Buying in ~Spain - Survey question

melb

hi there am I right in thinking that it is not the norm to have a survey when buying property in Spain? Also am I right in thinking that it is best to take out even a small mortgage with a spanish bank as they will have some incentive to make sure the vendor's paperwork is in order although we would obviously employ a spanish solicitor to deal with the legalities. I know when we first looked about a year ago there was a lot of information on the net with advice which I will revisit but I wondered if anyone on here had recently bought in Spain

jamie11

I live in Spain. Don't take any chances at all. A survey is just as essential here as in UK, there are many pitfalls for the unwary. Many properties have been built illegally and have been pulled down with no compensation. Your best bet is to buy on an established urbanisation, that's a community of owners.

Be extra careful if the property is described as 'Rustico'.

A mortgage is hard to come by these days, the Spanish Banks are in just as much trouble as the English ones.

poppy10_2

Be careful - so many people have been scammed after buying property in Spain that had no planing permission and gets knocked down. Wouldn't risk it myself.

beedeedee

Please, please think about renting there for 6 - 12 months before you even think about buying. Rent your own place out in the UK to pay for it if necessary.
You will learn so much from just being on the spot and plenty of expats will advise you on property they know to be coming up for sale, as well as any problems they encountered when they bought and also generally what to do. Don't ever skimp on surveys or legalities.

jamie11

beedeedee wrote: »

Please, please think about renting there for 6 - 12 months before you even think about buying.

^^ Good advice^^ By renting in the area you want to move to you will quickly hear about properties that are for sale and you'll hear about the problems people are having as well.

Notmyrealname

beedeedee wrote: »

Please, please think about renting there for 6 - 12 months before you even think about buying.

Definitely this. I used to live in a seaside resort. Many people came there to retire because they'd come there for a holiday once a week when they were younger. They then found that living in the place was a whole lot different than being on holiday:

The town was effectively closed from October to March.
There actually weren't many shops which weren't for tourists.
The price of petrol went up 2-3p/litre during the season.
Parking in town to do your shopping was a nightmare from March to September.
If you lived within 1/2 mile of the seafront, if you parked your car on the street you left it there from April to September 7am-7pm because you'd not get parked near your home if you moved it.

And once they found out this, they spent all their time whining about it.

jungle_jane

beedeedee wrote: »

Please, please think about renting there for 6 - 12 months before you even think about buying. Rent your own place out in the UK to pay for it if necessary.

great advice. we also want to buy in Spain but will rent there first. that way you can learn the ropes before committing and be certain about the area/legalities/processes etc.

jamie11

Another point, when we use the word 'illegal' as relating to property in Spain, it has a whole different meaning to using the same word in UK. So find out about it.

propertyman

Oddly enough we discussed these with my niece and her husband last week and who are planning to move and have jobs to go to !

All the above comments came up

1:rent first and network
2: Lots of Brits may turn up in Spring many who appeared on "police camera vomit" :eek:

and we found this

http://www.c-euro.org/

http://www.graysworld.co.uk/spanish-property/community-of-owners.htm

melb

thanks for all the helpful replies - sorry only just seen them. We would remain living in the UK - this would be holiday home for us and maybe let it out. it is in a town but 5 minutes walk from a beach and less than that to the train, shops, bars etc. We stayed in the same block for a few days last year and loved the location. It is a residential block with mainly full-time spanish residents so i understand. We aim to fly out in the next fortnight to have a good look. Please can anyone tell us what steps we should take from the moment we meet the estate agent who will show us around. the questions I am planning to ask are: is it vacant, is the owner spanish or foreign why are they selling. Do estate agents provide leaflets/brochures on properties as they do here? If we approached Santander in England would they be able to help in obtaining a spanish mortgage (on maybe 25% of the value of the property)

melb

thanks propertyman those made interesting reading - although the first one was 3 years old. I wonder if there is an updated version as it seemed to have all the information you would need