Holiday Home in Spain

[PurpleFlower1983]

Has anyone bought a property in Spain? We have had some inheritance and are considering it as an option. We have some friends who have one who we will be speaking to more after lockdown is lifted but I was wondering what experiences people have had.

Thanks :)

Is your instinct to go to the same place every year on holiday? If so, a holiday home is for you. We have friends like that and they absolutely love their holiday home, returning several times a year.
Think carefully if you like to visit different locations every year. We like many countries but have never returned to the exact same spot. A holiday home would be a bind.
From our friends' experience, do think carefully if you want to let it out as a holiday home when not in use. The standard is very high and in Spain, renters expect the house to be devoid of personal effects and trinkets. In the UK we don't mind when there are locked cupboards or rooms marked private.

Our instinct has never been to go to the same place every year but since having our DD we can see the appeal of something that’s an easy holiday. We are bound to school holidays so the prospect of ‘free’ accommodation is quite appealing to us and would mean that we would go there probably at least 4 times a year whereas now we usually only holiday once or twice. My parents would also likely use the property for 2-3 months over winter.

That sounds like a compelling reason to go for it, especially if your parents would get good use out of it too in the winter season.

Yes they use their friend’s a lot and pay them for it at ‘mates rates’. We obviously wouldn’t charge them except for bills while they were there so it would definitely get used. We probably wouldn’t rent it out beyond allowing family and friends to go if they wanted to. It’s definitely food for thought!

We had a look into this. The thing that put us off was getting a flight during school holiday time. I work term time only so would have been ideal to take dds there if dh was working, say half term holidays. Sometimes airlines change their flights to certain destinations too. I live not far from an airport, so would have been easy enough to get a flight.
We know family and friends would make good use of it too.
Maybe when dds are older and I’ve moved on from working in a school we’ll look into it again.

I work term time and my husband is freelance so we said he could fly out a couple of days before with DD when flights are about a third of the price then all fly home together.

We have one.
We love it there, it’s my happy place but if I could turn back the clock I probably wouldn’t have bought it
Dd was only 2 when we bought it so not at school and it was so handy to have everything there and going was easy. Then we had DS and Dd started school and from 2 non term time flights we now have 4 holiday time flights to pay for (although we sometimes do miss an odd day of school to go). The property wasn’t too expensive but taxes and other charges are extortionate and even though we let it out over the summer (when we prefer not to go) it costs a fortune. We could have had some amazing long haul holidays with what it’s cost us. Plus the Dc are getting a bit bored of it now (spoilt brats). They still love it there but I don’t think they see it as a proper holiday and last September we went AI long haul and they really enjoyed it.
We have a great time in Spain and while I can’t say I regret buying the property I think things would be easier if we hadn’t sometimes.
The area is great and not too commercialised, it’s popular with Urban Spanish families so no “Brits Abroad”. PM me if you want info on the area, it’s much cheaper to buy than on most Costas.

We had a holiday home in Portugal. We bought it off plan in 2006, built it 2010 and have had many happy family holidays there in our happy place.

Kids are now 17&15 and they have had enough of it. We are currently selling it as we no longer want to go there, we've moved on. Looking at holidays without kids or a place our kids can take their friends and the house we had was too remote.

Don't think of it as a forever home, think of it as a great place to holiday until the next stage of your life.

Our inlaws have a had a holiday home in Spain since the 1980s. DH and his brother were in their teens so used it in the holidays, it's been great for us over the years with our DC and now that they've retired PIL spend at least half the year there. (They're in lockdown there now).

It really is a home so they never need much luggage. They know the area well and have friends there. So far so good.

The big 'but' is that MIL feels that she has missed out on going to some places that she'd have liked to have visited. Friends have been on things like the Orient Express and cruises which she couldn't do.

Then there is the upkeep of a house.

The pool needs a cleaner which costs money and everything needs a thorough cleaning when you leave which takes almost a day of holiday.

We bought one last year. We had previously lived in Spain for 15 years so knew exactly which area we wanted to buy in. We waited for a Bank sale (repossession) and bought a high spec 3 bed 2 bath house for 125,ooo euros. We had the cash in the bank and also had our NIE number which is needed to buy a house in Spain. You can get this from the embassy in London. The buying process was a faff but have already been offered 50,000 euros more from a disappointed buyer.

We don't intend to let it but to use it mostly spring and autumn. Why not drive to Spain. We always do as we take our dog. We either drive from Santander within the day or from Caen with an overnight stop.

We have one in a small spanish town. Bought it 15 years ago, didn't speak the language and had no idea of what we were doing! We have lovely spanish locals who do jobs for us when we're not there but we dont rent it out, it's only us who use it. Best thing we've done, it's my happy place too.

Similar to buddywoo. We have a 2 bed apartment. We always drive down as we take our dog and make the journey a holiday.
We have no regrets. It really is our happy place.
We are both retired though so make good use of it (until this year). You may find places cheaper to buy in the coming months.
Good luck.

We have an apartment on Majorca that we bought in 2015. At that point I’d just had my second child. It’s perfect for us as well situated in a popular, upmarket area that attracts good rentals (£1750 pw in summer). We don’t actively market it though as we have plenty of friends and family who use it. The annual cost of it is about £8000 (including the tourist licences which were brought in last year). We tend to go 3 times a year including for most of August, as the kids are committed to activities most weekends in term time. We know many of the other families that also own as my kids live that they get to see their friends (plus various other friends of ours visit the resort regularly and we meet at the beach, for dinner etc).

Property prices over there have plummeted the last few years. Invest with caution would be my advice. Also check the location, buying in a place with full time expats around is slightly more burglar proof than buying somewhere remote .

Sounds lovely but I would buy a place on the UK instead if it was me. Spain is too hot for me.

Great to hear everyone’s experiences. We are looking at La Cala de Mijas which is where our friends have theirs. My parents know the locals which is a lovely mix of Spanish, English, Scandinavians and others. The immediate area is quite expensive, our friends paid £160,000 about 12 years ago and it’s not worth around £320,000 for a 3 bed. Our budget is more modest at £180k (£200k max but needs to include the taxes etc.) but there is one on the market that we’re interested in that just comes in budget. We are going to keep an eye on the market for the coming months and possibly get things in place with the Spanish bank account etc.

@Buddywoo How did you go about waiting for a repossession? I’ve seen a few company adverts online. Some neighbours of our friends got a steal on their complex for £90k a few years ago! It’s work £250k now!

*now worth

@Captainj1 Can you explain he breakdown of the costs a little more please? £8k sounds like a lot but does that include utilities etc?

look up taxes/tax declaration etc. plus inheritance rules. plus insurance.
it can get very complicated & expensive.

@bluefoxmug We will do, thanks for the advice!

@PurpleFlower1983 yes that’s for everything assuming I go 3 times a year. It’s probably £6-8k depending on the extent of maintenance that is needed. My apartment is 3 bed so sleeps 6, licence is €875 per bed for 5 years so that’s €1400 per year. Service charges are €1200 per year (covering communal gardens, pool, lifts, general repairs etc), last year the community voted to increase the security by putting new fencing and door code etc around the perimeter so that was another €1,000, electricity is very expensive on the island (dependent on usage but around €1500 per year), then council tax/refuse collection is around €400 per year, I pay a property management company €500 per year (+separate variable payments for cleaning and maintenance etc). Then there’s water bills, cost of filing the required Spanish tax returns, insurance (including holidaymakers) etc. It took a couple of years to work out wtf was going on, because as part of the purchase my lawyer had to put all the services into my name and provide the authorities with my bank details, and they just issue electronic invoices to the bank and take my money! I don’t speak Spanish (hubby does but most of the time it’s not v clear what the invoice is for) so just trying to work out what’s been taken and for what is a bit of a nightmare. Thankfully I have access to my Spanish account via an app so can keep a close eye.

@Captainj1 Thanks! I’ve been reading loads of guides and it’s so complicated! I’m sure it’s worth it in the end though! I think what we’ve realised is we need to be careful how much we spend as we will always need a decent amount of money in the Spanish pot. Hopefully there will be some good deals around in the coming months.

I live here and I totally second the inheritance tax issue. You must check that out. Who will have their name on the deeds? Both of you? Think carefully about this.

You need proof of funds, NIE, bank, private healthcare... it is no longer easy to live/move to Spain.

Bills are a lot. Tourist license is a logistical nightmare, do not count on renting out any more. I did for years,, it is no longer feasible or cost effective.

Maintenance companies will try and rip you off on pool cleaning etc...

Be wary.

@BillieEilish Would you not buy out there again if you could do things again?

The property would likely be in my husband’s name as our properties here are both in my name. Does this cause problems?