Advice on where to buy in Spain

curly_cabbage

Morning all
Just thought i'd add my views, Althought my family and i live and work in the UK, we are currently doing up a Cortijo, in a bautiful valley where the only things you see is the mile after mile of olive, almond & fig tree's. We do have one visable neigbour who is spanish and speaks no English but is always friendly and we can communitcate with my little spanish and arms flapping. I have running water but no mains electric as we use a generater. There are two bedroom's (one een-suite) kitchen/dinner/lounge and bathroom and a further 17,000 Mt's of land. Which when you live on a housing estate in Kent is great for the kids to just roam about and make camps.
It located on the outskirts of a small village called Bayerque (By-are-key) our nearest towns is Tijola, there are a few english but not enough to spoil (No English bar, bingo night and car boot sales) Bayerque is about 1.5 hours from Almeria air port and 45 min to Vera (Beach) this should improve greatly as they are currently improving the roads greatly.
The largest local town is Albox, which has really been invaided by the brit and usally if there is trouble is can often be English at the root of it. All in all i would recommend this area to those who want to go to Spain and enjoy living the Spanish way, not the Brit aboard with English bars ect, i would say you need the very basic spanish here but, the locals will always help you if you try, ive never come across any body who wouldn't help, after all i can now order great quanities of cement, tiles ect oh and wine.!!! Spain is very beautiful but, it isn't all sun & sangria when you live their, my friend who lives there all year round says she would kill for a days rain in August when it become unbearable, but as all humans we all think the grass is greener on the othere side.
Good luck to anybody looking and enjoy .

CC

sharne_2

Hi there

I bought a house in a village South of Granada six years ago without problems and it´s wonderful here but cold at night in winter.

Here are some tips we were given:

Come out and rent first so you don´t buy under time pressure and you get a chance to get to know the area.

Buy in a village. This has lots of advantages. In Andalucia people are very kind and will include you in village life - good for learning the language and for getting help with any teething problems. Also you´ll be able to heve someone local to manage your house when you´re not there. Much better than employing some management company.

Village houses are less likely to have plaaning ppermission problems but you do still need to be careful over ownership.

Go for a house that is manageable size and that can be heated as it can get cold in winter. It´s still unusual to find solar used much but if you do that´s a bonus. Older properties often aren´t insulated so keeping warm can be expensive!

I´d learn some Spanish before buying and do talk to the neighbours of any property you´re thinking to buy.

We´ve seen a fair number of Brits come and go often after some disaster of their own making. Our Spanish neighbours are bewildered as to why they never want get to know their neighbours and ask for their help!

Waking up in January to a blue sky and a stunning view (the Sierra Nevda) makes it all worthwhile!

Good luck!

PS The Alpujarras are beautiful but very remote and freezing on winter nights. If you want warmth best to stay within 50kms of the coast and below 750metres.

Maidenover

Francophile wrote: »

Will be sure and post when we get back. We're hoping the £ will have improved against the Euro by then. It's pretty dismal at the moment.:eek:

So....what happened then????????????

£ still awful against the Euro but no update since January on what happened after visit, how disappointing after everyone being so helpful with advice.

samspain_2

Try the tapes by Michel Thomas, you can quickly learn a few useful phrases.
We have a place near Vera and it is let out continuously for the whole of the summer as it is too hot for us even with air-con, but we have had some lovely weather January-June.

Francophile

Maidenover wrote: »

So....what happened then????????????

£ still awful against the Euro but no update since January on what happened after visit, how disappointing after everyone being so helpful with advice.

Sorry Maidenover, I think I must have been posting on 2 different forums. I thought I'd done an update but obviously not. Well even before we went over the £ was dropping like a stone against the euro so that wasn't a good start:eek: . We stayed in Javea and visited the surrounding area. Absolutely loved it. Beautiful scenery, lovely people etc etc. There were an awful lots of properties going on the market where people could no longer afford their mortgages but the prices hadn't dropped enough to equate to the difference in the £/Euro. We decided our best option would be to rent a house for say 6 months and get to know the area better before making a decision. We can't do that for another 2 - 3 years till DH retires. We had thought we would get ahead of ourselves before he retired but we think in the end it's better not to rush into anything especially the way the economy is going. We don't want to end up with an Albatross round our necks. Thanks again everyone who gave advice.

fan-of-ezio

My tips are as follows:

Visit the area you like at different times of the year...everything always looks a lot better in the sunshine.

Try and live (rent ) in the area for at least 6 months to get the feel for the place.

Find forums on the internet that are for the area that you are thinking of and read through........you will see alot of positives and negatives here. ie www.vivacv.com or www.viva-almeria.com

If your retiring, work out what you want to do with your time once in Spain. If you want a social life don't pick a property in the middle of no-where. Likewise it may be lovely being in a remote situation, being able to potter in the garden for a week or two, but would you want just this every day for the rest of your life?

Check out the flights: whilst there are plenty of flights through the summer months, many carriers reduce or stop their services through the winter.

My opinion on the euro is that it will keep falling until it hits £1=€1, then the UK will apply to join the euro.

One last thing.........
Research, Research, Research!

seven-day-weekend

sharne wrote: »

Hi there

I bought a house in a village South of Granada six years ago without problems and it´s wonderful here but cold at night in winter.

Here are some tips we were given:

Come out and rent first so you don´t buy under time pressure and you get a chance to get to know the area.

Buy in a village. This has lots of advantages. In Andalucia people are very kind and will include you in village life - good for learning the language and for getting help with any teething problems. Also you´ll be able to heve someone local to manage your house when you´re not there. Much better than employing some management company.

Village houses are less likely to have plaaning ppermission problems but you do still need to be careful over ownership.

Go for a house that is manageable size and that can be heated as it can get cold in winter. It´s still unusual to find solar used much but if you do that´s a bonus. Older properties often aren´t insulated so keeping warm can be expensive!

I´d learn some Spanish before buying and do talk to the neighbours of any property you´re thinking to buy.

We´ve seen a fair number of Brits come and go often after some disaster of their own making. Our Spanish neighbours are bewildered as to why they never want get to know their neighbours and ask for their help!

Waking up in January to a blue sky and a stunning view (the Sierra Nevda) makes it all worthwhile!

Good luck!

PS The Alpujarras are beautiful but very remote and freezing on winter nights. If you want warmth best to stay within 50kms of the coast and below 750metres.

Hi Sharne, I too am in the Alpujarras, the eastern side near Ugijar. Where are you?

I would echo what Sharne has said about buying an established village house, not only for the reasons she has given (although I do agree with them) but also because it is most unlikely to be considered an illegal build, unlike a remote cortijo in the campo or a new villa on an urbanization..

Francophile

fan-of-ezio wrote: »

My opinion on the euro is that it will keep falling until it hits £1=€1, then the UK will apply to join the euro.

Oh I feel so depressed now but unfortunately I think you're right. The labour government has a lot to answer for.

fotoco

Hi all and especially Francophile.
Just been reading all these posts re. Spain. I have an apartment in a small village called Lliber, very close to Jalon and about 25 mins from Moraira and Javea. We think the village is really lovely and we are very happy there, one slight fly in the ointment is the Mayor agreed to let a larger apartment block be built opposite us, we still have the bulk of our view over the vineyards and are still quite content. The new apartment block unfortunately has tended to dominate the approach to the village from Jalon.
The builders are BTB (my name is "Build The Boxes") as it seems every site they take over it is all the same style, just how many can we get on a site. Anyway that is my gripe over.:mad: I agree that all round the Javea/Moraira/Denia area we just love, there are a lot of good restaurants all round the area, I have travelled a fair bit up and down the coast and I still prefer our area. One other area I love is in Las Alpujarras, we have driven down from our place many time s and we have stayed in Mecina Fondales and then toured around. In fact next Thursday I am going out with a crowd of my mates from our local Camera Club In Bangor (Co. Down) See Francophile another Norn Iron person!!! And we are going to Mecina, going for a meal in the Vegetarian restaurant and in the local bar run by Carlos. Can't wait:D
As far as buying goes even with the drop in the value of Sterling it is a buyers market out there at the moment, so I would hold off and wait, there are a lot of people hurting with mortgage costs etc. and are starting to get desperate to off load their properties even at a loss.
So francophile I hope you get sorted OK.

diddyj

Have you considered Cyprus Francophile, most people speak English, we drive on the left, all signs are in Greek and English, the land registry and laws are the same as the UK. For 200,000 euros you could have a nice 2 bed town house close to the sea. There are plenty of web sites available about Cyprus, it has 340 days of sunshine per year, but as with most Med countries the nights are cooler in winter....still warmer than the UK! Look at developers such as Aristo and Leptos websites for some idea of the type of properties available. There are plenty of estate agents in Cyprus who have web sites, and advertise both new build and resale properties. We looked at Spain over a period of 3 years, would not go there if they paid me!