- This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 11 years ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
Link: Happiness is a hamlet – all to yourself in rural Spain
Why invest in a studio flat in Bognor when you can buy a whole settlement in Galicia for as little as €40,000? Caroline Anning visits one of the villages being snapped up by Britons abroad…
Driving into the picturesque Spanish hamlet of Openso, nestled in a valley of eucalyptus and pine trees, estate agent Mark Adkinson says the clutch of houses has generated a lot of international interest. “We’ve had British, American and Dutch groups coming to visit it, they’re very interested in buying,” he explains as he pulls up aside a crumbling granite stone house. Given the price, their interest is not surprising. For €220,000 (£188,000), buyers can pick up not just a house in the village, but the village itself. The cost of a studio flat in south London buys five houses, several outbuildings and 100 acres of arable land running down to a trout-filled river here.
Mr Adkinson, a former livestock breeder originally from Lancashire, has lived in the verdant north-western province of Galicia, where Openso is located, for nearly 30 years. He mostly sells country houses but says there has been a growing interest recently in small, rural hamlets known as aldeas. He has identified 400 abandoned hamlets in the area that could potentially be sold. Some are on the market for several hundred thousand euros; other smaller, more dilapidated ones go for as little as €40,000 (£34,000).
-
Yadda yadda yadda 🙄 …and spend double making it presentable then sell it for less than you spent and pay tax on profits that you haven’t made….that apartment in Bognor starts to look more attractive, you can sell it for a profit and actually the weather is slightly better than Gaicía….grow up 🙄
This “news” from estate agents gets rather tiresome…no-one falls for it anymore!
-
I looked at this area out of fascination online a few years before the crash and was amazed at the then availability of nice properties with apple trees -sometimes a stream and at very low prices. . I noticed some properties were in the foothills of a mountain range behind the north coast behind Gijon in particular and there were pictures of stranded cars in the winter snow !But not as murky as North Yorkshire ! I think these days one must think of property in Spain as having possibilities for re-settlement and living there for a number of years maybe in a small holding that provides the basics of life. The climate is more equable in Galicia than it is in Andalucia and many inland areas with uncomfortable extremes. The sun is stronger than in UK at all times of the year and you may be close to beautiful beaches and in an area that has abundant food supply. People have very varied needs and different circumstances and if you can cope with with or are able to learn a new language maybe consider in relation to other possible locations in Europe not just Spain. I would say that it has potentialities for the ‘good life’ in a climate not so different from what we are used to in England as the usual areas in Spain that attract many of us . I think we might think sometimes that buying property in Spain should not be only a short term investment but somewhere where a family can move to and staythere maybe for generations. Yes the financing is important and needs to be researched -but even here you might be able to buy improve a little -pay your 3% and move on !
-
I had a look on the websites for this area . Not a lot found that is cheap and habitable and not so many better ones that are in good order. Prices seem to have risen since I last looked and less availability. However this is not the best time to be looking perhaps when its raining in November !- and nothing like just going and looking. if only out of fascination in a beautiful area. I thought ofit as an alternative to keeping a home in the UK -having two in Spain -one to get away from the summer heat of Canaries.But its a big step severing from your country of birth and who knows what can happen in the future. I am not sure I would choose Bognor as a relocation from Kent though Chichester much nicer or Salisbury. For a cheap option there is Wales where you get some green space at low prices but rather depressed economy and whilst Galicia is equally as rainy at least the sun shines much stronger and its generally warmer in that latitude than Wales.
-
- The forum ‘Spanish Real Estate Chatter’ is closed to new topics and replies.
