Buying a Apartment - Wheres the catch?

Hi friends!

I have been living in Spain for a year now and want to buy a low cost apartment.  I do not have much money available and have found apartments for just 12000 euros in Alicante!

You can see them on this site and some other well known property sites.  Theres quite a lot available for around the 15000 euro price.

My question is wheres the catch? Are these legitimate?

I am from UK and in England you cannot buy an apartment for less than 6 figures, let alone one that is close to just 4 figures!

Is this some kind of scam or is there something I shoulkd be aware of?  Can the gov take the apartment off you or something ?  I have heard if you buy land here sometimes the gov just takes it from you.

I'm just trying to figure out how this can go wrong before spending my life savings!

Any advice appreciated!  All the Best!

RayofLight

An acquaintance was interested in a very low cost apartment in my region.. I investigated and it was in a depressing and scary area of a lovely Spanish town. Nothing would have encouraged me to get out of the car.

Anyone buying without personally viewing , even a property for €12,000, is throwing money away. 

OFC I would view the property first.  I never stated I would buy without viewing!

Someone else messaged me saying Alicante is a "slum".

Not very positive advice.

I come from UK, I've been to many places I'd hardly call Alicante a slum.

Any one who's lived and traveled around UK will know just how crime ridden and dangerous most places are.

The slums of UK really are slums.

Alicante is amazing in comparison.

Everyone has their own opinion I guess or they are just trolling me here I don't know.

I stated I don't have much money I don't expect to take abuse for this fact though. 

Good for you guys if you can afford some posh area.  No need to rub it in my face.

I'm looking for advice not to get shit on here.

No point , rayoflight, in asking questions and then getting nasty and call people trolls when replies are not to your liking. 

Not all people personally check “ bargain basement” properties and just because you didn’t say you wouldn’t doesn’t = you would.

My acquaintance wasn’t going to and judging by posts of previous complainants on this forum...neither have others...which was why I mentioned it......Maybe  because they believe as its peanuts they can afford to gamble...or more likely because they are only thinking of the areas they know and cannot envisage the slum areas that after dark are a “ no go”. ...Something every town in the world has......

However...

When the word “ abuse” is once again , for NO REASON WHATSOEVER, levelled at forum folk by a “ presumably” new member.....then I suspect something is  VERY. amiss..

Adios.....

Hi Rayoflight.

Have you missed a zero or number of the apartment price you mentioned, I have had a quickish look and best lowest price in the area you mention came in at about 46,000€.

At the risk of succumbing to yet another one-post-wonder wind-up...

In this life you get what you pay for, and if something appears to good to be true, it usually is...

A quick search on Kyero brings up precisely one apartment for less than €15k in Alicante province (Pego) which by any standards would have to be described as derelict. Idealista has about a dozen properties in Alicante itself for less than €15K, but a quick glance at them tells me all I need to know, without really needing to go view them. I would describe most of them as "projects", meaning they're not really what I would consider ready to move into. So if the OP is serious about considering this type of property, I would suggest that he clues himself up on what would be involved in fixing up a property in Spain (permissions, costs etc.) before going any further.

I would also suggest he takes seriously the previous comments about the neighbourhoods that some of these properties are in: even if you do intend to fix something up, you could end up living in an ivory tower in a very rough area. To think that Spain is paradise all over compared to the UK suggests a certain amount of naivety. There are plenty of lovely towns in England where you can buy a decent flat for well below 6 figures, and equally there are plenty of barrios in Spain where you really wouldn't want to stop at a red light, so just do your research and think very carefully before pursuing this.

Rayolight:

Planning status: main thing to review

M

The "land grab" you've heard of usually only happens in rural areas, and there's unlikely to be a problem with an old apartment block - but what Maria didn't (need to?!) say is - use a good independent lawyer!!!!

Right now it doesn't look like the apartment person is coming back anyway.

So, maybe another one-post-wonder, llike I said 

Looking for a Lucky Lucky man....to buy one of his genuine Rolex watches for a Fiver.