The complete guide to buying a property in Spain in 1200 words? Well perhaps not - you have a lifetime of your own experiences to come, but with this piece we're going to be giving you a quick start duffers' guide to making your move to the Costa del Sol a success. As you won't be surprised to learn, it's all in the planning.
For many soon to be expats, the dream is simply 'to live in Spain'. Terrific, but what makes Spain such a beguiling place is the diversity of scenery, landscape, culture, cuisine, even language. There are bustling cities and hamlets unchanged since the Middle Ages. There are towns where there are seemingly as many Britons as Spaniards and towns where you can completely lose yourself in the real Spain. You need to avoid making expensive mistakes in your move ... so how do you decide which Spain you want and where abouts you want to buy your property in Spain?
The area we're dealing with is the Costa del Sol in Andalucia, and indeed quite a small part of that beautiful southern Spanish region, yet even within this area there is a huge diversity to choose from. You can be warming your toes in the Mediterranean in the morning yet up in the Sierra Nevada skiing in the afternoon. With all of that in mind, it makes a lot of sense to rent before you buy, to spend a lot of time getting to know Andalucia and the coast, and to get the sort of perspective you just can't get on a two-week vacation.
There's another factor to bear in mind here. Buying a property in Spain may seem more costly than elsewhere; fees charged by real estate agents may appear high compared with Britain and the US, thanks largely due to comparatively costly government taxes, such as the 7% property transfer fee. And though costs being edged down (first by competition among agents, and increasingly in these post-credit crunch days by competition among agents for any business at all) buying and selling is likely to be a pricier business in Spain than at home. From our side of things, we charge the buyer nothing, just the seller.
Our area of the Costa del Sol is one of the most popular with UK expats. A long way south (within striking distance of North Africa across the Strait of Gibraltar) it has the superb weather that those fleeing chilly Britain are looking for. The string of coastal towns that lie between Marbella and Mijas Costa are thus well set up for expats and, even if you don't want to spend all your time rubbing shoulders with fellow English speakers, you have a solid support system of English speaking clubs, societies and indeed shops within easy reach. This can be crucial when moving to a new country. Cast yourself adrift by all means, but still stay in sight of the shore!
You may never have been a churchgoer at home, but this can be a very useful way of feeling part of the community abroad. The Catholic Church is well represented needless to say, but you'll also find a number of Anglican churches in our area, and there are Labour and Conservative clubs, choral and amateur dramatics societies, sports clubs, reading groups, you name it.
Having other expats nearby can also be useful for work, though don't blithely suppose that you can walk into a job in an English speaking office or estate agents. Especially in the currently depressed state of the market, jobs in property and building are hard to come by and will be for some time. Think carefully about your skills and what you can offer to other English speakers. You may not be planning to work, perhaps you're retiring, but it is always useful to have a Plan B, C and D. Similarly, it's essential to have your finances worked out before you leave for Spain, including a healthy contingency fund. We never cease to be shocked by people upping and moving countries with little in the bank and lots of optimism. Be optimistic by all means, but for goodness sake have money in reserve.
Similarly, be realistic about how much your move is going to cost you. Are you going to need to put items into storage? Have you factored in all the taxes and other expenses you're going to encounter? It's very easy to get carried away on a wave of optimism and forget the inconvenient truths about moving. Your new house may look pristine when you view it, but as soon as you move in you're likely to want to start decorating (trust us, we've been here time and again).
Be brutal with your finances at the outset ... it's a lot better than nasty surprises later. Lest this all sound pessimistic, we are trying to maximise your chances of succeeding in Spain here. The cliche about failing to plan meaning planning to fail should be at the front of your mind. Again, location of your property is all here; if you are in an (albeit beautiful) wilderness lair up in the Sierras, then getting a day job is going to be that much harder.
Think too about the proximity of schools and hospitals (the latter especially important for older movers or those with very young children). You may find that mountain road a doddle at 60, but are you still going to want to negotiate it at 75 ... think ahead. Research the availability of retirement homes: they are not as numerous as back home in Britain or the United States. Also consider how you are going to finance your accommodation should you have to move into sheltered accommodation.
Is the property you are buying near to the motorways, airports, train routes? You may not want to be too isolated, but you also don't want planes coming in low over your dream house in the early hours of the morning. Find out about flight paths, as they vary from day to day: the peaceful idyll you enjoyed when you first viewed the house may be shattered when you move in.
And make sure you know about planned developments. Your house may be gloriously isolated now, but is a motorway/housing development/new runway slated to shatter your peace? Incidentally, don't assume that just because you're in the country things will be quieter. Farm lorries arriving at unearthly hours (not to mention blocking narrow lanes) can be teeth-grindingly annoying, but you have to remember that the countryside is a place of work too ... and not simply unrolled for the benefit of the tourists and city dwellers.
Similarly, those sylvan staples - church bells and crowing cockerels - can drive you mad. The cockerel is there to wake you up after all and church bells are designed to call worshippers from the fields and villages for miles around. In other words, they are loud. It doesn't stop with cockerels by the way, as some families keep peacocks as watch/wake-up birds. The noise has to be heard to be believed.
One of the downsides of Andalucia being a sun-soaked paradise that everybody wants to visit is that, at certain points in the year, everyone WILL visit. You may have viewed a quiet little town in February that becomes impossibly gridlocked in the August heat. No point bemoaning the fact - after all you were once a tourist too - but you DO have to be realistic. How much will this compromise your quality of life once you move out there? Again, town, city or countryside all have their pros and cons. At the risk of sounding like a stuck record (anybody under the age of 40 can get their parents to explain that vinyl-based metaphor) it's all about planning, so start making one.
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