# Building



## Kerrymac (Feb 19, 2017)

Hello. Does anyone on here have any experience with buying a plot/building a home?


----------



## Me&MrsJones (Sep 25, 2016)

Just going through that process ourselves now KerryMac!

PM me if you want and I will explain what we have been / are going through


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Me&MrsJones said:


> Just going through that process ourselves now KerryMac!
> 
> PM me if you want and I will explain what we have been / are going through


Please post your experiences on the forum  That's what forums are all about!


----------



## Me&MrsJones (Sep 25, 2016)

A fair point well made! I just have a knack of getting myself warned every time I post it would appear so I thought I had better be careful!

So, our experience, once you have done the whole challenge around where and prioritising why etc it was then about who?

We had a few choices in our area and our research began with looking at their existing portfolio offering. Go look at the show and open houses, check the quality of build and finish, understand what is included etc. Also be very clear to your prospective developer about your budget and remember to allow for about 15% further for fees and taxes etc.

Meet your developer(s) face to face, get to know them. Do they speak your language as their primary language, if not how are they going to understand your needs as elements can get lost in translation. Ultimately people buy from people so if you are not 'clicking' with your developer then you need to ask why... any doubts and walk away.

We found the bigger real estate firms and developers were not flexible. "Here are our models, pick one and the odd change such as wall colour or kitchen layout could be allowed... anything more and its cost cost cost!"

Our developer is local to the area we are building, which sounds very obvious but is often overlooked. What other work has your developer got in the area? Do they hire local trades/crafts people? Are they flexible enough to allow you to make any changes you want to make? 

How long have they been trading and how many houses each year do they look to build? Is it numbers of houses or numbers of Euro's that seems to spur them on?!!!

What is the cost structure and when is payment due? What are they telling you about the legal requirements? Our experience has been that we have a 3 month period of the 'project plan' which is all paper stage and putting a professional pack together and getting it all rubber stamped with the authorities.

Using your own lawyer? Are you planning to pay cash for your build, then perhaps consider getting a small mortgage as the bank will then assign you a lawyer they will, of course, ensure everything is legitimate as they are investing money in your property!

It comes down doing your homework, looking at what they offer and the quality of that offering and overall its a gut feel.

I hope it helps? I know we had lots of questions and we didnt end up buying on our first meeting with the developer, I would be very wary of any that were pushing you to sign on the dotted line as soon as possible!

If there were any other specific questions then please feel free to ask.

If you are looking in the Hondon Valley / La Romana area I can very much recommend our developer and I am guessing I will need to tell you that through a PM?!

Hope it helps!


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Me&MrsJones said:


> If you are looking in the Hondon Valley / La Romana area I can very much recommend our developer and I am guessing I will need to tell you that through a PM?!
> 
> Hope it helps!


By all means post the recommendation if the OP asks


----------



## Me&MrsJones (Sep 25, 2016)

xabiachica said:


> By all means post the recommendation if the OP asks


OK, thank you for the guidance


----------



## Kerrymac (Feb 19, 2017)

Thankyou so much for your reply! We have gone from looking at small houses that would enable us to keep our home in Scotland to selling the damn thing and buying similar in Spain. Although there are some lovely properties I can't help but feel building our own will get us what we really want! That said, the whole process terrifies me, not the hard work or complications but the potential for disaster...We will be putting our son into El limonar in Villamartin so would need to be within a 30 minute commute of there. Have you had experience of building a home before or have you been learning as you go? Would love to be able to pm you if I could as we go-do I just click on your wee icon? Again-many thanks! Kerry.


----------



## sadlybroke (Jun 19, 2012)

We are in the process of buying land in Benalmadena (should complete within a couple of weeks) and plan to build a house on it in the next 2-3 years.



Kerrymac said:


> That said, the whole process terrifies me, not the hard work or complications but the potential for disaster...


It is scary but thousands of people do it every year and manage to do it just fine so if you are careful, you should be ok. That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.


----------



## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

sadlybroke said:


> We are in the process of buying land in Benalmadena (should complete within a couple of weeks) and plan to build a house on it in the next 2-3 years.
> 
> 
> 
> It is scary but thousands of people do it every year and manage to do it just fine so if you are careful, you should be ok. That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.


I'm sure you have, but I presume you've checked that you will be given permission to build what you want there?

I believe you need at least 10000m2 to build now in Valencia (may be more in Andalusia 30000?) - unless it's different on an urbanisation?


----------



## sadlybroke (Jun 19, 2012)

snikpoh said:


> I'm sure you have, but I presume you've checked that you will be given permission to build what you want there?


Yes of course. I have a solicitor, surveyor and architect involved from the very first day. All checks have been carried out before we made the offer and paid the deposit. I viewed 30 plots in total, then shortlisted best 5 which I viewed with the surveyor and architect and they gave me valuable feedback and advice on each of them. The one we decided to buy has been recommended by the architect and surveyor so fingers crossed we will be able to complete very soon.



snikpoh said:


> I believe you need at least 10000m2 to build now in Valencia (may be more in Andalusia 30000?) - unless it's different on an urbanisation?


This may be true in campo but there are no such limits in urban areas AFAIK. Each area has some limits (max built area, height of the building, architectural style, etc). We are allowed to build a villa of about 210 sq metres on max 2 floors above the ground.


----------



## ayrez (Sep 15, 2016)

We bought a plot in Murcia about 13 years ago. As it was in the campo we had to own 20,000 sq metres to be allowed to build. My Oh designed exactly the house we wanted and we passed our plans on to the architect to produce a proper project to give to the town hall for the licence to build. 

As well as build costs remember to include licence costs, architects fees, connection to utilites costs and solicitors, taxes and notary costs to make the declaration of new property after you have received the certificate of habitability. If you have a "developer" doing the build some of these costs may be include in the building costs quoted. We were surprised at some of the costs quoted, for example, connection to mains electricity cost 10,000 euros plus IVA and we only needed 3 poles to be connected. This was in the campo of course, and presumably would be much less on an urban plot.


----------



## sadlybroke (Jun 19, 2012)

Me&MrsJones estimates the fees and taxes to be around 15% of the build cost. Would you say this is about right or did you end up paying more? 

I allowed about 30% of the build cost for taxes and fees in my budget.


----------



## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

sadlybroke said:


> Me&MrsJones estimates the fees and taxes to be around 15% of the build cost. Would you say this is about right or did you end up paying more?
> 
> I allowed about 30% of the build cost for taxes and fees in my budget.


15% is PURELY the purchase costs (of an established property).

As stated, in addition utility connection charges can be VERY high. You will also need boletins to prove that all utility installations are up to regulations.

The other cost mentioned is that once built, it will have to be re-registered with land registry and with cadastral.


----------



## ayrez (Sep 15, 2016)

From memory, we paid between 30 and 35% of the building costs but it was a long time ago and we got the house we wanted rather than the house a developer thought we needed.
Another benefit of self build is that although we lost out of the pre 2008 value when we sold last year, we still made a small profit on total build costs, and as my OH put it, we had lived there 11 years with no rent costs.

If we had bought offplan we would have lost up to 50% and i suppose that would have been the developers profit.


----------

