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I am Spanish and lived in Britain for five years (went to college there). My advice:
DON´T, DON´T, DON´T BUY PROPERTY IN SPAIN!!!
We got a huge housing bubble here and it is about to burst. If you want to invest in property go to Croacia (nice weather and people), Turkey or anywhere else.
There is a huge housing problem in my country and things are going to get very nasty in the next years. If you buy a property in Spain you will be losing money and I suppose you don´t fancy that do you?
By the way, I bought a nice massionete in Southampton in 1999 for 52000 pounds. The same kind of property here cost about four times the price and it is built with the crappiest materials in the Earth (the guys who build the houses in Spain only care about making money quickly).
Buy yourself a house in my country and you regret having done it in less than two years. Prices are going down for sure. It can not be otherwise in a country where the average salary is 600 pounds (monthly) and a one bedroom flat can go easily for 250000 pounds.
Take my advice and put your money somewhere else.
A nice Spanish man,
Iván García.
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Have decided to put our money elswhere Ivan having been ‘ripped off’, misled, by Awful Estates who reflect badly on other agents there, and the Spanish authorities turning a blind eye to their goings on.
Generally the market is well over-priced, some say by at least 30% especially down the coastal strip, those agents are still talking the market up. Maybe the only real value is more inland now if people want to risk purchasing in Spain.
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In 1999, you could have bought a nice flat on the costas with 52,000 pounds. I also can’t believe you are suggesting if you want build quality you should buy in Turkey or Eastern Europe rather than Spain. True, there’s a lot of poor quality stuff here, but what makes you think Croatia is any different?
You’re right about the disparity between current average wages and property prices, though. It’s going to turn into a major headache for the government. Their best ideas to date have been building more and smaller VPOs (okay..), or forcing people to sell their property at half price (er… planet earth, anyone?).
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Sad to say that the same applies in some parts of Cyprus too. I have experience of buying there with a developer who never finished his development in order to avoid payment of final taxes. He liquidated his company – took a long holiday – came back refreshed and was promptly taken on by a very large allegedly reputable company who made him their Head of Sales!!
It happens everywhere folks – probably the concentration of developments
along the coastal strip in Spain magnifies the problem.The last two homes I have purchased in UK have been new homes built by large “reputable” builders. I have been in my present home for over 12 months and am still “entertaining” tradesmen to put right what the builder did wrong. We have tested our NHBC (10 year quarantee) system.
They are not that great!Do your risk assessment before you buy – if this does not put you off – go for it!
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@Anonymous wrote:
Hi Kissimees, it would be interesting to know who this developer is, so as to avoid him and any company employing him in the future.!!
There are a few new developments planned in the Cadiz region with fancy websites but no indication of who is behind the developments. It’s almost as if they have something to hide.
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before you agree to purchase a property in spain get the property surveyed by a qualified surveyor, also check the reputation of the estate agent and the developer also ask for references at least 3 from previous customers. try to speak other people living on the development and see what they think.
there are good and bad everywhere, even in the uk (remember that programme on ITV Builders from hell !!)
i almost purchased a property in Turkey last year but luckily withdrew as the estate agent was too pushy but there are also probs with developers and estate agents in Turkey, there is also a poor legal system in turkey and a non existent finance sector for mortages etc. also alot of these other countries have not a great infrastructure and are expensive to get to
i have a place in spain and have the choice of 2 airports murcia or alicante which are both 30mins from my apartment ,prices from £80 return and you can go for the weekend just 2 1/2 hours away.there is plenty to do also have the choice of 4 golf courses on my doorstepits all about research, research, research !!
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I think all the comments are relivent i looked in bulgaria but when you have the local mafia looking after sunbeds i decided no chance of buying there. i have bought in fuerteventura and things are no different there you get no feed back from anyone not even independent lawyers. i work for builders in uk who build houses you want to see the state of theres but at least they get finished sad but true ivan nice buy not too many bargans left i bought 3 bed £20,000 know worth £79000 2 years.if only you could trust man
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It’s not just Estate Agents that people have to be wary of, during one particular period of time working in a bar in the CDS , I came across a very smart English chap who trawled British Bars in the evenings looking for UK holidaymakers whom he then befriended pretending to be another holidaymaker, once he’d befriended them he then told them all about a wonderful new “off plan” complex he’d just reserved an apartment on and explained all about how he was going to make a small fortune by only paying the deposit and then selling it on before completion for a very handsome profit!! Sound Familiar??
This guy was not an agent (or at least I don’t think he was) but had sussed out how to make a fortune from the the sign people up and get a nice fee from the developer scam!!
I watched him do it a few times before I realised what he was up to, he even brought his wife along sometimes to make it look more authentic. It was only when one young couple sat and told me how this chap was picking them up the next day to show them the complex and that they where going to put there life savings (£6000) down as deposit (yes this guy had told them the deposit was the exact amount they had a savings!!) what he FORGOT to tell them , was that they would have to make stage payments, knowing full well they didn’t have the money, he also FORGOT to tell them the would lose the deposit if they couldn’t pay!! After a long chat I managed to persuade them not to turn up and meet him and explained why.
When I got home that night I spent a couple of hours on the net doing a check on him and found out that he was an ex lord mayor in the UK (THERE WAS A PHOTO, TO CONFIRM ID) and he had recently retired to Spain , after resigning his UK post under a cloud of alledged financial irregularities!!!!
The Moral of this long tale is that you cannot trust ANYONE.PS The last time I looked he was still here, still playing out his little holidaymaker story, so If you meet a smart guy in a bar possibly wearing a camel coat – RUN!!
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With respect I do believe that Ivan’s argument is so generalised and without true substance that it really is a nonsense made from a well intended post.
If specifics were being dealt with fair enough,but such blanket statements carry little value to the intelligent client. Everything in the garden is not rosy I accept but such panic provoking diatribe serves no real purpose at all.
Yes snagging problems exist,they exist one new property anywhere in the world,but to suggest that the product provided overall is inferior’ I really dont know where he has looked at buying! 😯 -
I think the main difference re property problems in Spain compared to other countries is the significantly huge market there (probably causing a bubble).
Of course there are developer and build/legal problems etc in Bulgaria, Croatia and other places, but the numbers in Spain are magnified by comparison as it has been going on far longer.
The ‘dodgy’ agents, developers and lawyers have had longer and have had far more deals to ‘perfect’ their art of deception with little or no regulation or punishment by the Spanish Authorities.
Spanish property is also far more expensive generally than these new markets, and a bubble burst is being predicted along the coastal strip, which is a huge area.
It seems that to buy a property elsewhere at a quarter or half the price will be far less of a risk than in Spain.
My opinion only.
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Oh dear! No wonder we were so nervous before we decided to take the plunge. We looked into investing in property here a few years ago and I think then it might have been a good idea as the market was really moving, but things seem to have slowed down quite a bit. The thing is, you can’t just buy any old thing any more and expect it to sell before completion for example, but if you do lots of research and buy something that’s still in high demand it seems that you can still make good money. I think the best advice is to do lots of research, work with an agent you can trust (ours was great), and if you still want to buy a property for investment buy something really special, rather than just quite average. I live on the Costa del Sol now and the area still has loads to offer for people who want to relocate here (weather, good schools, great facilites, beautiful countryside, lots of English speakers). These new areas are risky because they don’t have the infrasturcture. The rental market is still good here too (for long term I think) so that’s always an option. We love our new house and are very happy that we bought here. And the building qualities where we are are really high. So it’s not all bad!!! 😀
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On just be sensible that’s all! We have owned our Spanish property for 6 yrs and it’s the best thing we ever did with it renting out almost every week of the year. We are about to complete on another bought off-plan 3 yrs ago which is beautifully built (we’ve inspected every stage) and in a superb location just 5 mins walk to a lovely fishing fillage. Around £90K for a 3 bed bungalow with 3 huge terraces around it sounds good enough value to me. 🙂
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No regrets buying property in inland costa del sol. I won’t lose money as have no intention of selling, and brought at the right price, in the right location. No new build, off plan golf urbanisation. It’s called supply & demand, and there is too much of a supply of certain types of property build solely for the ex pat market, with no sense of community, local shops etc. Do your research, travel independantly and donot belive anything an estate agent tells you 😉
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@Ivánmax wrote:
I am Spanish and lived in Britain for five years (went to college there). My advice:
DON´T, DON´T, DON´T BUY PROPERTY IN SPAIN!!!
Buy yourself a house in my country and you regret having done it in less than two years. Prices are going down for sure. It can not be otherwise in a country where the average salary is 600 pounds (monthly) and a one bedroom flat can go easily for 250000 pounds.
Take my advice and put your money somewhere else.
A nice Spanish man,
Iván García.
Well actually Spain´s average wage is 833 pounds a month in 12 installments plus 2 extra wages for June and December.
For the life of me I’ve never heard of one-bedroom flats fetching as much as 250.000 GBP or 375.000 Euros.
Doing the Maths, a one-bedroom flat is on average 40 m2. So 375.000/40= 9.375 Euros per m2 or 6.250 GBP per m2 following what you say !!!
In Marbella front-line beach properties are approx 6.000 euros m2 or 4.000 GBP m2.
For 350.000 Euros or 234.000 GBP you can purchase a NEW two-bedroom flat, with two bathrooms, 114 m2, large sunny terrace, luxury fittings, large kitchen and washing room, one store room, one garage, tropical mature gardens, waterfalls, overlooking a 9-hole golf course in …. Guadalmina, Marbella, the most expensive and luxurious beach resort in Spain.
So my friend, If you’re paying 250.000 GBP for a one-bedroom flat in Spain you’ve been seriously conned.
Being Spanish, as you claim to be, you’ll have no trouble reading this link to a spanish newspaper which reveals that the m2 on average in Madrid´s so-called Golden Mile costs 5.500 Euros m2 or 3.666 GBP and we’re talking here of the most expensive real estate in the capital not the average national price you mention; a very far cry from your 9.000 Euros m2, wouldn’t you agree ?
http://www.elmundo.es/suplementos/suvivien…1128031219.html
And incidentally, should you attempt to guise yourself as Spanish again, which you are not, I advise you to be smart enough and change your local time. Your local time is not from Spain, more like Portugal or Casablanca being it two hours less than over here
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