big wheels

From reading this forum and watching the various tv programs on moving to Spain, it seems that most people do their looking at and buying Spanish property in August.

Why??
Everyone knows what to expect from past holidays taken in the summer that Spain is HOT and sunny at this time of the year.
But how many realise how cold it gets in the winter? Or how lonely and desolate some of the coastal urbs can be once the summer is over??

The best bit of advice I can give anyone thinking of moving to Spain is to do the house hunting in Jan / Feb when they can see what the area is like out of season, and realise how cold it gets inside some of the Spanish houses / apartments that are so inviting with their comunity pool etc when the temp is in the high 30's. But are like igloos in the winter when the outside temp can be around 10-15degs.

I often wonder about the shock to the system some people must experience when they discover that, Yes it does sometimes rain for days on end in Spain.
And that the estate agent was maybe a little liberal with the truth when he said. "don't worry about the tiny kitchen. You will be doing all your cooking outside on the B-BQ"

pete_l

Is it because no matter how often the experienced people on forums like this
tell them, they still think it'll be just like being on holiday?

Now. if people are buying a place to use as a holiday home, this may not
be too unreasonable, but as you say if they are planning to move to Spain
they are in for a bit of a shock.
However, that shock might not be such a bad thing. If they are so disorganised
(or unrealistic, or impetuous, or gullible) to not research such a large move
with any depth, it'll probably be enough to make them move back to the UK
very soon, with not much time wasted. Yes, they'll take a loss but that's the
price of not making proper preparations.

With luck they'll have learned from their experience

Pete

Eve

I agree, it doesn't matter how well you know Spain and the area you want to move to, make sure you have experience of it other than the summer. The first viewing I had was in a February, couldn't see a hand in front of you, let alone out of the windscreen, went to view a couple of houses in Torrox pueblo, they weren't suitable and still don't know what Torrox is like as haven't returned since, must do though because I drive past it everytime I go to the motorway or the coast. Eventually purchased elsewhere by the May. You get a very different view of life in Spain, especially inland and in old village houses.
If you do your homework, use you head and not always just your heart then good decisions should be made. AND use your brains don't rely on what the agent has to say!
Luv Eve
xx Happy house hunting to you all.

Rosemary

When we came over to have a look it was the end of January. Lovely weather, warm, dry and sunny. Before we left the UK we agreed that we were only looking and definitely not buying. We travelled around, visited a lot of seaside towns and villages and they were all dead and ghostly so decided that this should be taken into consideration. As we had found a few houses on the internet we decided to still go ahead and look at them, liked one of them so much that we decided to buy even though we had said that we would not. Any way we came back at the end of February for four days to sign the papers and collect our NIE's, it rained solidly and extremely heavily throughout the four days so we really found out what it could be like.

I agree with the sentiment about buying out of season as you see places without the sun, without people milling around and therefore gain a more realistic picture of what life can be like. However if you are buying into the seaside type places you need to see it in the summer months too in order to assess the noise levels.

Our nearest seaside resort is frequented mostly by Spanish people and some French people and absolutely buzzes for 3 months of the year and is quite dead the rest of the time.

Rosemary

orange blossom

I certainly would agree with viewing at different times of year. We have been living in France for the last year and although we had spent every summer and Christmas hols here for the previous five years we certainly had a shock spending the whole year here. The rain has nearly driven me mad. It started raining last November and it went on for six months. Even now it’s not too good some nice days but plenty of cloudy or rainy ones. Guess what? By the end of last year we had decided to seriously investigate living in Spain. We spent the month of January touring the south of Spain from Vera to Nerja but decided it was not for us although the weather was very pleasant. On the drive back to France we spotted Valencia so within a month we were back in Spain looking around the Gandia area which we really liked. We saw some houses which would meet our budget but not quite the right one. When we chatted to the estate agent about when a good time to come back would be we were told that they usually take their summer holidays in August because that’s when they get a lot of time wasters who are just bored or not serious holiday makers. So as we are serious, we will be back for further investigations next winter, we are hoping to do a long term rent from just after Christmas.
Mary

bchapl

With all the trouble we've had attempting to have electricity connected, (see thread 'Anyone here from Hondon?') and with all the trips we've had to do back and forth (it's taken almost a year since we first viewed our house), we've seen Spain at all different times of the year and are under no illusions about the weather. We came over last January and the weather was great. Came over again in May and it was cold and rainy! We stayed in a villa which was ostensibly just a 'holiday villa' and, despite the open fire, we were quite cold. It made us realise why the builder had indeed installed central heating in our property. But yes, I think that big wheels is absolutely correct in saying that many people come over in August when it's really hot and then don't realise that Spain can get very cold and it does indeed rain for days on end! Some Estate Agents do indeed take advantage of this and 'forget' to point this out. Also, as Oddities said, some seaside towns can be positively 'ghostly' in the winter.
So, yes, I agree that house viewing should be done in Jan/Feb when the weather is (usually) at its worst!
Love,
bchapl

silverchick

We first saw our house in the driving rain at Easter, We figured if we loved it in that weather, we'd like it even more in the sun, which we did when we went back a few weeks ago, everything had grown a lot because of the rain, but we still loved it , even the thought of all the strimming that'll need to be done didn't put us off!!

Rosemary

Seeing any area in miserable weather encourages a more realistic view of what it will be like and any differences with the sun out is a bonus.

Rosemary

silverchick

and if there was no rain in that area then it wouldn't be so green and lush compared to some areas of Spain!

Rosemary

Originally I was quite negative about the idea of moving to Spain as I did not want to live in a 'brown' area but as we drove along from the airport I saw the views changing and became more positive.

Now I really apreciate the different colours of the paddy fields at different times of the year and the orange groves are wonderful. I thought I would miss the greenness of UK but am spoilt with the amount of different greens in our area.


Rosemary

jenna m

We came over to look last February and have been a few times since.
Loved the Valencia area each time, even though we had wind and rain at times but the sun usually came out.
We now know what we want - the villages by the sea are lovely but lifeless in the winter so its slightly inland ,on the flat,where we can still get the sun longer in winter and easy access to town and country.
Roll on the autumn - I am buying myself a bike!
Jenna

Mitzyboy

This is the first time I've experienced summer here, apart from a holiday way back in the 70's. All our viewing trips were in Early spring or autumn. We had one week when it just rained solidly all the time.

We saw the worst side of the weather when we were looking

jenna m

How are you finding the heat at the moment?

Mitzyboy

It was OK until about a week ago, then it changed from dry heat to humid heat and I find that a bit uncomfortable. I'm hoping it becomes dry heat again
It feels very much like Florida heat at the moment which leaves you very sticky. We've tried not to use the aircon too much as I don't want to become reliant on it

squelch

We have been over at different times during the last year having a good look around, so we have seen it rainy and cold and very hot and sticky. Totally agree that you have to be realistic when moving to Spain, it isn't all sand, sun and sangria Can't wait to get back thou!