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GrahamLynn wrote on Thu Aug 5, 2021 9:55pm:
Lots of things to consider.
Do you want to live in an area of Spain, that is totally Spanish or are you happier living in an expat society with lots of like minded people.
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Costa Blanca North is totally different to Costa Blanca South, House prices tend to be more expensive in the North and so are restaurants/ bars .
Check out if the area you like is residential or holiday homes. The area’s catering for holiday makers may close completely for the vast major of the year, even things like supermarkets can be seasonal.
Don’t buy a house bigger than you need for numerous reasons. Winters are cold, central heating is a rarity and Spanish houses are cold in the winter. You could possibly be relying on air on for heating, so you will pay a fortune in heating a big house that 2 of you are rattling around in. Spain is all about outdoor living and you will find that it’s too cold to sit indoors in the winter, outside is much warmer. Then in the summer months you’ll be spending most of your time outdoors.
Spanish houses produce lots of dust, and even outdoor areas get extremely dirty and that’s not even consider the amount of mud rain we’ve had this year. You do t want to spend all your time in Spain cleaning - that’s not part of the dream.
Depending on your language skills if you’re in a Spanish area, you may struggle to find an English speaking doctor, or even trying to explain to a Spanish tradesman that your pool is leaking
We live in El Raso, which is only 2 km from the beaches of Guardamar, which is a beautiful town and caters for the Spanish. Where we live is mainly residential so our bars and rest are open all year round. Yes they are much quieter in the Winter when there are fewer visitors around, but they are always open. We also have a good mix of nationalities living around us. We’re not too far from Quesada and you’ll find every tradesman you’ll ever need is British. But is you want to employ a Spanish tradesman there’s lots of them too.
We’re just over 30 minutes from Alicante airport, an ideal distance for collecting the many visitors you’ll have in the first couple of years.
I would say location is the most important thing when looking for somewhere to live. No matter how much homework you do on the internet or looking at property on rightmove the house that you think is perfect could be inches away from your next property, or in a very hilly area, or the street is full of potholes or that nice little row of bars closed down 5 years ago. So I would just take time to find the right location and everything else will follow automatically. Stop and have a coffee, talk to the locals, everyone is more than willing to tell you more about the area in which you are interested.
We were shown around by estate agents when we were house hunting and the areas we though we wanted to live in, we hated. The more we looked at properties the more confused we got. There was absolutely no way I wanted a house with a bedroom downstairs……….. we bought a house with the master bedroom downstairs, have since realised heat rises, my two upstairs bedrooms are like ovens in the summer and my downstairs bedroom is so cool. That was only one of the things I thought I didn’t want in a house.Talk to people ask for positives and negatives that will truly help you make your mind up
Lynn
Hi Lynn
Good to 'meet' you and many thanks for the words of advice. You made some interesting points like the downstairs bedrooms and heating and not rattling around, although we will be looking for min 3 beds as we have 3 kids between us, a pool and a decent amount of space, not being looked over (which by the looks of things counts out new builds as they seem to be on top of each other), not in a tourist rental area and definitely no where near the 'kss me quick, Brits abroad' crowd.15-20 mins from the beach is ok as long as we're close to somewhere with a decent array of places to eat and drink as we are very social...so a good mix of Spanish and ex-pats alike.
My son is nearly 14 (he lives split 50% with me and his mum locally), so we'll be looking to make the move in around 4-5 years once he goes to uni (fingers crossed) somewhere within 30-40 mins of Alicante as it services Luton airport....we live in Herts.
I'm starting to put the research in now, so we'll be as well prepared as we can be when the time comes, so the Spanish lessons will start next year as well as plenty of short breaks checking out the areas we think we like the sound of...as you say we'll just as likely stumble across a great spot by chance.
From what I've read and heard it appears the Spanish banking system is not quite the well oiled machine it is in the UK? Wise banking seems to have a big thumbs up from what I've seen so far.
I guess the main thing for us is the additional red tape we'll have to cut through post brexit, however I'm sure as long as we're well advised and have all our ducks in a row, it shouldn't be too painful.
Depending on cost, we may even consider hiring the services of someone to manage all the administrative aspects for us...I'm sure it's not necessary but a consideration all the same. I'm sure there must me a 'pack' available with all the necessary things to do and contacts esp post brexit.
I'm sure we'll chat again!
Adam
