Idle Thoughts

So. I’ve found a house, got through the buying process, had some building work done and bought some furniture. This is as good a point as any to assess what I’ve learned so far.

• Have a clear idea of what you want. It sounds obvious, but unless you know whether you want to buy on the coast or inland, a new build or existing property, in a town or on your own, renovation project or ready to move in - plus a whole load of other questions: some of which you may not even have considered before, you can spend a great deal of time looking for the wrong house in the wrong place. You could also end up spending a lot of money on a house that will be difficult to sell-on to rectify the mistake.
• Use the internet, but there’s no substitute for being there. I thought I had found my ideal area … until I went there. If you have specific, measurable requirements (such as: less than 20 minutes from the beach / 1 hour from an airport) a lot of the decision will be “touchy-feely”. No matter how much surfing you do, when you get on the ground you will find things are not quite as you thought.
• Maps in Spain are terrible, GPS is worse. On my first trip out I took a GPS loaded with Spanish maps to help me get around. Some of the roads I was directed down were simply farmers’ tracks to water their crops - some roads just didn’t exist at all. Others might have been passable at some point, but in a car they rapidly became tracks, then paths, then routes used by goats, then nothing. Even in the centre of towns, some basic roads (such as a central street in Albox, where my bank was) just weren’t listed. If you resort to roadmaps, look out for the numbering system for motorways. Sometimes signs will use “E” designations for major routes and sometime “A” numbers. Your map may show one or the other - sometimes both. Even with a decent map, navigation can still be a nightmare. Look at this and try to navigate a route from north to south. Most of the small towns in my area simply don’t have any street maps at all.
• Everything you know from the UK housing market is different in Spain. There’s not much more to say about this, except that making the wrong assumptions could cost you a lot of money. Don’t be afraid to ask questions - but be careful who you believe, because …
• Remember where the estate agents’ loyalties lie. Most agents really are pleasant people who are happy to see you and willing to help you. However be aware that they get their fee from the seller and are only working for him/her - not for you. In fact commissions in Spain are huge compared with UK levels. The average rate seems to be around 6%, so they have a lot to gain (and a lot of competition from all the other agents) by selling you a house. The sort of regulation, laws and safeguards in the UK about the claims people can make just don’t exist in Spain.
• Caveat emptor (buyer beware). The kind of support you might expect in the UK such as surveys, building guarantees, assurances of planning permission etc. are much weaker than you might be used to. If you buy a house based on bad advice you could well find the official view is “tough”. Personally I took a lesson from the film Ronin: “Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. That’s the first thing they teach you”.
• Following on from the above, make sure that houses you see have the most basic amenities: water, electricity, sewerage. If you visit during the summer check that the dirt-track road will be passable in the winter, or after heavy rain. Make sure you get the boundaries described fully and look out for words like “close-by”, “it’s coming”, “I’m sure …”. Getting a new phone is very difficult in the country, make sure you have a reliable mobile phone signal. Ensure that any major works, like a swimming pool, have the associated permissions (and don’t be fobbed off with “it’s not necessary”, remember #5 and #6, above).
• Really, really, find your own lawyer. The catch-22 is that you don’t know any lawyers and have no idea which ones from the yellow pages are any good. The solution is to use the internet. There are many online forums for people who have moved to Spain, or are considering it. Join them, ask for recommendations, ask about agents’ reputations and if certain towns/areas are “good”. See the resources list at the end of this article.
• Avoid “black money” as much as you can. In Spain there was a tradition of house sellers under-declaring the price of a house on the deeds and taking the difference from you in cash. This saves them some capital gains tax. In years to come when you decide to sell, all the loopholes have been closed and you will not have the same opportunity to defraud the authorities. This means that yon will be assessed on the difference between the price you said you bought at and the actual price you sold at. You will have to pay capital gains tax on the difference. So if you pay (say) €60,000 black money on a purchase now, when you sell you will have to pay tax on this 60k as well as any profit you make if the house sells for more than you actually paid.
• It’s not always warm and sunny. If your experience of Spain is a couple of weeks on the Costas during the summer and you think that all of Spain will be like that all year round, prepare yourself for a shock. Inland, winters can be very, very cold. During my January trip, there was 6″ of snow on the ground when I left for the airport - halfway to Granada the police had closed the motorway. Later on, I am told, the temperature was a long way below zero for several days. (The previous year, someone recorded -17°C and 2 feet of snow near my house). On a similar note, cave-houses don’t retain the same temperature all year. Mine was at 13° when I arrived in January and only got up to about 16° after a week of heating.
• Furniture can be a problem. When you live in the countryside there’s not much choice available and the large stores in Granada or on the coast won’t deliver as far away as I am. If you’re a budding carpenter / DIY type you will find that supplies of wood are scarce and choice is limited. What there is, is expensive, too.
  There are a few excellent websites around that I have found very useful (apart from this one, ‘natch!). I’m not including estate agents here, just sites with no financial interest in you and where the volunteers provide help and a community spirit
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