Advice For First Time Buyers Please………

Hi everyone, my first posting - and hopefully not my last! My wife (who needs more convincing that the Spanish property market is the right solution!), and good self (fairly convinced that it is!), are first time buyers abroad. Budget appx £100k for a property with mid to long term investment with view of rental. The UK market is still a possibility but we want to try and keep our options open for the better type of return.

I am being attracted towards some of the golfing resorts in the area of Los Alcazares and San Javier (especially those nearer to the beach), and what they have to offer in terms of location, amenities, renting, and hopefully re-sale potential. The area also seems to be having money spent on it by the Spanish Govt., in terms of new rail/road/airport links. Other positive considerations by them seem to be the restrictions on high rise blocks etc.

We are not against buying off-plan , but are thinking more at re-sale properties with the view of getting some income asap. (good or bad move?).

Having briefly looked at other countries for investment, Spain still feels right.

We have been in contact with MRI and are due to go to Murcia,  in the near future to get a feel for what is around. (I’ve read some of the stories of MRI which are both plus and minus, although as is human nature it always seems to be the bad experiences that people tend to offer, rather than the good ones). We are certainly not going out with cheque books/credit cards at the ready - And also intend to keep our feet on the ground and cheque book in the drawer once home - For a while anyway!

The whole idea sometimes seems too daunting, again only really hearing more horror stories than successful ones! We’ve read a number of the postings on this site, and there is a lot of experience within the community, we would appreciate any info/tips on our train of thought, or pointers to any web-links that would help us with our decision making.

Thanks in advance.

Hola Ferodo,

Personally, if WE did it again, we'd go for a resale so we'd know exactly what we were getting, right from the word go, hopefully. We bought off plan as so many others & whilst I think we were very fortunate in many ways when I see SOME horror stories in here & other forums, I feel it's often in the lap of the Gods as to whether the promised facilities ever materialise. It's been a nightmare at times. We completed almost two years ago & only just had our first certificate of habitation (because the builder wants to take his water away having built five phases of which we are on phase 2 & he SHOULD'VE ensured this certificate was there for us when we completed !) Also some off plan builds are taking years.

With resales you know exactly how much room you've got between you & your neighbour, gardens are done, aircon etc is sorted, you can do a good deal as so many cannot sell.

Yes, resale I would say. Good luck & welcome to EOS forum.

Janice

Hi ferodo

Welcome to EOS, you will find us all a happy bunch in here, with lots of good advice to be had from a wide variety of members some with professional expertise.

Fisrt time buyer eh? Yes, very scary. We went for a buy & fly weekend with Atlas, a bit tongue in cheek, thought it would be a nice break over the Easter Weekend and ended up signing for an off plan apartment.

Hubby was sweating buckets at Alicante on our return home, had we done the right thing, why did we do it, should we have done it, etc., etc., BUT, it has been the best thing we have ever done and although you may hear the horror stories, these are far and few between.

IF you pick the right Agent, right builder, right area, you will not have many problems.

The owner of this site, Justin, has prodeuced a poll, by which us members gave our thoughts and feeling on both builders and agents. It may be worth a look at it, to see who you would feel happy doing business with.

you can find it here:

www.eyeonspain.com/reviews

We bought off plan, with a reputable builder and have not had any problems at all. However, for people like JeanSis who have had problems, I fully understand her recommedation of buying a re-sale.

She is quite correct, you get what you see, unlike an urbanisation whereby the social infrasturcture may take some years to be installed.

Our apartment is classed as "residential" and as such, was not built on an urbanisation, but on land that was "spare" within an already thriving community of villas, quads etc., Therefore, all the social infrastucture was already there.

This may be another option for you.

you will find however, that re-sales tend to be cheaper, but the nearer to the sea you get, the dearer the price, this applies to both re-sales and off plan property.

I hope this helps,

Kind regards,

Ferodo

Agree with the ladies !

You may also want to look at the Santa Ana del Monte Urbanisation, an 'off-plan' development in Jumilla (inland 45mins)

There will be two Championship Golf Courses and the properties are very spacious and 1/3rd cheaper than the same property nearer the coast. They have already been granted the license to build so on fairly safe ground there and the authorities are also planning a motorway from Alicante which will make the beach even more accessible.

Not an agent, we've bought there but if you need any more info or contact with a reputable Investment organisation, I'm happy to assist

Whatever way you decide......welcome to Spain !!!

Darren