Well, I wish you ALL speedy uncomplicated sales.

This is an interesting point. When you "lose" that assumes you will be getting less than you paid for it. That's not good I agree. Some people use "lose" to mean that they will not get the price that they think it's worth. Trouble is it is only worth what somebody will pay for it. In that case they are losing nothing if the value they achieve is more than they originally paid.

Not strictly true !
If the property is on a mortgage then if the house sells for same as purchase price ,Stamp duty isnt covered and then each and every mortgage payment has been money down the loo

Semantics dear boy! My idea of value includes taking account of the costs of purchase and sale. If you didn't have a mortgage you might well be paying rent so I would imagine the costs of holding a property might be similar. Actually rents may not always cover the interest payments, let alone the other costs of renting out, so there is an argument which says that you could be better off renting if the cost of buying is too high.
Also a lot of buy-to- letters seem to be banking on capital gains rather than making a profit on running costs but that's a dangerous game in these markets, for more recent get-rich-quick buyers at any rate, in my opinion.

We are just in the process of putting our house up for sale, we haven't a property in Spain so hope to rent for a while. If we were to knock 30 grand off the asking price we would not be going anywhere. We have only been buying for 10 years so are not making much out of our house sale. We are going to take the chance because I don't want to be pension age before we make the move. Good luck all

Good for you Kaylee! Best of luck!

Cheers Chris Where are you hoping to move to?

Don't know yet Kaylee, we plan to look at different areas in Spain and rent while we are looking. What about you?

Hi Chris, Southern Spain to start with but a bit more inland when we've been there for a while It's scary thinking about the move, but it has to be done

I agree with you Kaylee! But I think it would be more scary not to take the chance. I don't expect for one minute that it will be easy, but hey, who wants easy? I really can't wait! I think the thing I find most daunting is the sheer logistics of moving. You know, what do I have to do, and in what order! But have found all my friends on this forum to have been a fantasic help in trying to assimilate all the required info, to at least give you some sort of order and to be able to prioritise. Every day, I look out the window for just a glimpse of the sun. It hasn't been too bad lately but when the sun does come out, (especially this time of year) there isn't the warmth to it. I just love to be outdoors pottering around in the garden. I bought a new bike last year, but have hardly used it. I would really love to be able just to go out on that and not have to put on my Barbour and wellies! Ho hum!
Well we had a viewing today, they may want to come back for a second viewing so we will see. It is such a waiting game though. Our house has been up for sale for 12 months. Don't want to get my hopes up too high, but can't help it.
How long do you think it will be before you put your house on the market?

Ah - but are you assuming that when a person buys a house they do nothing to it? What about new windows, new kitchen, new bathroom, conservatory, new driveway - the list goes on! All of these costs have to be accounted for in the asking price or you lose money if you only get what you originally paid.

Ditto and in my opinion if I can get 30k extra I win!!!

That 30K will go a long way in Spain won't it Helen much further than it will over here!!

Of course. But that depends on achieving a sale in the first place.

Good point Lionda ,
Also if we take a hypothetical house purchase of say £150,000 and of that £100,000 was of your own capital !! One could argue that that money could be earning interest on deposit so that ammount must be added as well or thats a further loss..

Damn we are good aint we Lionda ..