Sold our Spanish Holiday Home.. no regrets

Having been there and done it over the last 3 years our holiday home sold and its all done with NIEs torn up and in the bin.  We are delighted to get our money back into a Uk Bank less extortionate exchange fees. In future we will always Rent if we fancy a bit of spanish sun . why .. ? To start with we can go and see other places and not get stuck with the same old ex pats who seem to be drawn into cliques in tribal fashion. We wont be ripped off any more by the bank and we wont need to go to the same place over and over again to justify the outlay . We now think Rent is King if its just a holiday place  why buy. What do you think.. ?

Sounds like you had a great time in your Spanish holiday home!!!!

Our experience could not be more opposite than yours it would seam, nearly 7 years in we love it more and more, spend around four and a half months a year there now, don't mix much with many British to be fair, though i don't think that's why we like it so much.!

We are undecided at the moment..spending time in different areas, trying to get the 'feel' of a place and looking at a few properties for sale.  Our initial idea was to take a winter let every year for at least 2 months so maybe you wouldn't class this as a holiday.  The main reason we have started to think about buying our own place rather than renting others' is the fact that none of the apartments we have stayed in, altough advertised as being available for longer term lets as-well-as short term, have been equiped for it.  We are starting to think the only way we can get a comfortable bed with decent pillows and bedding, a comfy settee, a kitchen with all the cooking utensils we need to make our own meals some evenings, an iron and ironing board and a hair dryer....is to get our own place. 

I have always thought that buying a holiday home in Spain is one of the silliest decisions you can ever make. It makes no sense whatsoever other than to satisfy a desire to boast to your family and friends that you have a property abroad.

Most people make the decision because they are convinced by professional sellers they can make it pay for itself by renting it for most of the year. Unless the property is in a very sought after place you will be competing with hundreds of thousands of other people all doing the same thing.

I have also heard it said people want a ‘home from home’ abroad. I struggle to understand that. Is not a holiday supposed to be a different stimulating experience? You can only really have one home. Holidays for me represent an experience outside the norm each time I take one.  Going to the same place and doing the same things year in year out indicates a certain lack of imagination.

I wonder if anyone has ever done a survey on how long the average owner spends in their Spanish holiday home comparative to annual overall costs. It would be very helpful for people to save themselves a great deal of trouble and expense.  Staying in a luxury hotel every year would seem cheap in comparison.

I can see how a holiday home might work in the country in which you live. However even that is to me fairly pointless. However ‘at the end of the day Brian’ it’s your life, your money.

We bought a small apartment 10 years ago (off plan, with no problems!) to see how we would fit into the Spanish lifestyle and whether we would like to live in Spain. We very quickly decided that we wouldn't like to move over but would enjoy spending some months there each year, which we have done. The area in which we bought changed considerable over the years, so much so that we decided that it really wasn't for us any more. We sold last November. We lost a great deal of money so a very bad decision on our part to buy but it's very easy to be wise after the event! We don't beat ourselves up about it and have used the small amount of money we got back to enjoy a few cruises and help the kids. We like Spain and have been back but staying in hotels. Like aliton we are glad that soon we will be able to close our bank account, having just received our 3% retention back. I don't think that we have ever boasted about having a holiday home. It was a failed experiment on our part and certainly nothing to boast to our friends about. In the long run, we didn't want to have 2 homes to run, particularly as we are now in our 70's and are looking for a quiet life.

Ownership in Spain is nothing more than bragging rights ,and a big head ache( you don't mention the head ache in the pub.)

Rubbish Windtalker. People buy for all sorts of reasons and I can't say that I have ever heard anyone buy so that they can brag down the pub. We have obviously met others in a similar situation to ourselves and we certainly talked about the headache of owning in Spain and also of owning a second home, wherever it was. Most people thought that we had the best of both worlds until we pointed out the disadvantages. Yes, a luxury hotel would have suited us better and have been cheaper in the long run but we were hoping to move out once we were both retired. Unless you actually spend a considerable amount of time in an area you really can't know if you would enjoy living there. Living and holidaying are two very different scenarios.

We bought a holiday home in Spain purely because we could go there at very short notice (ie, get a few days off so go, no hotel booking etc) and we wouldn't have to take luggage (just a holdall with a few things). We also had a great area and loved the time.

We had no intention of moving over permanently but got to like the place so much that we eventually did some 8 years or so after buying the holiday home (a flat). It was great. I felt so relaxed and chilled out without the naus of booking in, carrying suitcases up to rooms and so on. Many of us did at that time and many still do. Judging by the amount of people around here who own holiday homes (houses, flats or whatever) then many still enjoy it.

Of course, if you pick the wrong place or have wrong (?) neighbours then you probably won't enjoy it so much.

I feel a lot of the "wish I hadn't done it" comes down to hindsight. At the time, property was going up. Of course, now it's crashed down (considerably) which increases the feelings of angst. If property prices had risen at the same rate they have in UK then all the nay-sayers would probably be saying what a great move they made and wished they'd done it sooner.

(Oh, and I still love it here - just had a couple of weeks in UK and so, so glad we made the decision to move here)

(Oh, and I still love it here - just had a couple of weeks in UK and so, so glad we made the decision to move here)

You desreve a medal Bob putting up with the UK for 'a couple of weeks' I went back last week I went there and back in the same day, after I did what I went for I had two hours with my daughter. 

Ailton- wow, you've certainly changed your tune!

you never used to say anything against Spain.

Did you have a bad experience?

We eventually sold, and what a relief it is to be back in UK, weather and all.

Actually, it's the warmest I've been in winter for years, well insulated house, decent central heating

It was a major upheaval, selling, moving back, finding a house, sorting stuff out and settling down.

if any of you are thinking of selling up and moving back,do something about it now; don't leave it until you are too old and physically and mentally unable to cope with it.

it will be tough and stressful at first, but you will be so glad that you did it.

"Ownership in Spain is nothing more than bragging rights ,and a big head ache( you don't mention the head ache in the pub.)"

No, cannot agree with that Windtalker, I don't tend to tell people we have a home in Spain for the simple reason that the first words out of their mouths would be "Do you rent it out?"  So no bragging rights for me thank you 

It's good to see some commonsense returning to this thread.  I always find it odd that some peiople assume we must be driven by the same factors as them - the "bragging rights" comment is absurd to me.

Also daft IMHO is the being "tied" to one location suggestion.  We love our place and on short breaks of less than 2 weeks we'll probably stay and enjoy the locality.  But if we have a longer trip we use our Spanish home as a base.  In the last few years we've travelled over most of southern Spain - largely by rail it is an excellent service and remarkably cheap too.

Next trip we may go to the Seirra Nevada, in Andalucia, near Granada which is apparently a booming ski resort.  It's less than 3 hours from our "base" and the excellent road system make it an easy journey. Some of the scenery around Granada is simply fantastic.  Sometimes you have to stop to take it all in.

But there's also masses of other places that we would like to get to - never been to the Atlantic coast are from Bilbao/San Sebastian area round to Portugal.  But there's also other places to enjoy within a couple of hours from our base in Murcia. 

Often you find that folk make negative posts just to try and justify a decision that they feel may actually be a mistake - possibly the "no regrets" in the headline is to enforce this?  But the thing about Spain is that it's an amazing place all year round (if you can tear yourself away from your patio) and for me being able to jump on a plane whenever I want, away from the British winter, is worth a lot.

i totally agree with you campasol, we moved back to the u.k. a year ago, it was a nightmare.

we bought a house and went through every nightmare scenario you mentioned, very hard work and stressful.

took us till august this year to get the house the way we wanted it.

but have never regretted it. love being back in england even with the horrible weather.

love my central heating, no sitting around a mobile gas fire to keep warm ect ect.

only regret is moving to spain permanently as red tape makes your life a nightmare.

should have left spain as a holiday place to visit.

never would I buy again outside of the u.k.

we also lost a small fortune when we sold our apartment

we were in spain permanently for 5 years 

Just a quick observation (and not getting at anyone in particular) but why do Brits who move to hot countries (like Spain, Portugal, Malta, Cyprus etc) complain about how cold it is in the winter months and do nothing about it? I've seen them spend thousands on extending swimming pools, outdoor furniture, patio paving, aircon etc but they seem to hit a brick wall when it comes to keeping warm in the winter. 

Is it because it is so short (23C here today and 16C out there at the mo at around 10 pm)?

Why huddle around a portable gas fire (that seemed the preferred option in Cyprus as well) or stick a one bar convector heater in one room and expect it to heat the whole house up? The first thing we did was replace the inadequate windows with proper, double glazed and sealed units. Exactly as we did in UK but at less than half the cost. The difference it made was incredible and increased the inside temp by at least 3 degrees. Having the frames sealed properly must have put it up another 2.

Why complain that there is no central heating and then do nothing about it? We had a six radiator gas system plus heated towel rail (took out the bidet) installed (just like most of Spain outside the Costas does) which, including a boiler, came to just over 3000 euro. Now, a new boiler to run the system in UK was quoted at about that price. It was a bit of a nuisance running it on bottled gas to start but now we have mains gas it is perfect and so cheap to run. I do know of a few places with oil fired central heating and that has come down a lot as well. Even a wood burning stove with a chimney through the bedroom would be better than a 1Kw electric fire!

Those that complain about no insulation, was anything done about it? After all, it's not so long ago that houses in UK weren't automatically insulated. We have the insulation rolls laid between the ceilings on both floors (available from most brico stores). We even lay carpets that cover most of the floor in the living room. No, we can't do the cavities (as there aren't any) but it does help.

Just an observation but we do have a lovely, warm house in the short winter.

It's quite simple really, we are all different, and what suits one doesn't suit another! And as life goes one, things can change, so what suits us now may not suit us in five years time. Nothing more complicated than that. 

Decisions should not be set in stone, and changing our minds is not a failure. Just a new adventure 😎😎

My first dip into the Spanish property market was what many would call a holiday home, although many were living in the same all year round, sold it no problem and was a big mistake in selling it, another story though.

I don't recognize most of the problems mentioned on here, this house cost me approx. £800.00 / £900.00 per year to run and this included all my taxes, bills..Everything. I know someone that rents twice a year and pretty much the same house as I had and he pays close to a thousand pounds rental for the 4 weeks.

Cold was never an issue as we could sit in the sun on Christmas day for a couple of hours...Just like we do in the UK...Yeah right. Indoors we did our best to make the house comfy in winter, and it wasn't that hard to do either. I can honestly say we both had no complaints.

 Never even had many of the problems that many seem to get with the bureaucracy Spain, maybe my solicitor did but thats what I paid her for.

Baz....the figures you quote (£800-£900 pa)  would barely pay some peoples community fees. Not that I am saying that running a holiday home is that expensive in Spain, far from it, but a more realistic figure would be around £2000 pa plus the costs of travel etc. We used the Portsmouth to Santander ferry twice a year for 2 months at a time. That is certainly not a cheap option but our choice. We had our own car and were able to see a lot of Spain on the trips.Cost was not a major factor in why we sold but again that is another story!

I'd be interested to know from anyone that has/sold a place in Spain where they don't/didn't have community fees. Almost everything we've been shown has been in a community with a pool or two and extensive gardens.  To be honest, we don't need a pool or gardens, although it woud be nice to have a place with its own garden....another request that seems impossible to fulfill.  Is a town house/semi/detached (with no community charges) easier to sell?  What about council tax?  As GB45 points out, it can be expensive to keep a place in Spain and, maybe, more-easily sold if the costs to keep it are lower than most.  I have to admit, when looking at property for sale, this is an important factor to be considered.  We understand the possibility of wanting to sell at a later date... 

Hi GB45.

The community fee's on this house were when I bought it 65€ per quarter, when I sold this one they had risen to 80€ per, this included community lighting, large garden around the large pool, plus maintenance of the garden gates / fences, trees, and all over general repairs which one year included the draining of the pool to repair tiles. It wasen't an over large community either. 

I do know of some who pay massive fee's elsewhere in Spain. My friends who own detached villas, granted no community charge, don't pay that much and we very often compare costs, mind we all do compare costs like for like UK and Spain.

I never factor in flights, car hire or any other items as you would pay these when you rent anyway.

Our community fees have just risen to 105 per quarter or 420 a year. 2 bedroom ones are 78 a quarter so even cheaper. Council tax (IBI) has gone up from 201 to 232 a year. We have 4 pools, a large garden area, street lighting (of course) and this also pays for cleaning services on a regular basis.

I can't see how ferries/flights or travelling in any way could be construed as an expense of running a holiday home as you would have to pay that to get anyway, renting or a hotel.

Electric standing charges come to about 25 euro a month and water standing charges about 18 euro a month. (Yes, of course you pay more when you use the utilities).

Plenty of places off community (maybe the estate agent you use is trying to clear them) so you wouldn't have the community fees but you would probably pay the same (or more) on pool maintenance, gardening services and so on. IBI would depend on the amount of floor space and land you have. I think a very nice, 1100 sq m plot with 3 bed house and pool just up from us pays 450 euro a year in IBI. Community fees also depend on the plot size. I mentioned ours was 420 a year which is 3 bedroom and medium size front garden, quite small back garden. A 4 bed detached on the same community with extensive outside gardens pays over 1500 a year so you have to take that into account.

Our total costs per year (if we were using it as a holiday home) would be around €1200 a year whereas the larger 4 bed one would be around 2500 a year or more. That needs to be taken into account.