builders masquerading as estate agents etc.

In the meantime learn Spanish and do your own research into what skills are actually in demand in Spain...don't rely on the advice given on a forum to make such a life-changing decision. Good luck!

Excellent post

How refreshing to find an enquirer who has taken the advice posted on board. Forum advice, properly vetted, does come from the horse's mouth, and not from cash-seeking entrepreneurs, or sensation-seeking journalists.

You don't need a degree in economics to advise an enquirer that all the local bars are closing, or are up for sale, that the streets are full of 'for sale' signs, and that your neighbours are going home, and such advice should be given to people thinking of making the move, it amounts to neighbourly helpfulness.

And it gives us an opportunity to have an occasional little moan as well, which we usually do in the bars anyway . . .but, if they're all shut? Forums have a big future.

You cant make a good living from a bar in Spain -period ,this is why there are hundreds for sale and they all change hands on a regular basis ,the reason the Spanish survive is because most have inherited them so pay no rent or mortgage, others pay a sensible rent which is not generally available to foriegners.
Whats great about something that costs you 8k and then 750 a month and looses money hand over fist?

Yes I would agree, but as for the horses mouth, I wonder how many on here have actually owned or leased a bar in Spain

I'd agree 100% with this - if you're talking about coastal resort bars. I think an additional difficulty here is the off season can be up to 6 months long, and it's rarely worth opening in the off season (like everything there are exceptions, but few). Go to the big cities and things can be different - I've known bars run by Brits in Valencia and Madrid that have done ok over many years, not always a Irish pub either. Having said that, in each case one of the partners is Spanish so they know the language and the customs. Here the off-season is reversed - August is the big shut down month (second half of January isn't great either) but winter months, especially December can be the big earners.

Someone suggested operating as a licensee in the UK. Good luck if you do this, the number of pubs closing down in the last 2 years has been phenomenal. Pubs that seem to succeed where I am appear to be those that have lots of different events - quizes, poker nights, music nights etc. Still looks fairly precarious.

I was going to until I saw sense!!!

What line of work are you in? What does your husband do?