Thinking about buying small property in Murcia region

[Brendan]

That's ok , Just thought I would give you apiece of history , by the way another piece of info there is no B in the Irish alphabet i'm told that's why Cobb is Cove . stay safe

Just a little bit wrong there.
The letter V does not exist in the Irish alphabet, B most certainly does.
The sound of V in the Irish language is produced by an aspirated B or M.
This is written as B or M followed by H, so bh or mh, both of which form v.
Cobb should actually read Cobh, pronounced Cove.

 

[Tony50]

Just a little bit wrong there.
The letter V does not exist in the Irish alphabet, B most certainly does.
The sound of V in the Irish language is produced by an aspirated B or M.
This is written as B or M followed by H, so bh or mh, both of which form v.
Cobb should actually read Cobh, pronounced Cove.

Me wrong again , that I was what I was told by the Tour leader ,mind you he was speaking with an Irish accent I must have misunderstood him , thanks for putting me right, and I really don't mind as I have been telling people there's no "B" since 1995 unlike Covid tracing I don't have my own App for the "B" letter.

 

[Janine]

Just a little bit wrong there.
The letter V does not exist in the Irish alphabet, B most certainly does.
The sound of V in the Irish language is produced by an aspirated B or M.
This is written as B or M followed by H, so bh or mh, both of which form v.
Cobb should actually read Cobh, pronounced Cove.

You mean I have been singing The Irish Rover wrongly all these years??

 

[TheMachMan]

My brother lives in Spain, and it took him nearly 5 years to sell his last property. Renting sounds like a good plan.

 

[Ivory55]

One thing with renting, if circumstances change in 5 years time, health etc. You can just not go and not have the worry of selling etc.

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[gus-lopez]

and it took him nearly 5 years to sell his last property.

I can show you properties we looked at 19 years ago still on sale. never been sold. Only thing different is that the sale price has risen One, that I was interested in but wife wasn't ,was on sale for £92k . Last time I looked it had been divvied up in to 4 & asking price in total was 500k.

not have the worry of selling etc.

You don't have to worry it won't unless it is beach area & rentable.Anywhere else is a struggle although i am constantly amazed that in some God forsaken out of the way places ,where you die waiting for the ambulance, fire brigade ,police etc; people can sometimes find buyers?

 

[Ivory55]

I can show you properties we looked at 19 years ago still on sale. never been sold. Only thing different is that the sale price has risen One, that I was interested in but wife wasn't ,was on sale for £92k . Last time I looked it had been divvied up in to 4 & asking price in total was 500k.
You don't have to worry it won't unless it is beach area & rentable.Anywhere else is a struggle although i am constantly amazed that in some God forsaken out of the way places ,where you die waiting for the ambulance, fire brigade ,police etc; people can sometimes find buyers?

Are you taking about Norfolk. Haha

 

[Minxy]

... i am constantly amazed that in some God forsaken out of the way places ,where you die waiting for the ambulance, fire brigade ,police etc; people can sometimes find buyers?

Me too ... I sometimes watch the 'Place in the Sun' TV programme and the places that people are taken to buy homes/holiday homes appear to be great value with lovely views etc but I don't think a lot of those looking think about the practicalities of ownership or selling on in the future.

 

[Drum Major]

Think we all have the best of both with our motorhome if like a place we stay a while if not move on

 

[Scotch mist]

Got a friend who has been in France for many years , kept his house in Scotland, rented it out, then used the money to pay the rent on his french house , much safer

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[mikebeaches]

We've often considered a Spanish long term rental, particularly for the winter months.

However, at the moment, we use our van extensively and also have an interest in the Holiday Property Bond (HPB), which provides high quality accommodation at 35 different locations around Europe and the UK. We often combine the two, so regularly travel in the van to a lovely HPB resort at Alfaix, near Mojacar, Almeria. We're not the only ones either, there were three other motorhomes there on our last visit in March. But we've also taken the van to their French resorts, and one of the Bond's ski chalets in Austria, as well as various places in the UK.

Properties Archive - HPB

www.hpb.co.uk

We invested £5k six years ago (and a bit more 12 months later) and have managed to stay at all 35 sites - many, multiple times. I feel we've already had way more value in holidays than invested (so I've mentally written it off), but reckon we'd get about 65% - 70% back if we wanted to sell up, which we definitely don't. Not necessarily cheap holidays and not for everybody but, in our book, great value and a useful alternative to investing in buying a single holiday property. Works for us...

And finally, just to say, HPB have been amazing through the pandemic, refunding monies for cancelled holidays etc. They even chartered a private jet to Turkey during the first lockdown, when 10 elderly bondholders were stranded, unable to get flights home.

 

[Gaston aires]

We sold ours 7 years ago. So glad we did, se vende, aquiller signs up everywhere nowadays. Water and electricity was getting expensive too.
Phil

 

[simsy56]

We rented a lovely apartment near Estepona for three months 4 years ago. Sea view, level walking to the shops and restaurants etc; 2 bed, 2 bath, with a huge terrace, and underground parking.
It was also for sale at 169,000 euros. Which we thought was OTT.

However, as nice it was, we got fed up with being in one area, even though we had a car, and joined the local swimming pool and leisure centre. We missed the motorhome life of being somewhere different, and rolling along and staying wherever we fancied. We decided then that a permanent residence wasn't for us.

We are pleased that we tried it, and more pleased that we have stuck with the motorhoming life.

Craig

 

[nicholsong]

I will add my voice to renting, at least till you really fall in love with an area.

On the legal aspect I would instruct a UK firm of Solicitors who have an office there. It might be a bit more expensive but you have redress to the UK complaints route if anything should go wrong, also they have their UK reputation to protect.

Geoff

 

[Clickem]

We rented a lovely apartment near Estepona for three months 4 years ago. Sea view, level walking to the shops and restaurants etc; 2 bed, 2 bath, with a huge terrace, and underground parking.
It was also for sale at 169,000 euros. Which we thought was OTT.

However, as nice it was, we got fed up with being in one area, even though we had a car, and joined the local swimming pool and leisure centre. We missed the motorhome life of being somewhere different, and rolling along and staying wherever we fancied. We decided then that a permanent residence wasn't for us.

We are pleased that we tried it, and more pleased that we have stuck with the motorhoming life.

Craig

We had a holiday home in Spain for about 13 years and were able to benefit from being in the same place for up to 6 months of the year. There is a lovely social life to be had and 7 years after we sold up we still have many friends out there. I would echo the advice to rent first and do wonder about the future for holiday home owners. Our friends that are still there have adopted the Spanish life and Citizenship, whereas I think that the holiday home owner is seen as a bit of a cash cow by the government

It took us about 3 weeks to sell up in 2013

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[Tanya_and_Mick]

Depends on your vision and requirements - just think about the whole package and what your Spain / Murcia would mean to you and the family in the short, mid and long term.

If you’re going to make a decision solely based on finance then it’s a non starter; but, for some there’s more to think about than just the money

Good luck

 

[Ivory55]

Depends on your vision and requirements - just think about the whole package and what your Spain / Murcia would mean to you and the family in the short, mid and long term.

If you’re going to make a decision solely based on finance then it’s a non starter; but, for some there’s more to think about than just the money

Good luck

Think money is a major factor in anything, people who say it usually have lots of it, after all why do we get up on a Monday morning and go to work ? Because someone is paying us .

 

[Tanya_and_Mick]

Think money is a major factor in anything, people who say it usually have lots of it, after all why do we get up on a Monday morning and go to work ? Because someone is paying us .

On this one we can agree to disagree, of course we are all different....

 

[Minxy]

Its something we've considered several times but never actually done until last year when we were parked up at an overnight stop near the beach and there were some apartments for sale nearby, so we had a shuftie in the agent's window and decided to arrange some viewings to see what you got for the money ... they weren't cheap ranging between €120-€150k being 2 beds with the monthly service charges around €30-€40 depending on apartment square footage, amenities etc.

They were small and I mean small and needed updating ... the thought of being cooped up inside them soon made us realise it wouldn't work for us regardless of how long we used them for. If we wanted a house/bungalow of some sort the prices were silly and usually not that close to the seafront.

Its okay being able to get somewhere near the beach but come the height of the summer holiday season it would be packed and certainly not somewhere we'd want to be so it would have had to be more inland for us which would certainly get a lot more property for the money as a general rule but then the question is whether that's what we wanted.

There are some gorgeous properties out there but unless I was going to move there permanently I wouldn't bother buying as there are too many 'risks' now with charges being levied against non-residents and the difficulty in selling in the future especially with the prices IMV likely to go down as people try to offload their holiday homes due to CV and Brexit meaning they can't make use of them as much as they had previously.

Now is NOT the time to buy a holiday home IMV.

 

[Janecambridge]

We bought in the Valencia province.Unbeknown to us the reason we got a bargain,was the estate agent had us deal with black money.This meant cheaper property costs if we made a certain amount by cash.We had the house 3 years.Then we turned up one evening,dark and desperate to settle down as my husband had just had melanoma surgery.No electric and water.Fridge disgusting,plants dead and the roof had leaked.The Valencia’s governmenat had found out about the black money.Removed every penny from our Spanish
bank account and therefore no standing orders went out.sold the property and had money put straight in UK account as Spanish would have taken another 3000€ from our account.We still owe that money but they cannot touch British bank accounts. courts have told us we should never have had to pay any money at all.A costly and distressing time,all in Spanish too.
Just to add we should have had 3 notifications of the withdrawal of money,but each sent to wrong address (solicitor had evidence of this).

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[Clickem]

If anyone is thinking of renting, a word of warning. A friend rented an apartment in Torrevieja in August and paid 3 months rent upfront. Landlord never returned to collect rent after that, so they kept the rent ready to one side. Xmas eve and sat having tea when a key turned in the lock, door opened, and in walked the real owner

Owner was very good and let them stay a few more days, until they found somewhere else

 

[uzsnowdrop]

We had a house in Murcia for 10 years, had lovely time, its a great province, we sold it once the kids had grown and bought a moho. We wouldn’t buy a house abroad again, we didnt have any bad experiences but renting is definitely the way to go, so much easier and great value, good luck!

 

[Realist]

I’ve had one niggling ambition in life and that was to buy a property in Spain, even after buying our latest MoHo it was still niggling me that for the money I spent I could of got a place in Spain where property prices went up and my MoHo value went down.

Reading the above has now opened my eyes and this niggling feeling has almost gone out the window, down the street and into space to the point where now sorry I would rather rent, pay monthly and if needs be move place to place.

The problem is all this hype and eagerness to get a place in Spain has come from that Tv program “A Place In The Sun” and seeing some of the places and the prices they sell for had me hook, line and sinker.

So thanks all above for opening my eyes to one big possible pool of haaaaaaaaaa I could of got into.

Rent, Rent and rent is the way forward for me.

Thanks all.

 

[Drum Major]

Have To agree ever time I watch that program I think we should buy then I remember this post and say no way
We have the best of both worlds if we like somewhere we we stay if not move on

 

[Neil n Pat]

Just sold our place after three years. I would keep your 150K in your pocket looking at other options. If you bought you would have to factor in a further 15k for taxes and services. 8% on the purchase price and 4% on the furnishings. Then when you come to sell 3% is deducted automatically from the purchase price for capital gains tax in advance, anywhere between 3% to 5% estate agents fees plus VAT, Plus valia tax at the townhall and believe it or not any unpaid bills from previous owners that slipped through the loop. Also factor in the exchange rate.... your 150k won´t generate many euros like it did fifteen years ago.
Watching a popular TV program promoting properties in the sun is like watching lambs to the slaughter. When they say " oh yes build your garage there and build your pool there" they have no idea.
I suggested to our agent she should write a book on selling and buying property in Spain, she responded " the book would kill the market dead leaving me with no business"
Sat here on a popular campsite on the Costa Del Sol coast chilling out in our MH after a stressful few weeks waiting for the dust to settle. Quite a few Brits here feeling safer here than in the UK.
Best of luck whichever way decide to go. Keep safe. atb

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