Thinking of buying in Spain
 

Hi everyone. After 2 years and 70-odd threads I havent read every one. I dont want to appear lazy or stupid (but will probably end up looking both) but advice needed if possilble.

We are thinking of buying a property that is habitable and just needs tidying up and a bit of comestic work to have as a permanent home. Seen lots of estate agents websites with townhouses for sale under 50,000 euros. Weve read enough to to know to get a spanish lawyer etc and to check that the building is structurally sound before going ahead. We then would like to buy another property, maybe a bit cheaper and more run down to do up and then rent it out to locals (or to anyone staying for a length of time) on a long-term let. Is this feasible or is it a pipe dream? Ive gathered that the property market is on a go-slow but is it the same for rentals?

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Hmm. There are several properties around here that are advertised at around that kind of price. I even went to see one... the agent said it 'only needed a bit of work'. Didn't tell me it had no actual roof, or floors, or much in the way of walls either.

You couldn't even keep chickens in it because they'd just get out of the cracks in the external walls :rofl:

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Yes thats our worry. Ive looked on more websites than I can count... Kyero being one which seems to be a popular one on this forum. A few of them have internal photos and some of properties are still being lived in. We want to do as much research via the internet as we can and then fly out and view a few towns and villages before doing yet more research on the internet. Just wanted a `feel for things` from `them that know` before we do anything. Thanks Twyntub

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

I've got to say, if you can find a good habitable property for under €50k then I'd be fairly suprised, unless it was at the top of a mountain with no utilities, no road etc etc etc :)

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Have you been watching those silly tv shows ?
You will struggle to find anything habitable under more like a 100.000 €`s now.

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

No, I havent watched any tv shows. What I have done is trawled through lots of estate agents websites. I havent been looking at property on the coast though, Ive been looking more inland about 2 or 3 hours drive to the coast. Ive been looking at terraced townhouses for sale. Will this make a difference? I will certainly be more on my guard with what you are all saying.

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

When we started looking, that was our first move. We actually looked in estate agents windows, and when we went in to enquire we were told "oh no, that ones sold, but we do have these" . The "these" were more expensive of course, and after a while we realised that most of the stuff in the windows had been there for years! :D

Inland will of course be cheaper than coastal, but you can't tell in what state the places are from the web sites. Have you actually tried emailing one to ask if its still for sale?

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Well people had been living in our house, but there was no way we could have even ruffed it. and we are just a couple, no kids.
The rooms were damp, the plumbing horrendous, and the electrics well they were just unreal an accident waiting to happen.
I remember looking at some houses, we looked at one that was restored MMMM we would have still gutted it and started from scratch.
You do need to view these properties first and the areas they are in, some look great in pictures and then when you see them, well they are a lot to be desired.
A nice three bed rental where we live is anything up to 400 euros a month plus water, gas and elec, the other bills are paid by the owner.

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

I have heard many horror stories of peole who have places they have let out on long-term let. After 6 months, the tenants have rights. I dont know the full ins and outs but i would certainly look into this carefully. We bought a 2nd house to let out at one time, but decided on the one or 2 week holiday lets option.
Good luck in whatever you decide.

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

It`s not even 6 months, if the contract doesn`t say short term holiday let, then the tenent can stay for up to five years.
The only way a landlord can avoid this is if he can prove he needs it for his own residence.

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

is this why some landlords do an 11month rental period?

carole

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

I thought the laws on this had changed now :confused:

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

This is what the solicitor wrote in the SUR.

QUESTION
I have been living in a rented accommodation for almost a year. I originally signed a one year contract with the owner which expires in the next couple of months and I would like to continue renting this same apartment. Could you please tell me what my rights are?

ANSWER
The Urban Rentals Law of 1994 provides that the parties to a rental agreement may freely agree upon the terms concerning the duration of the contract.
According to this legislation, if the parties agree that the term of the rental agreement is for a period of less than five years, as seems to be your case, upon the date of expiry of the contract, it will be automatically renewed for successive one-year periods for a minimum of five years, unless the tenant notifies the landlord of his intention not to renew the contract within a period of thirty days prior to the expiry of the contract.

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

The advice you have been given is good - whatever you do, shop around first and do a lot of homework. We bought a house at a good price about 4 years ago and, although a Spanish family had been living in it, it wasn't really what I would have called habitable. It was, however, structurally very sound. We renovated it and it it is now on the market with several different agents, the majority of whom shove it on their websites and do nothing else.

The point is, the vendor states what price they want and then the agents add on their commission. In our case it varies from 1 agent asking 6000 euros right up to another asking a whopping 23000 euros. That has only served to push us out of the market as the house, lovely though it is, is nowhere near what they are asking for it. Ironically, the only agent who has put himself out is the one charging the lowest commission. In the end, we have decided to market it ourselves for the price we want without the agents fees.

As I said, shop around. You might get a bargain. Just because a house is on the cheaper side it doesn't always mean that there is too much wrong with it. Often it just means that a greedy agent hasn't grabbed it first. However, at the 'bargain end' do be prepared to do a lot of work. We have been into houses being sold as liveable that would have been condemned if they were in the UK.
Good luck

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

no idea if the laws have changed...
but have been told and seen adverts for 11 month rentals..perhaps it is because the owners want to use for for family and friends in the summer?? christmas..or whenever

Carole

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Thank you so much everyone for your time and help. It has certainly given us a lot to think about.

At the moment all we have done is a lot of research on the internet and chosen two or three towns that we like the look of. We thought of coming over to spend a few days in each of them to get a `feel` of the places and then come back and do yet more research on the areas. Once we picked a town then we were going to make appointments to view properties and fly over and check them all out.

Hubby is quite handy and can turn his hand to everything except plastering - and Im ok at painting/decorating so we thought that between the two of us we could have a property good condition within 6 months to use as a family home.

We were hoping to have a second property let out, most probably to a spanish family, on a long term let to provide us with a little bit of income. Dont know if this is a good idea now.

Im just hoping now that you are not all going to tell me how stupid I am and to get a grip! :)

But Im sure you will.....

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Getting really worried now.... 60-odd people have viewed this thread since my last entry and nobody has commented....... :unsure:

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

A few days, is nowhere near long enough to get to know an area. Maybe use that time to find somewhere to rent first while you look for somewhere to settle.
tim

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Well the problem is, Carole that all the agents seem to have differing commission rates, so some may add 14,000 and another only 1200 euros.
So, we are really up against a wall - we only want to sell our houses, but also be able to afford to buy another, and also have something left in the bank to live on !! Prices rise here as well......

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Valenciatim, thanks for that. There are 4 places at the moment that we like the sound of..... Iznalloz in Granada province, Alcala la Real, Alcaudete and Martos.. all in Jaen province. We couldnt rent in all 4. We wanted to spend a few days in each to see which we liked best.... and then come home and do more research and then decide which we like best and THEN rent for six months or so in our chosen town. If we dont like it then we move on to the next. I dont want to appear stupid on here, this was my fear, Ive read enough threads to know bits and bats and I didnt want Mitzyboy and Jdr to come on and start sighing at me ... which did happen (see above) ..... Im a newbie and Im asking all the same questions.. (and Ive tried to word them differently and tried to get away with it and failed miserabley) but I Im hoping someone from these areas will read this and give me a bit of advice. I opened a new thread a couple of days ago and nobody bit.... I hope Im not going to get into trouble now from a moderator!

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

No it's because no-one understands Spanish law!!! All English estate agents that we have been into offer the 11 month contract and their actual contracts are a minefield and have no bearing on the Spanish law involved!!

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Now thats interesting. Will have to look further into that. Thanks Sue

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Out of interest have you worked out a realistic %age income from renting out a property?
It seems from the figs people quote to be about 4 maybe 5 % absolute tops - would it not be easier/safer just to leave the money in the bank and rake off the interest?

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Hang on a moment .... no ones "sighing" at you. You asked a question and I answered it with my opinion. If you'd prefer then Debsy I'll tell you "yes, no problem you will easily find a good habitable property for €50k" .... but I simply dont think it to be true. I tend to give a balanced view when I can but theres no point in misleading you is there?

Why are you going to get in trouble with a moderator :confused::)

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Yes, had thought of that too. Looking at everything at the moment. Thought it best to check out everything before deciding on anything. Im aware that spaniards are loath to buy and prefer to rent and from personal experience the property that they do have that ends up on the market for years, and in they are in no rush to sell, is inherited property.

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Mitzyboy..No no youve got the wrong end of the stick - I meant that `tongue in cheek`... Ive been reading this forum for a while and just managed to gain enough courage dip my toe in a couple of nights ago . Sam and Crispy were very nice and gentle with me. I have a mega sense of humour and Im worried that I will come across as just another new one with yet again the same old questions... which to be honest we all seem to do regardless and we are rightly redirected to the Free Beer thread. Im now drowning in my own questions!:)

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

You do not have to worry about unleashing your sense of humour on here! (We've got some right wierdos on here, but dont worry). And dont worry about asking the same old questions ...... unless of course .... it has to do with importing a UK plated car cos we already have about 1323 threads on that, and even a separate thread on how many car importation threads there are :blink:

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Thank you :D

Now, How do I go about importing our two RHD Landrovers??............

OUCH!!!! I felt that!

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

At the end of the day, it's no different to moving to any town / area in the UK. You'll never really know what it's like until you live there.

The Internet will tell you nothing... because the only thing written about Spain on the Internet is by estate agents trying to sell property there (don't believe me? Just google Iznalloz... first place... property. Just google Alcala la Real... fourth place... property. Just google Alcaudete... first place property. Just google Martos... third place... property.)

At least with renting, even if you stuck a drawing pin into a map of Spain and moved there... you could always move somewhere else if you weren't happy.

Good luck... :thumbsup:

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Sometimes there are over 1500 people on this site, although some look at threads they may not have any info and are just looking like you to glean some off about the subject, don`t panic this is Spain, it`s a different life. ;-))

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

That's exactly the way we did it and we are still here over 4 years later!
Regards
Tim

Re: Thinking of buying in Spain
 

Thanks everyone. Ive realised now that we wont know either way unless we just do it. We could ask questions til Kingdom come but experience is the only teacher. Thinking of moving in about 12 months or so - that will give us time to make a few trips over and decide where we would like to rent. As you say, if we dont like it then we can move on! xxx

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Sorry, but you can't compare the Spanish houses with the UK. If you did nobody would ever buy one !! My house had no electric, no running water, no toilet etc., and damp in all the walls when I bought it... and the walls were falling down.... No surveyor in UK would have touched it....but that's what Spain is like. You more or less buy it as seen ..... Good luck anyway.

Re: Don´t buy property in Spain or you will lose a lot of money
 

Yes, we could understand that. The first house we bought in the uk as a couple was basically a shell - had no water and you could see daylight throught the outside walls. It scared the hell out of me but we did it. We wouldnt dream of buying something that bad again at our age but we arent expecting to buy something brand-spanking new either. We`ve taken in everything thats been said on here... all good advice. We will definately shop around when the time comes to buy. Will definately rent first. ..... Thanks.

Re: Buy a property in Spain !!!
 

I'm not sure how this forum thing works!!!
I've sent message earlier, but it hasnt gone on here, maybe it's gone to the wrong forum :curse:
Any way, I'm a happy buyer, just got my house in Castilla la Mancha (just on border Albacete/Murcia) and it was very good property, ready to move in, at excellent price - 55k euro
No delays, no silly promises, everything straight forward and completion in 1 week !!!
If you or anybody else still looking for inland house at low price, I really recommend to see these guys :thumbsup: