Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

[QUOTE=Gray C]Where you are going to live sounds very nice and Spanish. It sounds very similar to what we want to do, although we would prefer a house on the edge of a town with enough land for a pool and to lounge around and read and just generally chill out a bit

Good luck with your move

All the best

Graham & Pauline :)[/QUOT

my partner and I moved to Spain in Feb this year. It had taken us a year to find what we wanted.Our first priority was that we were within walking distance to a village, second we didnt want to do tooooooo much work to the property,well, maybe a bit.
We finaly found what we were looking for , it was a 2 bed villa in 2000 metres of land with a cassita on it in Barxeta, nr Xativa (small spanish house that we use for guests) we can walk into the lovely spanish village which is 10 mins away. we dont speak spanish but we have been taking lessons from a lovely english lady and in september we will join a school.
i have taken early retirement but my partner who is younger has no job, no worries because we have enough money to get by on.
we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves here and love it, my partner has enough to do round the house and garden to keep him occupied.
we have met some very nice english people here and we go out with them socialy and its great.
The spanish people all say hello or "ola" in the village when you pass and its such a nice atmosphere there.
we can get the train to valencia fm here which takes just 45 mins, a joy as train is airconditioned and plays some very low classical music, a joy.
we are 20 mins away fm tavernes which is a typical spanish beach, lovley.
anyway said enough,
If you can put yourself out to learn spanish and be friendly to locals you will get much pleasure fm this, anyway hope you sell you house and make it to spain. pat

Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

[QUOTE=patsywhitehair]

oh, forgot to say..... prices are soooo much cheaper in the country side, if you need any advice then you are welcome to em me, dont know too much but I know that there are a lot of unscrupulous estate agents out there who take a big cut of house prices

Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

Nice to read all these positive posts....re-reading mine it comes over as extremely pessimistic which is certainly not what I intended ! I just feel that no matter where one goes or what one does there are good and bad points, and wondered about expecting too much from the change and then being disappointed?? It feels perfect and idyllic when I am over there and yes step out to my patio for breakfast having done some early morning gardening and had a dip in the pool. Does this pleasure sustain itself after one has been there for six months or a year??? Patsy surely there must be some downsides to livng out there or are you still in your honeymoon period?? I leave with a heavy heart each time, and feel unsettled for a while when I return in spite of leading a very nice life here in England.

Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

yep, there certainly are some downsides to living here...
toooo hot in august, air con on all time, car like an oven when you first get in, praying for some rain just to cool it down.
not being able to speak spanish yet, although am trying, honest.
would like some indian restaurants near us or even a decent chinese.
err cant really think of anything else cos....
we have english stations on tv, a telephone, pc with skype,so i can make cheap calls to friends in uk.
just acquired a puppy we found near the waste bin (oh heck , here we go)
just bought some land next door for £11000 and are having fun thinking what to do with it (good life comes to mind)
honest , although we have only been here for 6 months and have taken off our rose tinted glasses we really love it here, can see village fm window and its sooooo peaceful, mind you , i couldnt live too near a village because of the noise.
will let you all know in the next 6 months what its been like,take care all,pat

Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

[QUOTE=patsywhitehair]Hi

Will PM you later. I am at work at the moment (meetings, meetings etc) but will find a bit of time to write later this morning.

Graham

Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

It's very true that estate agents take a much bigger amount of the sale price in commission than we are used to in the UK. Some friends of mine bought a house near mine for cash, in the notary's office the money was handed over and the agent divided it up between herself and the vendor - would you believe a third of it went to the agent?

You will often see the same property advertised through different agents at different prices - due to the larger commissions charged by some. I know of several in the area I bought in that are for sale at 5,000E more with one agent than another. Apparently the practice is for the agent to ask the vendors how much they want for the house and then add on however much they think the market will stand - and they pocket the difference. That's also a reason why it is hard to negotiate a sale price lower than the asking price - the agent will say the owner is not prepared to drop the price when they probably haven't even asked the owner, they are just not prepared to accept less commission.

Having said that estate agents do more work for their money than UK ones do - they help with all kinds of after sales stuff like setting up standing orders for utility bills. But not enought to justify the huge commissions charged, IMHO!

As to the virtues of town v country living, depends what's most important to you as an individual. As people have said in another thread living in the country can still be very noisy, and in the area where my house is it is very quiet in the afternoons and during the night, less so when the children are playing in the street after getting home from school, people are going to work in the mornings, etc. But at least kids can play out in safety there, parents are scared to let them out of their sight in today's Britain. And it is just playing - we don't get any of the sort of anti social behaviour from teenage yobs that many areas in Britain are plagued by.

Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

This is one of the reasons we want to move. We do not feel safe where we live anymore. We want to move for our daughter's sake, as well as our own.

Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

Certainly something we have noticed here, kids playing unsupervised in the streets, and running around the commercial centres at night making great friends with each other, and the language barrier doesn't seem to be there.

Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

:eek:

We're moving in two weeks, I think we've been in Germany too long, I'm going local :beer: !!!!!!

First order of business is Spanish lessons, it is soooo frustrating when you can't speak the language, you dont' realize how much you miss the simple things in life, like ordering your morning coffee, asking what time it is, where such and such is so on and so forth.

One thing I won't miss is the lousey weather, cool and overcast. Madrid sunny and warm :)

Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

Apart from the summer months, I understood from what I've read that Madrid was quite a wet climate

Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

Very, very cold in winter and very hot in summer.

Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

HI
We have just moved to Pla de corrals nr Xativa,it is beautiful
Try this site
www.spanishconnectionpla.com
All the best
Ben Christie

Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

Cheers Ben. Will check out the area.

Like your website, I see you have played with some big names.

Graham

Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

Is it colder further north?? The area around Valencia does look very lovely but I wonder how much cooler it would be in the winter than the southern coast??
I was on the beach here in Chiclana in January, and by mid afternoon it was warm enough to strip down to shorts.

Re: Tell me, the hidden gem is?
 

Hi Poollounger,

About two years ago Kath and I were staying at the Almadraba Hotel in the centre of Conil in February and it was warm enough to take breakfast on the roof each day, mind you it was a late breakfast !

The views to Trafalgar were great.

Regards,:cool:

John.