Trev@

Hi All,
This is my visit to the forum and would be most grateful for any advice.
My wife and I are looking to purchase a small town/village house around the Zurgena / Arboleas area.
We have a viewing trip planned for 16th November, and have a list of properties to see.
However we have now found that 3 of the houses that we were interested in actually make up row of three houses in a hamlet outside Zurgena.
Now maybe I am just being paranoid but I am wondering why all three houses are up for sale at the same time?
I could naturally ask the Estate Agent if there was any particular reason for this, but as they are only going to be interested in making money from a sale I'm not so sure any answer will be a honest one.
We are not looking to purchase as an investment or rent the property out , but it is part of a long term plan to relocate when we retire.
My gut feeling tells me to remove these houses from our viewing list, but I wouldn't want to miss out on a potential home simply because of this.
Is there any way I can find out more information on said houses.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.
Thank you

snikpoh

PLEASE do not buy a property in Spain as an investment!

Firstly, property prices are still falling and may not stop for some time. Some people will tell you that they have started rising now but this is in very specific areas and is not a general trend.

The other reason is that selling a property in Spain is quite hard. The general situation is that the Spanish tend to hand property down rather than sell it and buy somewhere else. There isn't the fluidity that you see in UK.

As a landlord, I would also recommend NOT buying to rent unless it's in one the the established ex-pat areas (normally on the coast). We (personally) have seen rents fall over the last 8 years to a level where it is almost better to lock up the properties and not rent them out at all. Add to that the cost of removing tenants when they fail to pay rent or fail to pay utility bills and it's not something I would want to do again.


Far better to buy in UK and use the income to then rent in Spain.

Trev@

Hi , as stated we are NOT looking to buy this as an investment, simply the first step toward relocation.

Moses2013

Wouldn't say that and the UK has plenty of crap areas too + they don't want an investment. I don't know your budget, but there are plenty of properties available at the moment. Why consider a row of houses and be worried, when you can buy a detached property at the same price?

Trev@

We only intend to spend around £70,000 initially and then perhaps buy something larger when we retire, our intention would be to rent our house in the UK to provide some income.

However to be honest the thought of a detached Villa with a Pool just doesn't appeal to us.
A cozy 2/3 bedroom Village house with maybe piece of land nearby for gardening would suit us perfectly.

Moses2013

Sure it's all personal taste, but you don't have to have a huge villa with pool and these days you can get smaller properties for that money with direct access to a garden. Just saying it, because when you live in a small rural place like that, you'll hear everything from your neighbours.

Moses2013

Just to add to that. You might want something larger when you retire, but how easy will it be to sell the property you buy now.

snikpoh

... sorry, missed the 'not'.

Well, we each have our own opinion.
But the big difference is that prices are increasing in UK as are rental figures. Equally there is a good property market - unlike in Spain.

Moses2013

It always depends. A lot of areas in the UK are overpriced, so you have to have the money to buy in the first place. The point is that they want to buy in Spain anyway, so the UK is out. We had a similar subject in another thread and I said that if you really want to make money you buy when the market is dead and not when people advise you to. Of course you have to do your research. We didn't buy long ago in Spain, but just after a year, I could make a 100% profit if I sold today.

Trev@

Appreciate the advice, we are gong to take some time and try and chose something that is a holiday home, but also a house that we would be happy to live in initially when we move to Spain, we could then take our time and consider if we need somewhere larger.
I must admit that even now I can see that purchasing property in Spain is going to be much more stressful than any we have bought in the UK.
It always seems to be the 'horror stories' that make the headlines.
dodgy Lawyers/ Illegal properties etc.

Moses2013

You definitely have to think long term. If you want to retire there one day, do you really want to be living in a town house with steep stairs, or have to walk half a mile to get to your garden. Buying in Spain is pretty straightforward. You can probably find a good solicitor in the UK who is registered in Spain and will do all paperwork for you. We didn't even have to travel to Spain for NIE numbers and solicitor signed the deeds on our behalf. Saved a lot of money, time and stress. You have to be happy with the property you buy, but should you need to sell, be aware that Zurgena won't be the first address and I doubt that will change in the coming years.

Horlics

Hi Trev,

Firstly, I will say that I would probably rule out the three in a row. It would raise too many questions in my mind.

My advice to you would be to try as hard as you can to find the property that you will one day retire to. The cost of acquiring and disposing of property in Spain is much higher than in the UK. Exact costs vary, but as an example, in the Valencia region you'll pay 12% on top of the agreed prices to cover the various charges. You pay approximately 5% to the agent when selling. Lawyer fees come in at a little under 1000 Euros (although they do more for that than a UK lawyer does).

So, in your scenario, you would spend 70k, + 12%. Then 5% when selling. Then 12% again when buying your actual retirement property.

If your first and second properties were both at around 70k, you'd have spent about 20 on transaction fees.

The wide choice available on the market today at good prices means you should be able to find something ideal, so I see no point in doing the above. One reason I can see is security. It's easier to secure a holiday home in the form of a townhouse or apartment than it is a villa. The only workaround I can think of is a villa on a gated development with a good level of occupancy.

A word about the perils and difficulties. I bought in Spain not too long ago and was buying something in the UK at the same time. The transaction in Spain was altogether smoother and took half the time to complete.

Moses2013

:
That again means extra costs that add up over the years. There are plenty of nice residential areas (not gated) where you have neighbours, but still privacy. Not too familiar with that area, but seen a nice 3 bed detached house 85 m² on 800 m² not too far from where we are for €120K and I'm sure you can knock the price down a good bit. You never know regarding security, but you have neighbours around you and don't have to pay fees. I'm sure there are places like that around Almeria.

Trev@

Thanks everyone it is really good to have different input, and we certainly have to do some further thinking on this.
We could probably up our budget a bit, but we are currently paying for an extension on my parents house and didn't want to stretch ourselves too much.
The dream of retiring to Spain has been constantly in our minds for the past 10 years or so, and to be honest I am thinking if we don't make some move now , then it may never happen,However at the same time we certainly don't want to rush into something that we later regret.

Horlics

No it doesn't mean extra costs.