as already said the best advice is to rent before you buy - Spain is a VERY big place - a property that seems great when you are house hunting can be very different for permanent living (and I dont mean that in a patronising way)

I know from experience - when we moved over we moved over, to a 5 bed villa with pool in the countryside but only 10 mins drive from the main town, stunning views, totally flat plot, potential to improve BUT there was nothing within walking distance, driving back and forth to school became a pain day in day out - and dont forget school hours are different here so if kids not staying for lunch you will be driving back and forth 4 times a day (my sons hours are 9-12 then 3 hour break then back 3-5 thats Sept-May) (Oct and June they are only at school 9-1) and most surrounding properties were Spanish owned and only used at weekends and holidays so my son had no one to play with and made no friends

With children and the schools you also need to consider regional dialects depending on the area you are going to

Anyway a year after living in a "dream property" we moved into a village a stones throw from my sons school, all his friends live in the same village, there are 2 communal pools within walking distance, football pitch, tennis court plus all amenities banks etc etc

My son is a lot happier here (although he wasnt unhappy in our previous house) and living here has helped him no end with the language and developing his friendships

its a buyers market at the moment, everything is taking a long time to sell so you should have a good choice of properties but until you have lived in an area yourself you wont experience what its like and if it doesnt turn out to be exactly what you expected you could then be faced with the difficulties a lot of others are having in trying to sell up and move somewhere more suitable

(I personally dont like Oliva (sorry Mitzy) too noisy, too many Brits and other immigrants and a lot of agro but thats just my opinion)

There is masses of info on here, take your time and do some searches as lots of things have already been covered. Work is a big issue and many return to UK because they cant find any so probably best to secure a job if poss before you come over - Im sure I have posted recruitment websites on here previously so you could check them out

Strange
There are a few more Brits here at the moment as its holiday time, but its not normally something I notice. There seems to be a good spread of nationalities, German, Dutch, and of course its very much a Spanish town, hence yes it is a bit more noisy. But I live out of town so I have the best of both worlds.

What do you mean by aggro ..... I've never seen anything in all the time I've been here. No crime, no fights, no disturbances. I'm sure it goes on, as it does in any built up area, but its certainly not prevalent

Thanks Spain, the comments about neighbours etc have some relevance as the primary place i'm looking at is in Marchuquera which as i understand is about 10 mins from Gandia / 15 from the beach. I know there is nothing but a bar / restaurant in Marchuquera itself but the proximity to Gandia means that everything is close by. By living there i can get the pool / garden / parking at an amount not hugely over budget which is nice. I'm sightly worried about the work situation though, any idea about IT jobs?

Also some important stuff: what about English TV / broadband .

If you have an existing SKY package then keep it running from a UK bank account. Just buy a new dish here. You'll have to check in the town for Broadband, but in general its available here.

If you cant get the line then there is an alternative I discovered recently for ADSL / phone line which is called Telitec. Its wireless, and its about the same price as Telefonica. Phone and installation for 79 euros, free voice mail, 300 minutes free each month to european numbers

I have a full sky subscription at the moment so that sounds pretty handy. Do you not have to inform them of phone number change at all? We'll be renting out current property out so potentially they'll try and get Sky on the same phone number.

our villa was in Marxuquera - isnt that funny

be careful with Marxuquera as a major urbanisation is going on so you may buy a place that has urb fees on top - and in the meantime there are lorries, diggers and all sorts trapsing through - be nice when its done though

Phone could be a problem - we waited a year for a line to be installed

TV will be fine just get a large dish 1.9m -2.4m

dont know about IT jobs but will send you some recruitment sites later

I gave them my daughters flat address and told them I had decided not to have a phone in the house so couldn't connect. As long as you don't have multi room or are within a 12 month contract you will be OK. If you have multiroom cancel it, as they WILL require you to have a phone connected then.

ok thanks again. Will give my parents address.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Currently looking at what we can rent our house for and hoping to get things moving. Cliff will go over to view properties as I don't think it's practical for all of us to as the children are so young and I won't fly! Trying to find out about taxes and legal things at the moment as well.

its funny how different people have different opionions of the same place, IMHO when we were house hunting Oliva was off the list as it was too English, English shops, English bars, etc etc - the amount of English cars was a giveaway

I have heard of lots of trouble ranging from stabbings to car theft all in Oliva - but of course this must go on everywhere like you say

didnt you hear about the fight in a bar in the old town a few months ago ? cant remember the details but one guy was hospitalised and then there was a contract out on another - I know people who live there and let me know all the goss, whos sleeping with who, who punch who - they said its like Eldorado

I know where you live Mitzy and it looks lovely and peaceful - out of the way but still close enough to drive to beach and town etc - is the resturant still open ? someone said it was up for sale ?

Im not dissing Oliva, its just not my cup of tea, as our village is not other peoples as its way too quiet

hi and welcome to british expats hope we can all help you along the way

Thats why I try to refrain from commenting too much about where people live as its difficult to know the full story, for instance when you talk of Birmingham people think of riots and shootings because thats what grabs the headlines. I hardly saw any violence in Birmingham in the 30 years we lived there or therabouts.

Yes .... the restaurant seems to be up for rent which is a shame
Its a nice place ..... but I guess the trade just isn't about up here as they didn't seem to pull people in from away from the mountain

marxuquera is very pretty and yes just 10 mins drive from Gandia, good access to motorway and therefore both Alicante and valencia airports

Marxuquera is split, half comes under Gandia and the other half Palma de Gandia councils (its the Gandia side thats being urbanised)

Gandia has lots of schools and some give you an option of choosing Castellano as the primary language - but there are waiting lists

there is a school in Palma de Gandia (which is for Ador too) for ages 3-12 - the kids then go onto the institute in Villalonga

Also in Villalonga there are schools, one of which Santa Ana is semi private and castellano as the primary language - I believe at that school they are there from ages 3-16

there are also 2 private schools that I know of, Colegio Naranjas and another that I cant think of the name of

there is a pre school nursery in Palma de Gandia and also one in Ador - think babies from 6months -3 years attend and its a ridiculous price of something like 75€ per month

Excellent, thanks for the info. Blame google maps for my misspelling of Marxuquera by the way .

no you can spell it both ways - (Im thinking) Marxuquera - is Valenciano as their "ch" sound is an "X"

and Marchuquera is Castellano

but I could be wrong