20 Jan 2010 12:47 PM:
Hi, can I suggest you read the latest newsletter and the comments to Justin's piece ( including mine) on exactly this subject?
I think it would be difficult to give you very frank answers without my reply being taken down by the moderator so bearing in mind this is my opinion and my experience here goes..... I am sorry if it is a bit if a rant, this is the stuff they don't tell you on "Place In The Sun" though if you spell out ithe initials it is more like the truth (I wonder if they knew that?)
You really have to ask yourself why you want to go to Spain The cost of living is practically the same, a pound was 1.11 euro last week. There are NO real jobs and the ones that there are go to the Spanish. Unless you are self employed in a useful trade I doubt you will make a living. If you are retired you have to look at how far your funds will stretch. There is no social security for non residents to speak of. If you become resident and are a pensioner things are better. There is a language barrier, it isnt like over here where we print every thing in lots of different languages for immigrants, In Spain they expect you sort it out yourself. Many of the housing estates will be ghost towns for much of the year they are built for foriegners as holday lets. The ones who are there will be of different nationalities do you speak German, Sewdish, Russian? Unless you are going out with an extended family or already know people out there you will have no social network or any form of suppport. So many people think it is sun and sangria, it isn't, never was. You have to live , pay your bills earn money, pay tax just like everywhere else it just happens to have a better climate.
White goods, tv's etc cost a mint, resale propeties should be furnished, this is a double edged sword most of it is rubbish you wouldn't give away. The do empty the bins every other day though.
Phone lines take forever to get. Broad band -- don't make me laugh! oh, and the more rural you are the worse it is for service of any description.
I have just come back from my apartment after being robbed. They took all the usual small eletrical items TV, sky box, DVD hoover, microwave, mobile phone etc and also alot of our clothes including underwear, don't ask, I don't know why. I think they were disturbed and would have cleaned us out otherwise. They broke into the othe 6 ground floor flats in my community but most of them are vacant. Dealing with the police and insurance about this is a nightmare if you don't speak fluent Spanish. Dealing with the police is just a nightmare anyway even if you are the victim.
Most of my problems in Spain have arisen from living in a community. I would never do it again. The other owners (Brits) would not pay the monthly community charge leaving the 5 or so who did to pay uo until the electricty and water were cut off. There is now no outside lighting and the pool is full of green slime. No amount of threats or cajoling woould make these people pay up.
Eventually they realised that the bubble had burst on the property market and stopped paying their mortgages and gave the apartments back to the bank.. Our administrator of the community (which is a cross between a lawyer and an facilities manager) was next to useless and didin't take these people to task when he should have done. The best I can say about him is that he is totally incompetent, others would call him a crook. You must choose the people who work for you with great care, corruption and disinterest are rampant.
The housing market is on its backside in Spain, alot of the estate agents have vanished like puffs of smoke.
The resales market in Spain is non existent, there never was much of one in the first place. That isn't to say people arn't trying to sell, everybody is trying to sell, nobody is buying. Originally the money was made from new build by getting mugs (sorry brits) to buy "off plan" ie a picture of something, the deposits being used to finance the previous developers building project ( if your lucky). This bubble had to burst, the Emporer's new clothes seen for what they were, and it happend last year, big time
The property prices I saw last week were more than 50% less that the same properties for sale a year a go. Yes, resale property is advertised ad nauseam, basically unitl it sells or the estate agent goes out of business (as two of mine have)
Many sellers insist on sticking to unrealist prices from the boom times years ago then whine that they can't sell. What they mean is they wont sell at a loss. In truth at the moment I couldn't give my apartment away but I didnt by it to make a quick profit and move on as most do so I am prepared to tough it out.
You have to watch the sale price against what has been declared on the deeds as there are taxes to pay. Many sell bleow the deed price and expect you to give them a brown envelope with the difference in it. You wil be astonished at the number of brown envelopes being passed about and all of them will have your money in them
You have to check that all the debts on the property have been dischrged or you will inherit them.
You have to watch what is declared in the sale, make sure the seller actually owns it not part of it or you may find his 20 cousins still iving in your back bedroom -- legally.
I could go on and on but this post is too long. You CANT be too careful. You WILL make lots of mistakes Be prepared to take it on the chin. Ask your self the hard question why do I want to go to Spain
Hope this hasn't depressed you too much!
Thread:
how many people really want to or are trying to sell their spanish property?
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