# Recommendations of places to buy in Spain



## mcevans (7 mo ago)

Hi all,
I'm early in my planning to buy a holiday home that would eventually be somewhere to retire to (part of the year at least) in Spain but would initially be used for family holidays and potentially let out when not using it.

My requirements are probably quite similar to a lot of people and I'd love:
3 bed villa with private pool
Walkable to a beach and bars & restaurants

Is this doable with a budget of £250,000? Do you have ay recommendations of areas/towns I should look at for this budget? Most of I have been online are £300k+ for these requirements.

Thank you


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

I doubt you'll find anything to meet your requirements for that price. Don't forget you have to budget an additional 10% or so for purchase tax and lawyer's fees. Drop a bedroom and/or go for a community pool instead of a private one and you might get lucky.


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## Barriej (Jul 23, 2012)

mcevans said:


> Hi all,
> I'm early in my planning to buy a holiday home that would eventually be somewhere to retire to (part of the year at least) in Spain but would initially be used for family holidays and potentially let out when not using it.
> 
> My requirements are probably quite similar to a lot of people and I'd love:
> ...


Im not surprised there has only been one answer.

The question is a sort of 'how long is a bit of string' to be honest.
There are literally hundreds of towns etc in Spain that will have those conditions.

So, my 2c we live inland of the Albir part of the Costa Blanca. 
There are lots of towns (including Benidorm) along this stretch of coast. 
Lets say from Denia all the way past Alicante and even into Murcia. 
All would do and one or two may have the budget you are looking for.

Although the budget you have may have to be revised, but to be honest the area will always be more important than the house (in my view).
Neighbours of ours have just moved to Mazarron which is in Murcia and they have a 3 bed villa with pool for €200,000
Its a bit too British there for us but its fairly quiet and they like it.

As stated you will have to add around 10% tax and then solicitors fees to the cost.
As a non resident (3rd country) you will pay non res tax (here we pay 24% of 1% of the cadastral value). its not a bank breaking figure though.
As to renting out, you will need a tourist licence for this and that means extra taxes here as well. Its not the gold mine you may have been led to believe it may be.
My cousin owns a nice 2 bed villa in Los Alcazares and she struggles to get enough rent to pay the charges etc and this is on a development close to the beach with shops, private pool and a good family atmosphere.

Id start thinking about areas and then ask specific questions here for local knowledge and then arrange some holidays to the areas you fancy.
My idea of a good place wont be the same as yours and we have lots of people here with lots of differing views as to the perfect location, which to me is good as you get a wide variety of opinions.

Also be aware its also not as easy to sell up and move here as it is in the Uk if you find the area is not right.


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## kaipa (Aug 3, 2013)

I would agree with the above. You probably would be looking at something around £ 225,000 if you factor in your 10 % buying costs. I visited a friend who was renting a two bedroom house with a pool near to the beach in torrevieja but it was very old and not nice ( smelt very damp and had cockroaches). I daresay it could be bought for under £200,000 ,not sure but it probably isnt quite how you imagine a Spanish villa. In other words you will find places advertised at okay prices but they wont be very nice for one reason or another.


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## Melosine (Apr 28, 2013)

The ideal area for renting out a holiday home and somewhere to eventually retire to are in reality 2 different places.
The former tend to be like ghost towns out of season, whether coastal or inland, with few business remaining open PLUS prices in cafes, restaurants and barsare invariably inflated.
Whilst when retiring to an area one needs a community network as well as constant services and at Spanish prices.
If you must buy in Spain now suggest you choose the most popular area for the holiday home with community pools then sell and relocate a few miles inland, to a village/ town environment, where you can luxuriate in your own pool a d garden


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## kaipa (Aug 3, 2013)

Melosine said:


> The ideal area for renting out a holiday home and somewhere to eventually retire to are in reality 2 different places.
> The former tend to be like ghost towns out of season, whether coastal or inland, with few business remaining open PLUS prices in cafes, restaurants and barsare invariably inflated.
> Whilst when retiring to an area one needs a community network as well as constant services and at Spanish prices.
> If you must buy in Spain now suggest you choose the most popular area for the holiday home with community pools then sell and relocate a few miles inland, to a village/ town environment, where you can luxuriate in your own pool a d garden



I would be careful about the idea of reselling in Spain. The market in the southern areas is and always has been saturated. Unlike the uk market properties here can take literally years to sell and often with little or no return on investment that is accepted by most people and probably regarded as the norm. It took us at least 18 months to sell our first apartment which was front line and that was in 2002 when the market was crazy. So never view Spanish properties with British eyes- view them as something you are prepared to have for a good while.


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## Barriej (Jul 23, 2012)

kaipa said:


> I would be careful about the idea of reselling in Spain. The market in the southern areas is and always has been saturated. Unlike the uk market properties here can take literally years to sell and often with little or no return on investment that is accepted by most people and probably regarded as the norm. It took us at least 18 months to sell our first apartment which was front line and that was in 2002 when the market was crazy. So never view Spanish properties with British eyes- view them as something you are prepared to have for a good while.


very good comment.

The flats we live in, were originally designed for holidays stays, there should have been a supermarket and a pool, gardens etc. But that all fell through when the builder went bust. 
But over the years the British and the Scandinavian second homers who purchased off plan for around €120,000 in 2005 have all but gone.
In our block of six, there is only one 'holiday' flat, the other five are full time including us. Most of the other stair have very few holiday owners now, I would say 90% full time occupants.
We purchased this from a British non resident couple in 2019 at €78,000 and the price has remained the same...they lost €42,000 over that time, they were lucky as it had only been up for sale for about 3 months before we looked at it.

Flats here sell reasonably well and there are usually three for sale out of the 72 that they built (each stairwell has 6 flats, each block has 6 stairwells) and there are two blocks.
But two of the flats at the front were for sale when we looked and still are, one owned by a Brit couple is €20,000 over the asking price that all the others have sold for since. The other one is owned by a Norwegian man who purchased it in early 2018 gutted it and refurbished it and wants €140,000 for it as he put €60k into it. Prices here are €890 a M2. No matter what you do to it.. 

Our local estate agent is having trouble finding properties to sell and keeps asking if people want to move (but if all I am going to do is break even) then its nope. We like this little village and will stay for now.

As Ive said, start researching areas. 
Use Google maps as its a great way to 'walk' around. Come here and look around in the winter, best time to do house hunting trips anyway and easier to bargain on the price.

And this is where I disagree with your first comment. I don't care for a pool, they are great for holidays/renting but for me a waste for about 7 months of the year unless covered or heated.
My FIL has a nice 12m x 6m pool and its not been used in the last four years by him of his partner, nor us or our family and we live 1.5k away from him. 
For my money we prefer the beach.

There are a few locations all over Spain where you can holiday/rent/retire in the same place, but if its going to be in five or so years, expect to completely decorate and replace the furniture when you do retire (or just plain paint the walls and buy cheap stuff you can afford to throw out).
And not all places are ghost towns in Winter, Parts of Mercia yes, most of the Costa Del Sol yep, but there will always be somewhere thats Ok all year (prob here prices will the a lot higher than your budget). 
Albir, Altea, Benidorm, La Cala, Calpe. Most of the coast from there to Alicante and further down is still busy in winter with Spanish tourists, we day trip to Calpe a lot in the winter and its always reasonably busy..


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## Melosine (Apr 28, 2013)

Kaipa, Barriej, only speaking as I find. 
20 mins +'inland, 9 4+ bedroom detached properties on at least 5000 sq.m have sold this so far this year alone in my locale of Murcia. Over the last 16 years of my residency here there has been a constant stream of buyers. This year though has broken all records.
All were listed as over €345 k. Apart from one being sold via a Golden Visa ( €500 k) have no idea if the others came near to asking price 
So seems if a property is value for money, and location good, it sells.


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## Barriej (Jul 23, 2012)

Melosine said:


> Kaipa, Barriej, only speaking as I find.
> 20 mins +'inland, 9 4+ bedroom detached properties on at least 5000 sq.m have sold this so far this year alone in my locale of Murcia. Over the last 16 years of my residency here there has been a constant stream of buyers. This year though has broken all records.
> All were listed as over €345 k. Apart from one being sold via a Golden Visa ( €500 k) have no idea if the others came near to asking price
> So seems if a property is value for money, and location good, it sells.


I wasn't having a go. Just pointing out that you should never think life is rosy (just because something is good today don't mean nothing tomorrow)

Unfortunately almost all British (and one or two other countries) citizens think the housing market here is the same as their home country. (we were originally like this as I'm English, but having lived in a few countries you get to see the other side)
There are many programs in the Uk that say you can get this or that and its loads cheaper to buy in Spain, they NEVER point out the pitfalls, the reselling costs, taxes.

On average there are 100's of companies who will sell your house for £999 and you can do the legal for £250 or less. You can even advertise privately on Right move etc (things that don't happen here) Most agents charge 5 or 6% and then the tax of 10%. Stamp duty in the Uk is a pittance compared to here.
Our last house sold in 2015 for £190,000 and the legal and estate agents fees £1,600 as we were charged 0.75%

Houses purchased five years ago in the Uk would have on average increased in value by around 20% plus or more. I doubt that is the case here in Spain.
I have a friend who is the best estate agent in this area, he sells six plus properties a week, but even he is saying that most are selling for or just above what the current owners paid (some 20 years ago). 
Houses in the Uk have 'kerb appeal' a nice garden, refurb the kitchen and bathroom you can add £10,000 easily.
Here is x € per square metre, maybe you might get a little more if the property is on the front but not to the same extent.

Also in the Uk you can 'see' what the property you are looking at sold for previously, don't think you can do that here, thats why some houses are priced by the owners as to what they want, not what the market needs them to be sold at here in Spain.

To be honest the Op should forget how much he/she is willing to spend and concentrate on finding areas of interest first. 
A €200k property in a rubbish area is no good at all.


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## Melosine (Apr 28, 2013)

Barriej said:


> I wasn't having a go. Just pointing out that you should never think life is rosy (just because something is good today don't mean nothing tomorrow)
> 
> Unfortunately almost all British (and one or two other countries) citizens think the housing market here is the same as their home country. (we were originally like this as I'm English, but having lived in a few countries you get to see the other side)
> There are many programs in the Uk that say you can get this or that and its loads cheaper to buy in Spain, they NEVER point out the pitfalls, the reselling costs, taxes.
> ...


Never thought you were " having a go" . 
Like you, explaining the property situation as I saw it 
16 years ago , with the separate purchase of the land, we paid more for our house than we will ever get back. Whereas house we sold in UK was recently resold for TWICE the price. !!
That reality of buying in Spain.
Think we can all agree on OP's budget for a decent 3 bed coastal property with pool is probably not achievable. However a small 3 bed ooastal apartment with community pool, probably is. 
In a popular, well facilitated area with lots of nightlife like Benidorm. renting out should be easyish. However, would this be suitable accommodation, or indeed area, for later life in retirement.
That was the point i was trying to make.


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## kaipa (Aug 3, 2013)

High end property sells in Spain because its unique and limited. There are always buyers for the 1.000.000 Euro stuff. Problem is the middle end to bottom end is simply replaced every 10-15 years with new builds. Construction is a huge business in spain especially in the southern parts. I do work for the biggest constructor in Alicante region and they do huge projects here and in South America. They are just starting a new project in Punta Rima beside a similar completed project by a different constructor. They can shift their off plans really quickly to foreign buyers for high prices and suddenly the older project loses it value. Everyone wants the newest and everything gets replaced or the area gets saturated. I remember 20 years ago guardamar was the place to be, with lots of modern apartments and heavy promotion. Many of those today will probably be struggling to match the prices paid then.


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## The Skipper (Nov 26, 2014)

Barriej said:


> On average there are 100's of companies who will sell your house for £999 and you can do the legal for £250 or less. You can even advertise privately on Right move etc (things that don't happen here) Most agents charge 5 or 6% and then the tax of 10%. Stamp duty in the Uk is a pittance compared to here.
> Our last house sold in 2015 for £190,000 and the legal and estate agents fees £1,600 as we were charged 0.75%


I sold my house in the Costa Blanca mountains last year via a FREE listing on Idealista. I had half a dozen calls from estate agents after I uploaded the details all claiming to have clients looking for a property exactly like mine. They each offered to sell for between 2% and 3%. As it was, I didn't need them. The house sold quickly to private Dutch buyers at no cost to me. The times they are a-changing!


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## The Skipper (Nov 26, 2014)

mcevans said:


> Hi all,
> I'm early in my planning to buy a holiday home that would eventually be somewhere to retire to (part of the year at least) in Spain but would initially be used for family holidays and potentially let out when not using it.
> 
> My requirements are probably quite similar to a lot of people and I'd love:
> ...


Villa prices vary dramatically depending where in Spain you are looking to buy. There is a huge difference in price between Costa Blanca South (Torrevieja area) and Costa Blanca North (Javea, Denia) for example. Anywhere well inland, of course, becomes significantly cheaper than near the coast. Take a look at Idealista.com, Fotocasa.es, Habitaclia.com, Kyero.com and various other property portals and you will be spoilt for choice. You will have no trouble finding a home within your budget if location is not an issue.


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## Barriej (Jul 23, 2012)

kaipa said:


> High end property sells in Spain because its unique and limited. There are always buyers for the 1.000.000 Euro stuff. Problem is the middle end to bottom end is simply replaced every 10-15 years with new builds. Construction is a huge business in spain especially in the southern parts. I do work for the biggest constructor in Alicante region and they do huge projects here and in South America. They are just starting a new project in Punta Rima beside a similar completed project by a different constructor. They can shift their off plans really quickly to foreign buyers for high prices and suddenly the older project loses it value. Everyone wants the newest and everything gets replaced or the area gets saturated. I remember 20 years ago guardamar was the place to be, with lots of modern apartments and heavy promotion. Many of those today will probably be struggling to match the prices paid then.



So true.

Polop Hills was developed and has some of those horrid white concrete square things that are all the rage now. 
When the first lot were built they were snapped up by German, Dutch and Russians. They sell now for less than they were built for and the reason is.....

They are now building bigger ones with private pools in the same area. They vary but are up for €300,000 plus.
Polop is about 12k to the coast with Altea, Albir, Benidorm etc (north you have Javea, Denia, Calpe) all within maybe 45 mins away.
South is Alicante and the airport...

If you want a reasonable place in this area, here you go.





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There are 372 listings under €250,000 and over 1200 with no price limit and Polop only has 5000 residents spread over a couple of Urbs, the Town, properties on the CV70 and a couple of very small villages

I can give details of an Estate agent who knows this area backwards and wont con you.


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