Buying Property in Spain.
Since we bought the villa many people have
asked us how and why we came to buy property in Spain, so I thought I'd
write it all down for everyone to read.
There has been a lot of talk in the news about investing in property
lately and for good reason. It seems to be one of the few sound
investments around at the moment. The stock market has plummeted, (the
FTSE 100 has dropped from 7000 to 4000 in the last 2 years) pension
schemes seem to have a bad name so where do you invest for your
retirement. Well investment in property in the UK is good (20% average
increase this year) but property in Spain is better. Some properties on
the Spanish Costa Calida and Costa Blanca have increased by about 100%
over the last 2 years and are set to carry on going up as demand
increases. Not only is Spanish property a great investment but it is a
lovely place to have a holiday home. What pension scheme offers you free
holiday accommodation?
We decided to cash in all of our shares, PEPs and ISAs mid 2001, (we
should have done this 6 months earlier) and decided to buy property in
Spain. We invested in the villa you can see on this web site. We are now
considering buying a second property and have also become agents for a
number of Spanish property companies.
Where can you find Properties for Sale in Spain?
It is surprisingly easy to buy property in
Spain and Spanish mortgages are easily available at 50% and up to 80% if
you look hard enough. You can go to Spain and look round the estate agents
for properties for sale but if you haven't got a lot of time to spare try
going on an inspection trip. Many companies are offering subsidised
inspection trips to allow you to view the area and properties and then
purchase if you find one you like. This is how we bought ours. Our
inspection trip cost £125 each and was all inclusive for 5 days. We flew
out to Alicante on September 11th 2001. (yes we managed to fly that day!).
We had never been to Costa Blanca before and didn't really know what to
expect although we had been to Costa Brava, the Canaries and the
Balearics. We were picked up at the airport and taken to our hotel at
Guardamar which is a few miles north of Torrevieja.
The next 2 days we where shown just about every beach, golf course and
restaurant in the area by our guide Lawrence all of which were fantastic.
He also showed us a number of villas some below our price range and some
above. Of course we only liked the properties that were way above our
price range. So on the third day we decided that if we weren't shown
anything we liked by lunch time then we would give up. So after seeing
another few villas Lawrence had then worked out exactly what we wanted and
showed us our villa! It was still being built when we saw it (see
pictures) but we were shown round a show house
to see what it would look like and we just fell in love with it.
The next day we visited the estate agents office, who recommended a bank
and a financial advisor (who is like a solicitor and accountant rolled
into one but a lot cheaper) and after signing a few papers and handing
over a £2000 deposit the villa was ours. Well, almost! The villa was
completed early 2002 and we flew out in March to complete the deal. A few
more papers to sign a 50% mortgage arranged and the keys were ours. The
property company then took us to a furniture shop where we picked out a
complete furniture package and also to a curtain shop as well. Most of the
furniture was delivered the next day!
It was our plan to rent the villa as well as
use it for a family holiday home so we interviewed a few property
management companies, one of which we hired to provide cleaning and
maintenance services.
Back in the UK I built this web site, advertised the villa with
villarama.com and
our first clients arrived on 29th May. The villa has been virtually
fully booked from June through to now (November 2002) this year and we
have already booked 12 weeks for next year.
June 2004. We are so pleased with our villa in Spain as it is a great investment. We use it for our holidays 3 or 4 times a year, our children use it for their holidays, (our grandson loves the pool!) and we mange to rent it for around 26 weeks of the year which pays our mortgage. So... we decided to invest in another property in Spain. We have just come back from a trip to Almeria where we have bought an off plan apartment at Laguna beach Almerimar.
July 2006. We have now signed for and picked up the keys for our new apartment in Almerimar. The Spanish property market has now slowed down a bit over the past 2 years but our apartment has still increased in value by around 28% since we bought it in 2004. We have now got to furnish it and will be renting it next year when the whole development is completed. Further details at www.almerimarapartment.com
January 2007. To complete this story, after owning this wonderful villa for 5 years and many happy holidays here for our family and friends we have sold the property to move onto pastures new, Almeriamar.
So if you are thinking about
buying a
property in Spain the first thing you need to do is work out your budget.
How much do you want to spend, this should include about 10% for legal
costs/tax etc. Then I recommend you take an inspection trip, there is no
hard sell and you get shown around the area as well as the properties. On
our trip we covered a lot more than we ever could have on our own. We
recommend that you find a company that offers a personal inspection trip
tailored to your personal requirements not a group of strangers. (Some
companies will take you around in a mini bus with up to 6 other couples).
If you want to find out more about buying property in Spain click on one
of the links below
Properties in
Costa Blanca,
Costa Calida,
Costa del Sol or
Property in Almeria.
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