pinklady

Hi

My husband is in the building trade.A window fitter and I was wondering How easy it would be to get employment over in Spain.He is also a qualified joiner.I would appreciate any comments as I am new to this site.


Thanks

rugbymatt

Hi there,
If you look at the top right of the page, above the thread there is a search button, you will find most of the info there.
Its not that easy, competition is fierce, wages low and wood is not used as much at in the UK.
Good luck.

pinklady

What about Upvc windows over there?He has also fitted kitchens.Is there many english builders over there?

rugbymatt

There is work, but its a bit complicated in that if he doesnt speak Spanish he will be working for Brits, well i cant even begin to tell you how many Brit builders live in Spain!
If he can speak Spanish well there is work but its not well enough paid to make a good living out of it.

Dont get me wrong, if you are both brave and will do anything the work is there, but you have to think a bit different and be prepared to work at it.

pinklady

Thanks for the sound advice.Hopefully we would make enough equity on our house and business to buy a house cash but we would still need to live and pay bills.Im sure that there would be something out there.Even if it was just taxing holiday makers to and from the airport or cleaning villas.

Thanks again

rugbymatt

Thats the thinking!
Anyway, he will hate working on a construction site in the heat!

Mercedes

What part of Spain are you going to?

I have a Brit builder who runs a Spanish team, when he first came to Spain, Marbella, he found it quite hard as he couldn't get the Spanish to work for him and the Brits he employed often unreliable. However he learnt Spanish for the building trade, he has built up a good reputation and now has a total spanish team working for him on contract. The fact he has a spanish team and not British is that he gets more work as many Brit builders don't have a good reputation of being reliable here. The work the Builder and his team have done for me has been good. He came recommended from a friend who was also recommended by her friends. He is making a living out here and has been here for about 6 years now and seems to be always working. His guys get paid 175 euros a day each. Through him I have also found a gardener who is also good. Like anything it takes time to get in with the right people and do a good job. This Builder won't take Brits on unless he knows them really well as he has found them often unreliable in the past. He also finds his Spanish workers work harder and seeing them on the job, I agree with him, they don't stop hardly at all, a short lunch break and then they are back on the job. They also turn up on time. He has done alright here, others don't fare too well. The hardest thing for him is to start over and build up a good reputation like he has done in the UK, unfortunately that takes time. patience and money to carry you over the dry periods.

Best of luck...

big wheels

QUOTE=pinklady;4434533]Im sure that there would be something out there.Even if it was just taxing holiday makers to and from the airport or cleaning villas.[/QUOTE]

The airport taxi service is a bit of a minefield as it is very very hard to get the licence and insurance required. You maybe tempted to do it without, but the consequences can be dire should the vehicle be involved in any accident. Plus the licensed taxi drivers will not be too friendly once they have spotted you a few times dropping people off.
If you are one of the first residents moving into a brand new urbanization, there may be a chance of setting up a cleaning, key holding service etc before anyone else thinks of it.. But otherwise I'm sorry to say there are thousands of other Brits looking to do the same sort of service.

I would say your best bet would be for your husband to try and get taken on by a Brit builder. But don't expect to become rich.












How much does he charge the customer
He wouldn't get much work around here

My reliable, always on time, hard working (no tea breaks) Spanish building firm charges me €126 per man, for a 9 hour working day.

Hillybilly

I think that's Marbella rates!!!!

pinklady

Hi

I wasnt serious about the Taxing and cleaning villas.It was the first thing that came into my head.But thanks for the info.

pinklady

I have no idea what part of Spain we want to live in.My brother has a holiday home in the village of Coin.If ive spelt it right.Up in the mountains in Marbella.We have been there a couple of times and I love the area.I wouldnt want my hubby to work 9 long hours in the heat.Hes already stressed out in the uk.We would be moving to Spain for a better quality of Life.He has had his own business for 20 years and has had enough of the double glazing business.He enjoys fishing and would love to be able to just work part time doing the odd job.



Thanks again

MnM

The wise thing to do would be to put the money from the sale of your home and business into a high earning interest account and get a mortgage for the property you want to buy in Spain.

Mortgages in Spain are very attractive and the interest rates are much lower than in the UK.

Solarwhizz

What a good bit of advice, Building in Spain,?/ (firstly there are the easyjetters, swamping the market and offering poor quality work as they have no experience), Where I live the daily rate for a good builder is 80€(100€ max) a day. 140/150€ with a labourer.



I have a view on purchasing in Spain which may go against the general view of most members of this forum.
Personally I wouldnt purchase in Spain now!!,

Main reasoning (and open to criticism please), is that the current boom in building/ buying in Spain is in the great part for Brits fuelled by House prices in UK and the last of the crop of baby boomers reaching maturity on their Final Salary and the like pension schemes, which pretty much has been coming to a halt in recent years.

The next generations coming thru may not have as much disposable income, consider the difficulty these today have of getting onto the housing ladder in the UK, simply due to house prices. The level of taxation(direct/indirect) in the UK is now higher than it has ever been, and the cost of living?? well you know

A lot of people(non retirees) sell up in the UK come over here with little or no income opportunity buy a house, and after about a couple of years struggling to survive over here and consuming most of their savings in the process they return to the UK with Nada!! This in turn puts a lot of property on the market over here which could probably be brought at a reasonable price.
( it should be noted that the Brit Expat non retiree community in general needs to work and this income comes generally from other expats, ( IE pensions and other people investing in property etc, creating the expat builders boom!!).
The sheer amount of newbuilds and resale property on the market in spain is massive now , who is going buy this, ( NB the babyboomers will be gone in a few years. the people without gainful employment in Spain will have gone back to the UK. The UK mortgage rate is going up which will slow down UK House sales, so limiting the amount of money available to purchase properties in Spain.

So if you invest your cash in a house in Spain today, will it have the same value on the morrow????????, will it sell????? or will your house be another property slowing decaying waiting for the market to bounce back,

Oh and I havent even mentioned the everexpanding EU, which is providing even more properties at better prices in the former easter Europe.

So I really agree with the advice given, as it offers at least some protection of your capital.

spain

gis a job

lulu41

The bottom line is, The Spanish wont employ you, oh and the English will employ for English but will pay you 5 euros an hr, the sad fact is people come here thinking they can earn a living but its bloody hard, the only way to scrape by is work for yourself, and if you cant speak the lingo YES your restricted to working for brits, who come here with the same illusion as most so they cant afford to pay you a wage, OK, across the way from us a chap whose in his sixties is trying to build a wall round his pool, he wont pay anyone more then 5 euros an hr, yet he knows my husband is a builder/ landscaper and has seen for his own eyes what my other half can do, but my hubby wouldnt get out of bed for that wage, and I for 1 wouldnt let him so cause hes a tight ole git, he will struggle or pay Extornionate spanish landscaper prices then moan hes been ripped off weve been here a few yrs, lucky we had loads of dosh, but I wouldnt recommend anyone coming here if they think there is a wage here or if you like to keep busy either, its mainly for retirees and maybe Bar owners who suffer too with large competition.

Lulu