Visiting Alicante area to view property

Will be staying at Almoradi where we have seen an apartment we like but also looking around the area at others, any tips or info would be great

Hi- hope your enjoy your trip. Ive only been to Almoradi once- they have a pretty square ,nice place to enjoy a coffee!  Are you retiring or plan on working? We bought an apartment in La Cinuelica (near Punta Prima)  walking distance to the beach, the wife loves the sea. The upside is there is no end to bars and cafes in walking distance ,the down would be how crowded it is in August. I love to go to the small towns to have a menue del dia, the food and price is always better than the tourist areas. Sorry did not mean to drift off subject (by  product of age :)  )

I guess it depends if your looking for a retirement home or you still have a growing family, and wether you like the low key or the active, and what your interests are-golf? Swimming? Being near other expats? Gardening? or hiking?

I envy you as i really enjoyed our home search- although we are moving permanently  when I retire in the spring we have been going several times a year for the last 5 years  so I know the area we bought in  pretty well.

Good luck and enjoy your search!

Thanks for the reply Gerry, we are looking to buy as a holiday let with the option of long stays when we retire in a few years,we have adult kids at home and plan to holiday there as well.  There are several we can view in Almordi and a village nearby also La Mata and Torrevieja but the beach ones are a lot small of course, so hope tp get a feel of things whilst we are out there and as you say it depends of what people want from a holiday.

If you can afford to buy the apartment outright then go for it if you have to borrow money to fund the purchase and rely on rentel income to pay for it then think twice their are thousands of rental properties available.

You will only have a 12 week window to rent to holiday makers the rental income you will get for a 2 bed property is approx 250eu to 350eu per week less tax you will have to find your own renters to make it work good luck

Thanks again for your advice we will be able to buy outright although our budget is small only 29000euro tops we ahve a few to look at.The rental side would hope to cover annual coats as not got a lot of spare money now only working day or so a week 

In which case, don't buy. You will have quite a few on top expenses like notarty fees and that region upped its transfer tax to 10% last year. The transfer tax is based on the registry value, not what you bought it for.

In other words, you could buy for 29k but would have at least 3,500 euro on top in expenses and a possible tax bill for double that after a short time. If you want to have a holiday place then simply rent for the time you want. There are so many rental properties on the market that I don't personally believe it would be advisable. Also, and you might not have been told this by the agents, holiday lets have to be registered and safety rules adhered to. Liability insurance, house insurance when renting out is more than normal house insurance and so on. Add in the tax you have to pay on the rental income and then ask yourself is it really worth it?  You could do 7 years of holidays in a rented flat for the same price as your expenses are going to be and you would have the advantage of not being stuck in the same place year after year.

Good advice from all of you,and i am aware of the high cost on top of the property price and would hope to get a licence so i may rent out, the investment bit would hopfully be in the property value rising over the years, What i im trying to do is make the most of redundancy money and buy now for our retirement.

We purchased an apartment 8 years ago and would warn you of the dangers. make sure any property you buy has a Habitation Certificate, The builder & agent must give you a receipt for any monies that change hand, the cost of Community fee's, any Lawyer you employ are registered with a valid.government scheme. It is very exciting when you fine a place you like, don't trust all you are told, question all points to make sure you are getting what you pay for,

don't forget the extra cost of the Spanish Taxes. We love our apartment but still wait for the HC or FOL. and many other items we paid for. Good Luck to you

I don't know Almoradi so cannot comment on whether or not its a good place to buy.

But let me ask, why are you looking only at this particular location? I would advise you to also look at some other locations to try and get a feeling of which you like best. You will also find price levels can be quite different from one place to the next as can other factors (how far is it to shops, restaurants, clinic etc) and how important are these factors to you. Sometimes gut feeling also matters. Do you feel good about a place or does something feel wrong?

The first place you look at doesn't always turn out to be  the best.

The Alicante area is a good base to search for property, the south Costa Blanca has lovely beaches as do the north of Alicante, it all depends what you are looking for. I prefur slighty inland as you dont get to many Holiday makers in small villages.

The Alicante area is a good base to search for property, the south Costa Blanca has lovely beaches as do the north of Alicante, it all depends what you are looking for. I prefur slighty inland as you dont get to many Holiday makers in small villages.

The Alicante area is a good base to search for property, the south Costa Blanca has lovely beaches as do the north of Alicante, it all depends what you are looking for. I prefur slighty inland as you dont get to many Holiday makers in small villages.

Thank you all for the replies we were out at the end of Jan and as a lot of you have said it was quite a week and the favourite property when we looked into it was very high risk with no habitaion licence and a court case pending.  We looked at area by the beach and nearly bought a studio apartment but in the end all purly by chance found a 1 bed apartment in Almoradi we then chatted to a bar owner who by chance rented inthe apartment block and gave us loads more details  the agent is great and 100% trustworthy.  So the deposit is down and we goout to get NI numbers in March and a week later it will be ours.

So all in all it was a great find and we think it was meant to be ! altough it was on the last day and no time to sort NI number etc, can't wait be be over again so thanks for the advise and my idvice to anyone buying is be careful and go by your gut instinct and for a small fee you can get hold of a all the details on the property in just a few hours so things can be checked before putting down a deposit.

Congratulations on your decision and upcoming purchase. It must be a very exciting moment for you.

All the best!!!

Hi, People that have purchased in & near Almoraldi always vist the Large Chinese resturant as the food is good. Congratulations on your purchase.

As for buying to rent out, the guy we rent his luxury 4 bed, 3 bath with pool in La Fustera from, for the price of a 2 bed apartment rental, only manages to secure circa 8 weeks a year in rental income. My advice, for what it's worth, is do not buy if you will have to rely on rental income, if he can't rent out for more than 8 weeks a year at his prices, then you are going to struggle in an area where there is a lot of competition.

I wish you good fortune with whatever decision you come to. 

You got a like for that Hephaestus because that is excellent advice. We have many properties here that were bought for rental purposes, in some cases people buying 4 or 5 properties. We have a wonderful area with lovely pools and gardens which is very popular. However, over the last couple of years, many of these properties have remained empty all year round. Most rentals are now done by returnees or family and friends. A 2 bed house that was being rented for €500 a month out of season and €350 a week in the summer is now going at €350 a month all year round but only has the occasional renter. Some of the multi-buy properties are now in receivership and banks have stepped in. There is so much property available to rent that people can virtually pick their own prices. Of course, the large villa with large pool in a good area will still attract people but even they seem to be standing empty more often than not.

Thanks for the advice we will hope all will work out but know we have to work hard at the rental side and keep prices low

That was ALWAYs good advice - even in the boom.   If you really need rental income, then you cannot actually afford to buy.   The peak season is and always has been 8 weeks in the summer, with one or two other possible periods of high rent.   Around me, people do rent well in the summer - but the costs are high and people have to work hard at it to get any return.   And don't underestimate the tightening up on licences as well as the over supply of property - really nice property.   

I am not negative about buying - I love it in Spain, and also think the prices probably wont get better, but you have to be realistic.