Hi All,

I was looking for some advice on renting a house in Spain. Are there any decent websites in which you can search for long term property rentals?

Where are the cheapest/best places to rent?

Hi there - we have been in Spain 6 weeks during which time we were looking around for somewhere to rent on a semi-permanent basis. Have just moved to Mijas la Nueva a very pretty urbanization above Mijas on the Costa del Sol. Managed to get a very reasonable deal for a 2 bed house full of Spanish character, use of the community pool/tennis ct included...and there's a bar by the pool. It's popular with well known personalities such as Val Doonican with or without his chair, Mark Curry of Blue Peter fame - whom I bumped into during my morning jog today - amongst them. Well worth checking out, though I wouldn't advise it as a place to jog, too hilly! Good luck!

try looking on kyero.com and go to their long term lets section, there is also thinkspain.com again looking for the long let section, you could try looking at the sur in english and go to the classifieds there you will find private landlords as well as some agents.

Hope this is of help

Good luck for the house hunting, best thing to do is get a flight out and make lots of appointments to view, do not go with something just because they tell you it is what you want, it is a renters market and it is worth trying to knock the price down even if it is 50e a month, that works out 600e a yr,

Before you set out, work out what your looking for and what is important to you, urban, campo, town, flat, house number of rooms, pool etc. but be practical the campo is lovely but no good if you have no car, need schools, buses etc.

An agent will show you what they want you to see and not necessarily what your looking for so hence you need to know what you want first.

When you find it, take several viewing at different times of the day and try to meet the owners, set out what you are looking for first ie dogs, work from home etc that way they can not say they did not know prior and it works vice versa they may not allow dogs and then you turn up with one. For warned is for armed.

Have several ideal properties up your sleeve so if you loose one you are happy to take the other, disappointment is hard when you build yourself up to one place only, curved balls are common.

DO NOT LET AN AGENT BULLY YOU INTO SOMETHING YOUR NOT 110% HAPPY WITH, 11 MONTHS IS A LONG TIME TO BE UNHAPPY.

The best way is to wander around the area you're interested in and jot down the 100's of telephone numbers you'll see on properties that are up for rent/sale. Then filter out the ones that are through robbing agents and take your pick from the ones that are direct from the owner.

Second best is to use enalquiler.com

http://www.idealista.com/pagina/portada is another good one.

I found a lovely place on enalquiler.com last year - rents more realistic than on the english-language sites

unfortunately the owner had unrealistic ideas & expected us to pay 'holiday rates' in the summer - or move out so he could let it to holidaymakers in July & August - even though we were taking a long term contract

usually I have just got on my bike or in the car in the area I want to be & take down phone numbers - that's how I found our current place

... although, you will (should) always have a get-out clause which will either be 1 or 2 months notice.

Try using "enalquiler.com" we rent all our properties through them and have found the site to reflect 'reality' and is also where a lot of the Spanish look for rentals.

and as someone else has pointed out - go check the place/area at different times of day.

Include Friday Saturday midnight to 3-4AM. No kidding, I live in a beautiful, picturesque town which is a haven of peace until Friday. Every 2nd door in one street is a bar, which you wouldn't know until they open, and they only open Fri/Sat. You would not want to be there at the weekend unless you're in the bar...
Other nice open areas can attract large groups of local kids to drink the "botellon" (the big bottle).

J.

Thanks guys - great help

One of the best sites for renting house is - enalquiler.com