Thinking of buying in Spain - Page 3

I would agree with Pedros costs, about the same as ours if we average four weeks a year there, and a couple of weekends, any more than that, especially if you have aircon, could be a lot more expensive. You may also have community fees to pay if you are on an urbanisation. 

Whilst the monthly costs of running your own place are possibly less than renting, and yes you can keep lots of clothes etc there so removing the need for hold luggage, first you have to buy the place, and furnish it.  Furniture is expensive in Spain, even second hand, compared to the UK.  Your capital is tied up and if you do want to sell at any time it could take ages and there are lots of fees, taxes, etc.If finances are not a consideration for you, you may enoy having your own place more and are likely to make more friends rather than if you go to a different place each time. However personally I dont think it is much of an investment and you could have some lovely holidays, not necessarily always in Spain, for a fraction of what you would spend on your own place.

Julie

You haven't added in the costs of maintaining your property, I.e. painting or varnishing inside and out especially any wooden (sun bleached) doors and metal window grills, replacing any aged timbers or masonry,  general gardening materials. How much to maintain the pool each year if you have one. Every home that's left empty for weeks at a time does deteriorate and requires constant maintenance. 

Renting occasionally takes away all that planning and stress.

Squatters are yet another matter........

Steve 

I take it you rent then Steve? I don’t have a pool so can’t comment on the cost of running one. I didn’t think I had to list ever tin of paint I bought  or a tub of ant killer!! It’s common sense to know there will be other up keep costs. As for squatters, a good CCTV system and friendly neighbors is my method of trying to prevent this. I was only trying to help. 

Yes I do rent. I've lived permanently here in spain for 8 years and have lived in the same rented apartment. I do all the day to day maintenance which isn't always cheap. Sun damage and external maintenance is taken care of by the owner who also pays the suma, taxes, community fees, insurances etc including the water bill. If my white goods or water boiler is  broken they are replaced without charge.Our full sized pool is maintained daily. 

I owned houses all my adult life in the UK so I can do a comparison and find that paying a set rental amount each month and everything taken care of is far less stressful and economic. 

Steve 

We built a new property in the Costa Blanca and sold it before we ever used it. Our thinking is somewhat different than others from the point of view of us not living or likely to be living in Spain full time. We bought the plot back in 2011 from a bank foreclosure at a price that made sense and sat on it until we had planning sorted and built the property from 2019-2021 and sold it then. If we were to live in a fixed property, like Steve we would rent. But we are relatively young (early 50’s) and prefer to travel rather than stay put in one place so our situaction is somewhat different. There is pros and cons in each situation and not one size fits all.