To think buying this Spanish apartment is a great idea?

[UpHereforDancng]

For background, two years ago me and my family stayed in a gorgeous two bedroom apartment with a huge terrace and great views in a beautiful seaside village on the Costa Brava, 45 minutes from Barcelona. The British owner lived nearby so we got to know her.

It was one of our favourite holidays and we wanted to return this year. When I checked in early Summer if it was free she said she'd moved back in (probably because of the first lockdown) but that every person who had rented it the previous year had wanted to come again this year. We booked somewhere nearby instead but concluded her apartment and location was better.

Late last week she contacted me to say she was selling and would I like to buy!

We own a flat underneath us which we rent out. It's recently been valued at £100K more than her asking price, yet we've calculated the Spanish rental income from April to October (which she says is pretty much 100%) would be just over double, before expenses, compared to what we get for our UK flat, and that's with taking away three weeks in August when we'd be staying there.

Also, if we sell we could pay off a £70K mortgage left on the UK flat plus £14K in credit card debt and never have to pay for a holiday apartment again.

Shall I buy it?? Considering it was in high demand during the pandemic I'm leaning towards a Yes!, but it's such a huge and costly decision.

Like some others here I'm a Brit resident abroad and having seen first hand the concern and the uncertainty being caused by the B word I'm another another one voting for the need to be careful.

If you can I'd wait until you know how Brexit and the end of transition is going to effect all this (taxes/any possible limitations on time you can spend in Spain as a non-resident/ease of getting residency if that is the long term plan, there's a whole load of etc's........).

Obviously another sunny note is the travel restrictions (which will end..when?) resulting from pandemic aren't going to make your travel to/from Spain any easier, or help with renting the property out....

I would try and speak to other people who own properties there but are resident in the U.K. Also you say she'll do hand overs, what about cleaning, repairs? What if she can't do the handover? It may be a good business opportunity but you need to speak to people who are not an interested party and also need an independent valuation and rental projection plus remember with brexit and possibly Covid still business may not be as usual