Looking to purchase property - help please!

Hi Everyone,

 

We are in the process of flying out to choose a property to purchase as a holiday home, we are looking at a 2 bed property with a roof terrace  We've done as much reserach as we can and we are a bit familar with the local area (have family on Mazarron CC). We are dealing with Condado Invest, I can't to seem to find much information on the net about the company good or bad. Has anybody used this company to purchase?

 

We've also been quoted some guidelines for regular bills etc and I wondered if anybody could confirm if these are about right for the average holiday home (we don't plan to rent)

 

Hello.

We bought through Andy at Condado Invest last year and took all his advice as given and it is pretty much spot on.

Only thing we found is the connection costs and first untility bills came out to a little more than we expected 500 euro) and we got our water cut off when there wasn't enough money in the account. So just make sure you have more than enough money in your spanish account once the purchase in complete.

Otherwise the solicitor costs were the same and we used PALS as recommended by Condado Invest (all went fine and we got our deeds on our last visit) and our community fees are 217 euros per quarter.

I thought buildings insurance is included in your community fees and contents insurance is extra. I think you can get it through millenium for about 70 euros per year.

I'm not sure about the utility costs as we have not really assessed our annual bills yet to work out an average monthly cost but I think we are looking at about 30euro a month for both. Maybe someone with a more detailed figure could help you out on this.

I dont recall paying a spanish tax at all, we just pay community fees and utilities.

Our solicitor will deal with one tax for us which all foreign owners must pay, I think it is called IBI and they charge 120 euro. I know that you can do this yourself for less but I have not looked into this yet.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your purchase.

 

Thanks that is really, really useful. We've been dealing with Andy and Sara and found them both great. We've been pre approved so the next step is to come out and choose a property and pay a reservation fee  - did you also pay this fee? I've heard that in most cases you don't get this back.

It was the utilities I was more concerned about tbh as I didn't want to be landed with huge bills after purchasing as we plan to use as a holiday home rather than rent out, if the bills were too much we would probably need to rent.

The complex looks lovely and we are quite excited about coming out, I've read a lot on the community forums and everyone seems so helpful.

What does your community fee include, we were told TV, Internet?

Thanks again,

 

John

 

 

This message was last edited by charliedog98 on 19/05/2014.

We didn't pay a reservation fee, it wasnt asked of us at the time. Ours was a bank reposession and it is possible that the offers have changed now or it may be a diferent bank (our was via CAM bank).

We were able to reserve the apartment and then had 7 days to pay a deposit of the apartment was offered to someone else.

The deposit was non-refundable and was 10% of the purchase price.

The community fee includes internet through A2Z - we got ours in March and its convenient having it available. TV channels are available when you buy a TV with a tuner that works on Condado. You can buy TVs with the Tuner built in through Euronics.

Wish I could be a bit more exact about bills but at the moment I dont believe it to be more than about 40 euros per month for utilities based on our usage - we dont rent so its personal use for about 4-5 weeks a year.

The resort is very nice. We bought having never visited (I know, not recommended) but we were blown away by it when we finally visited. I am sure you will like it.

Yes well we havent visited either but we have stayed close by and holidayed in the area quite a few times so sure we will love it just like you!

Thanks for the information re the TV and internet, think this kids would go mad without a bit of internet.

The reservation fee is 3,000 euros and is the same with Blue Med so assuming it's just the current deal,

 

Thanks again for all your help,

 

John

Hi, we recently completed successfully, thanks to Andy, who had no assistant at the time. He was brilliant in dealing with everything with common sense and good humour despite my unlimited questions which must have drove him mad. If he reads this he will know who We are. We now have a 3 bed on Naranjos 5. One thing I will say is that the Water suppliers want the money up front for the connection fee and no longer take it from your bank account. My solicitor paid this for me and i will reimburse when we fly out at the end of the month. Millenniun are also very helpful. I know a key holder for much less than 100 euros. Once we started the application we did pay 3000 euros in to Condado invest holding account, speak or email Andy, he will explain all. We were impressed with his knowledge and bought him a beer when we came out first time ;)

hi, have sent a PM, but for anyone else reading this thread, I would echo what has been said about Andy. A true gentleman, we couldn't have asked for better service. Highly recommended.
jan & Bernard west

Thanks to everyone that took time out to respond on here and PM us, the responses and advice you have provided is invaluble.

We are really looking forward to coming out to choose a property, I think everything you've said we have budgeted for, I'm a little worried about the electricity charges especially in the summer when we will have air con on but I suppose once you've used the property a few times you will get a good idea of what to expect.

 

Thanks again for all your help and advice, very much looking forward to visiting CDA

 

Take Care,

 

John & Shontel Reed

 

 

If you plan to rent or let others use the apartment we had an electric card meter fitted for 160 euros. That way if others are using the aircon they will have to pay as they go along and not leave you with a huge bill....

We got the 3000 euro holding deposit refunded to our bank account, if not it is deducted from your mortgage balance.

 

 

Dionne

Hi Dionne1210.

I would be interested in getting one of these meters fitted for the electricity.  Can you let me know who fitted this for you?

 

Alison

Hi
Andy at AES electrics did Dionne's they are a great job, tel 617644339

Regards

Denise beat me to it... very pleased with it, especially as it ensures that others are paying their way.

You will still get your Iberdrola bill taken from the bank andit won't cover everything as useage os only a part of the bill, taxes and charges make up over half!!, but should have some in the pot from others to put against it. Plus if they run away with the aircon they will be forced to buy more cards so covers you a bit.

 For each card they get 10 euros of electric, they leave you the cash and if there is anything left on the card when they leave you can use it yourself. You get 50 cards and need to get them to leave them in the apartment when used as they can be recharged for 1 euro each I think.  Very quick to fit, less than an hour. We had a water filter done as well - can't be doing with lugging bottles of water...

Dionne

Hi

We too used Andy. Arrived on time. We were surprised how quickly it was installed . Price was very good too. We would certainly recommend.

Jan

 

This message was last edited by hamibabe on 22/05/2014.

Hi,

We spent our first winter on Condado and took a meter reading one evening, after lights, air con (on heat) and cooking we had used 2euros worth of elecricity.

We also bought through Condado Invest and couldn't fault the service, we also used Sally at PALS as our solicitors and despite being incredibly busy they were very thorough.

All bills that have been mentioned in previous posts are what we also were told and we wern't asked to pay a penny more.

Hope this helps

Gwen

     

Thanks Gwenny, we are out next week to choose a property so fingers crossed all will go well. We are hoping to complete before the banks shut down for August but that only gives us about 8-9 weeks

 

Thanks,

 

Shontel