chopera

While the banks advertise this, people tell me (and they may be wrong) that in reality the banks will find a way to lend no more than 50% to the average customer. Probably they'll just value the property low and then lend 80% of that, regardless of what the agreed price is (the reverse of what they did during the boom years).

sam54140

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-1...-17-overvalued
that will also influence Europe real estate.

scot47

Why buy when you can rent ?I never understand this Anglo obsession with buying property.

casa del sol

I agree with this, over the long term in the right price, in an area you know well. Also it is the cheaper properties that fall the least in percentage terms, expensive places lose the most, worth considering the running annual costs, if it is a low maintenance self contained freehold, lock up and leave, looks after itself with low council tax can be as low as £100 pa how can you lose. Price only matters when you come to sell. But if you are not sure rent, but then if you fly it now costs extra to take clothes with you.

tebo53

I totally agree with your statement. I will be renting when we come to Albir later next year. It will give us the option of being able to move around and get the best of all area's.

sam54140

renting vs buying
well it depends when you buy (at lows of the market or at highs)
factor in also all the related costs and taxes
I would say any rent higher than EUR 1.000, buying (again, as low as possible in the market...) might sound wiser (and making as sure as possible the prop is legal).
depends also on interest rates of course and their revision, the plan over 15-40years (whatever).
right now,a cautious approach I think is renting and waiting a bit more and exploring the region(s). THere's still (with exceptions) too much supply not enough demand. Renting "low" + saving gives more flexibility. (assets liquidity). There is a deflation pattern in Europe and might start in the US too.
there are pros and cons.

alilever

Yes - think we might wait a bit longer. We know we can get what we want at a reasonable price - right down to particular buildings in the town. We can keep an eye on prices and wait until we're ready. In the meantime, we'll take the advice of those who favour renting. At the moment we can't spend very much time in Spain because of full time jobs. We have ideas for changing that, so will probably concentrate on getting that plan underway first - some career changing to be done!
It's been really helpful hearing everyone's opinions!

scampicat

We bought in 2003 a traditional village house up a mountain on the southern side of the Sierra Nevada in Granada province. We lived in it full-time for five years and part-time for four. We sold it in 2012 and broke even after taking all the expenses into consideration. The selling price was just over 100k euros.

We were very, very lucky to sell, most houses up for sale in our village then are still for sale now. We were even luckier not to make a loss.


Would I buy in Spain again? No. But then I would not want to be resident in Spain again either. Couldn't stand all the bureaucracy. A couple of months renting in the winter might be on the cards from next year, but I would not buy or live permanently in Spain again.

cricketman

For me that is a bizarre reason for not wanting to live in Spain. And I say that as an autonomo with a wife who is also autonomo. And who has had to set themselves up in 3 different autonomous communities in the past 6 years

Once you know the system then imo bureaucracy isnt bad at all. In fact we have found everybody to be very helpful. We even got a call last year from social security telling us that we had illegally claimed for some benefits that we weren't actually entitiled to (due to our Irish landlord not declaring our rental payments), but rather than fine us EUR3,000 they would give us the chance to fill in the form again and return the EUR300 that we claimed

For me, that is amazing as rightfully they could have claimed the 3k

me me

The last line of your post says a lot about the bureaucracy and the
unfairness of it all in Spain, and peoples "lay down, roll over, attitude to fighting against Spanish red tape.


From your post stating that you could have been fined 3000 euros because of the dodgy dealings and dishonest of your LANDLORD.

Because of this you "illegally claimed" 300 euros back, but were give a chance to resubmit your claim.

You did nothing wrong, your landlord did, you could have been fined 3000k but the kind tax people decided to let you off.



I look at it differently to the way you do. I think it is a disgrace that an innocent party (yourselves) could have faced a fine because a guilty party (your landlord).

Instead of being grateful that it worked out how it should have, don´t you think it would be more constructive to challenge the rules, that punish innocent parties, when others trangres



I am glad that it worked out well for you, I really am, but for you to be aazed at the "fairness" shown by the officer and actually post about it, seems so tragic, as fairness should be the norm.

The guilty should pay, the innocent not, and when an innocent gets the right result, they should not be grateful and feel they have to pay homage to tax officials, they should infact be peed off to think that it might have gone againt them.

We are often told that English are the cold blooded ones, and that the Spanish are the hot firery ones, but in matters of this sort, the Spanish are less likely to seek justice and are thankful for any scrap of "kindness" shown by the state.

SAD SAD SAD.

cricketman

Well yes, but in the instructions to the tax return it clearly states that we needed proof that the tenancy had been logged with the junta de Andalucia. We didnt have that

Yes I really do hope that the landlord got caught for years of tax dodging but I severely doubt it

The landlord was actually angry that we had told the tax authorities about the tenancy (of course) as he expected us to be purely earning black money and not submitting tax returns like most Brits below retirement age in Spain do. I quickly turned that back on him

Dick Dasterdly

I presume you have sound evidence to back that claim ?

..........or do you not think that maybe Spanish people should be included in that remark also ?

cricketman

It was his claim, not mine

Dick Dasterdly

It could be read either way I suppose, though I doubt if your Landlord would have had much firsthand experience up there, let alone solid evidence, on which to base such a broad and possibly unfounded allegation.

Sounds like a real nice bloke anyway, you two should get along just great.

JB80

We got it from the bank direct, two banks actually but seeing as we are with Sabadell I can positively report that is what we were told and is the current standing.

Deposit, fees, income weren't even questioned and if they were wouldn't be an issue at all.
Like I said I can only think it is because we are new customers with no record with them otherwise they wouldn't be lending to anyone, at all.

Again other banks may well be different, our bank may well lend after they see what our numbers actually are but as a first impression they want you to buy one of their properties. When we tell them we are switching banks and why I'm sure the tune will change.