Looking to buy a house in Spain

[winkywinkola]

We would like to buy a holiday home in Spain. I like the Costa Brava but I'm open to suggestions.

Can anyone recommend areas in particular that are great for family holidays? And should we use British or Spanish estate agents?

Insights gratefully received! Tia.

Javea is gorgeous

Regarding estate agents, most will have a variety of nationalities working for them, the majority of whom will speak English. Also don't discount bank repossessions, a list of sites here, although things aren't as bad as they were, they still have quite a few to get rid of.
Also have a look at Kyero, which is a right move type site

Costa Brava and Costa del Sol more expensive than other Costas. I think eating out etc in Costa Brava is very expensive compared with elsewhere but it is beautiful.
We like Costa Almeria as it's much quieter and less developed but the downside is that the infrastructure and facilities are not as good as the other areas.
Don't forget to add about 11% to the price you pay to cover taxes and legal expenses. If you are buying in a community monthly running costs in some developments can be high.
In this area asking prices seem to be rising but I doubt if people are getting them. If I were buying at the mo I'd try a pretty cheeky offer on most places as there is so much on the market.
Good luck.

We are open to ideas.

Costa Almeria is right on the south coast, isn't it? I'm worried it will just be unbearably hot in August.

Plus we'd like to take our dogs with us each time we go and that would be an awfully long drive. Unless there's a ferry service that we can relax on!

It is indeed and August is very hot. We prefer to be elsewhere for July and August but we did live there for 8 years so got used to it.
It's also a long drive down. We have the luxury of spending a week driving down from or up to Caen, varying our route to take in places we want to visit. This time we are going home via Toledo, Segovia and Bordeaux. It's a 9/10 hour drive straight up to Santander or Bilbao if we want to take the non scenic route! So not great for dogs, though I know many who do it.

Look at Costa de la Luz, still very Spanish and house prices pretty low.
If you want I can give more specific recommendations as we own a property there - feel free to PM me