# Help or advice on how to rent



## jonny512379 (Oct 24, 2017)

Hello Guys n Girls

We have planned to take out a long term rental (up to 12 months) in Spain, this year.
We are flying out on 24th April to hopefully find somewhere.

However our problem:
For the past week we have been searching on sites like Kyero and thinkSpain.
There are lots of properties listed, that look ideal for us, so we are sending enquirers to ask if we can view the property and when we are available and want to start renting, etc. 
Unfortunately 95% are not replying to us... And the very few of them that have replied are saying they are only available for winter rental, or are no longer available...
We hoped to have a short list of properties to go and view, but this is not looking good and i am beginning to wonder if any properties are available for rent....

Are we doing anything wrong?
Is there a best way to go about renting in Spain?
I think our budget of €800 pm is OK...
(i can include here a copy of standard message we are sending with our criteria, if this helps?)

i am beginning to think we will not find anywhere in the 2 weeks we are there now :-(

Any advise would be much appreciated!!!

Jon & Marianne


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

jonny512379 said:


> Hello Guys n Girls
> 
> We have planned to take out a long term rental (up to 12 months) in Spain, this year.
> We are flying out on 24th April to hopefully find somewhere.
> ...


It has often been said on the forum that estate agents don't reply to emails (at least if they haven't had a first contact with you) You have to be here. You could try phoning


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## jonny512379 (Oct 24, 2017)

Pesky Wesky said:


> It has often been said on the forum that estate agents don't reply to emails (at least if they haven't had a first contact with you) You have to be here. You could try phoning


Thanks

OK that is good news and what i was hoping for maybe.
I will try calling a few.
Also if i am there and just walk into their office, will they then take me serious and arrange some viewings, etc? Or will i then get the "mañana" attitude... :-(

Thanks again


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

jonny512379 said:


> Thanks
> 
> OK that is good news and what i was hoping for maybe.
> I will try calling a few.
> ...


I would say it depends on how many properties they have on the books and how professional they are. In my experience the _mañana attitude_ is largely a stereotype probably forged by foreigners trying to do something at 4 o'clock in temperatures of 40++º, but then I live in a different area


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## jonny512379 (Oct 24, 2017)

Pesky Wesky said:


> I would say it depends on how many properties they have on the books and how professional they are. In my experience the _mañana attitude_ is largely a stereotype probably forged by foreigners trying to do something at 4 o'clock in temperatures of 40++º, but then I live in a different area


Heheh. OK great i will drop the stereotypes then 

Has anyone heard of these, they look professional and have lots that are suitable to us, but they are not replying to enquirers. villasolrealestate.com
I will try calling them tomorrow.


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## tebo53 (Sep 18, 2014)

Hi,
From experience, you shouldn't bother with online estate agents as they very really contact you. Why would they when nearly everything is snapped up as soon as it becomes available!! To be honest you have to be at your chosen location and be ready to sign on the dotted line to any apartment that is suited to you. Leave it a couple of days and it will be gone.

Most estate agents will take you seriously if you walk in their offices and ask for viewings. I was offered 3 in one day but fortunately the first viewing clinched it.

Best of luck

Steve


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## stevec2x (Mar 24, 2012)

We came out here 6 years ago, for a week, to look for somewhere to rent. The first agency we tried on the high street drove us to look at 4 properties in one afternoon, sorted! But it's much harder to find rental properties these days, however your budget should be enough to do the trick.

Btw, when we booked the week, we never thought to check if it included any "bank holidays"! We were very frustrated to find everything was closed on our first day!

As other people have said, the agents take you much more seriously if you are physically here!


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## jonny512379 (Oct 24, 2017)

thanks for the info guys n girls!
It is good to hear that we will have better luck when we are there.
I have managed to speak to a few agents, but they are saying there is a shortage of rentals at the moment :-( but there are plenty more agents to try yet.
It looks like many of them don't keep their properties on the internet up to date. more there to give people an idea of what type of properties they have.

Can anyone suggest what the average amount i will need to pay to move in?
i.e how much deposit + a months rent + Agents fees?

Jon & Marianne


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## tebo53 (Sep 18, 2014)

jonny512379 said:


> thanks for the info guys n girls!
> It is good to hear that we will have better luck when we are there.
> I have managed to speak to a few agents, but they are saying there is a shortage of rentals at the moment :-( but there are plenty more agents to try yet.
> It looks like many of them don't keep their properties on the internet up to date. more there to give people an idea of what type of properties they have.
> ...


Hi both, 

Months rent for deposit, equal to months rent for agent fee, months rent up front.

Steve


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## jonny512379 (Oct 24, 2017)

tebo53 said:


> Hi both,
> 
> Months rent for deposit, equal to months rent for agent fee, months rent up front.
> 
> Steve


Hello Steve and thanks you for the reply!

that would be great at initial payment 3 x the rent. 4 x would hurt a little too much and reduce my "buffer zone" further than i am comfortable with :-(

I have seen some agents, on facebook, asking for 2 x the rent as deposit. Should i pay this or will they expect me to haggle down to 1 x, as i am not sure if the Spanish custom is to haggle on the rent and deposit (especially if they are asking for 2 x rent for the deposit)? If anyone can advise if haggling is expected, i would be grateful?
I of course don't want to offend, but also don't want to pay over the odds, if they expect haggling?

Thank you very much
Jon & Marianne


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## tebo53 (Sep 18, 2014)

jonny512379 said:


> Hello Steve and thanks you for the reply!
> 
> that would be great at initial payment 3 x the rent. 4 x would hurt a little too much and reduce my "buffer zone" further than i am comfortable with :-(
> 
> ...


Hi,

Those days of haggling with the Spanish are (very) long gone except maybe on the local street markets!

Estate agents have their own rules and won't expect arguments or haggling. They will be able to let any available apartments to the next guy.

3 x rent is the norm but you might have to take the hit if it's the only available apartment. 

Steve


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

According to the law, only one month rent upfront & one month security deposit is required. No more than that.

Payments to the agent as finders or managemnet fees have no legal controls, though.


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## booksurfer (Apr 21, 2018)

jonny512379 said:


> Also if i am there and just walk into their office, will they then take me serious and arrange some viewings, etc? Or will i then get the "mañana" attitude... :-(


The manana attitude is still alive and well, but it's becoming less so. Spain has a much slower pace of life than England, so there's no point getting frustrated about it, it's just the way it is. Unless of course they're in a car...

Your best bet as I think has already been suggested is to go in to the estate agency/rental agency offices out there and ask to see the properties. You might also want to look for a solicitor (abogado) while you're out there to handle the tenancy agreement etc.

I'm a bit out of the loop with regards to long term rentals, but I don't see why the situation would have changed significantly since the last time I looked They'll be less long term and more short term, but there should still be plenty of long term rentals available. The Spanish Property Market is still pretty depressed as far as I understand it.

Also, try and familiarise yourself with Spanish Property Rental laws, it's a weird and wonderful subject and slightly different to that in the UK.

Best of luck in your search.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

booksurfer said:


> I'm a bit out of the loop with regards to long term rentals, but I don't see why the situation would have changed significantly since the last time I looked They'll be less long term and more short term, but there should still be plenty of long term rentals available. The Spanish Property Market is still pretty depressed as far as I understand it.


I'm sure it varies greatly depending on which area you are looking in, but in some places rental properties do seem to be much scarcer than they were just a couple of years ago. I live in a big town and the major rental sites have fewer than 20 properties advertised for long term rental (and some of those are commercial units). Friends of friends rented for several months over this last winter in Torre del Mar - before leaving, they tried to sign up for a new rental for winter 2018/19 but were told everything was already rented up until 2020.


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## jonny512379 (Oct 24, 2017)

Hello again guys n girls

We are in Almunecar, Spain now but are having no luck at all with the local estate agents here or in Nerja. They are saying there is a shortage of rental properties for long term / 12 months. 
We are hoping that in the more rural areas maybe 30 minutes or so drive to the coast will be a better story, but we don't know where to look. Does anyone know where we could try and more important where or who are the estate agents that will cover the areas?
We are looking around costa del sol, costa tropica or costa almeria.

Any help or advise would be great, as we are getting demoralised by over 25 estate agents all telling us the same of absolutely nothing available yet lying on websites that show they have lots available, that they basically can't be bothered to update or remove.

Jon n Marianne


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## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

In our experience there are very few estate agents who are trustworthy. They are not in it for you!! As far as 'negotiating' the rental amouont is concerned, there is one way of reducing the rent with some landlords. Offer to pay 6 months upfront if they reduce the rent by 50 / 100 euros. It's worked for many people we know in our area. Which is the Torrox campo. You might try looking in this area as there are some long term rentals available. A word of warning on Kyero in this area. It is pretty much owned by one estate agent and nearly all the properties advertised either don't exist or are not available. I won't name them as you will discover their name when you search Kyero for around here. I'm afraid they are not very good and I am amazed they didn't go out of business years ago. If you want a more in depth review PM me... Forgot to mention, there are a few Swedish agents in Nerja who are very good so you might want to search for them.


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## booksurfer (Apr 21, 2018)

jonny512379 said:


> We are in Almunecar, Spain now but are having no luck at all with the local estate agents here or in Nerja. They are saying there is a shortage of rental properties for long term / 12 months.


I think it's worth clarifying and familiarising yourself with the different types of rental contracts available in Spain, because there's big differences between them. In essence, one is intended as a permanent residence and one temporary with different tenancy entitlements included in each.

Make sure you make it clear to the estate agents that it is a short-term, seasonal let you're after and not a long-term lease. It's worth having a read through the following article for clarification on the differences:

Distinction between long-term and seasonal contracts

It might be worth taking a look in areas that are not necessarily popular with or well known to the British. This of course is a double edged sword, if you want to be closer to areas with English speakers these are likely to have less longer term lets available and vice versa.

A quick look in my area popped this one up:
https://www.idealista.com/en/inmueble/40217208/


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## cermignano (Feb 9, 2017)

Try asking in towns or villages that you like for a correodor. Ask in the bars


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## Gazeebo (Jan 23, 2015)

Hi,
We have just got back from a reckie in the north of Costa Blanca and were quoted by three agents the terms as being: one month's rent as a deposit, one month's rent up front and the agent's fees in each case were half the month's rent. Hope this helps. Oh, and we were disappointed with our reckie trip as most of the agents were not so good at communication. We only found out about one we would be interested in on the day we departed! So, we are going back for a few days to look at that one and one we had already seen. We'll get there in the end!


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## slpmaria (Nov 11, 2017)

I had good luck on the www.idealista.com website in looking for places. I contacted everyone over email, no problem getting back in touch with me. It does help to be here because there is indeed a shortage of rentals out there, and they get snatched up pretty quickly if they're good. I will also say that it took us 2 months to find a place we actually wanted to live in, but we also had cats and it was hard to find places that allowed pets. Good luck to you!


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## Simon22 (May 22, 2015)

slpmaria said:


> I had good luck on the www.idealista.com website in looking for places. I contacted everyone over email, no problem getting back in touch with me. It does help to be here because there is indeed a shortage of rentals out there, and they get snatched up pretty quickly if they're good. I will also say that it took us 2 months to find a place we actually wanted to live in, but we also had cats and it was hard to find places that allowed pets. Good luck to you!


No problems with pets here, most places allow them and don't ask for any extra deposit.


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## Chica22 (Feb 26, 2010)

jonny512379 said:


> Hello again guys n girls
> 
> We are in Almunecar, Spain now but are having no luck at all with the local estate agents here or in Nerja. They are saying there is a shortage of rental properties for long term / 12 months.
> We are hoping that in the more rural areas maybe 30 minutes or so drive to the coast will be a better story, but we don't know where to look. Does anyone know where we could try and more important where or who are the estate agents that will cover the areas?
> ...


I only have knowledge of the Almeria area, but you may be better looking on the localised Facebook forums and posting on there, eg Mojacar Forum etc.

However in my area it seems long term rentals are limited. A friend of mine who has lived here for over 5 years has recently sold her apartment and intends to buy a larger property. She agreed a date of 23rd May to move out of her apartment and as she could not find a suitable property to purchase arranged a long term rental which has subsequently fallen through!!!! She is now finding it difficult to find either a villa or an apartment to rent long term.


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## Want to be warm! (Apr 2, 2016)

Hi - we have just been through searching for a long term rental using Kyero, Idealsta amongst many many others.

A lot don't reply - I would say we sent off about 80 queries including direct emails to loads Spanish Agents and got about 20 back! It helped that we was open to where we wanted to live - we like so many places!

We went to Costa del Sol for 5 days and had very little luck there, but we wanted to be West of Malaga so limited choice. 

So off to Costa Blanca - North and South... day and half later.

We eventually found a lovely house owned by a family outside of Cartagena on the second last day.

You will find somewhere - just keep plodding on!

Diane


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## jonny512379 (Oct 24, 2017)

thrax said:


> In our experience there are very few estate agents who are trustworthy. They are not in it for you!! As far as 'negotiating' the rental amouont is concerned, there is one way of reducing the rent with some landlords. Offer to pay 6 months upfront if they reduce the rent by 50 / 100 euros. It's worked for many people we know in our area. Which is the Torrox campo. You might try looking in this area as there are some long term rentals available. A word of warning on Kyero in this area. It is pretty much owned by one estate agent and nearly all the properties advertised either don't exist or are not available. I won't name them as you will discover their name when you search Kyero for around here. I'm afraid they are not very good and I am amazed they didn't go out of business years ago. If you want a more in depth review PM me... Forgot to mention, there are a few Swedish agents in Nerja who are very good so you might want to search for them.


Hello and thank you for your reply

after traveling to the Nerja area based on the results on Kyero, we have also come to the conclusion that Kyero is more a fraud or deception site than a useful site with genuine rentals. ALL the listings on there for the area were not available (and had not been for years or maybe ever...). We probably know the estate agent you refer to as most the properties listed there (and on ThinkSpain) were theirs. i have no problems naming the ass holes, as it cost us over £1000 to fly and stay in the area, that was largely based on their listing. if this is against forum rules, i will not name them.
If you would like to PM my with any details about them, i would be at least interested to hear other sly tactics they use...

Thanks Again
Jon


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## jonny512379 (Oct 24, 2017)

Gazeebo said:


> Hi,
> We have just got back from a reckie in the north of Costa Blanca and were quoted by three agents the terms as being: one month's rent as a deposit, one month's rent up front and the agent's fees in each case were half the month's rent. Hope this helps. Oh, and we were disappointed with our reckie trip as most of the agents were not so good at communication. We only found out about one we would be interested in on the day we departed! So, we are going back for a few days to look at that one and one we had already seen. We'll get there in the end!



We found exactly the same in Costa Del Sol and were also planning on keeping looking, but were very lucky on our last day and found moving our search area to Almeria province (Vera area) was much better. On the last day we found a property on idealista that had just become available and was what we were looking for, so we took this. If you are looking for apartments, flats, of houses without pools there are a few available in this area, that you may want to look at?
this is the agents we have used Assetia Real Estate, venta y alquiler de casas en Almería, casas playa de Almería en venta y alquiler and they have a few listings
i hope this helps


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## booksurfer (Apr 21, 2018)

jonny512379 said:


> We found exactly the same in Costa Del Sol and were also planning on keeping looking, but were very lucky on our last day and found moving our search area to Almeria province (Vera area) was much better.


My apartment is just up the road from Vera on the coast at Garrucha, it's a very nice part of Spain with some lovely beach areas and restaurants. Puerta del Rey, Playa de Vera eg. Mojocar is a little further up the coast with quite a large English population.

Vera should only be about 45-60 minute drive from Almeria airport.

It surprises me more people don't look in this area, it really is a lovely part of Spain and one of the hottest driest areas.


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## booksurfer (Apr 21, 2018)

jonny512379 said:


> ...after traveling to the Nerja area based on the results on Kyero, we have also come to the conclusion that Kyero is more a fraud or deception site than a useful site with genuine rentals.


Yeeeep!

_Los mejores agentes inmobiliarios_, the best estate agents are those who don't have websites! Theres half a dozen or more in Garrucha that don't have websites, you just wander in and speak to the person in there.

This is precisely why, whenever anyone asks about apartment rentals, the advice always given is to get out to the area you're interested in and have a wander around and look in the estate agent windows and go speak to them.

Using online websites should only be used as a guide as to what is available and at what kind of price.


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## Me&MrsJones (Sep 25, 2016)

Hi there Jonny and congratulations on trying to get your house in order for when you arrive.

I am in a different situation to you, already being out in Spain and renting, however I am currently in an apartment and seeking more space for our child to play out and have slides and trampolines etc, so, the point being I am looking into the rental market.

Firstly, like the UK, rental is in high demand and typically goes very quickly... well, the good ones do!
My next point is that I too have noticed a 'lazy' response (if any at all) to our interest in any particular rental option. You have to realise that MOST agents are mainly interested in the house sales (resales) and rental only really brings with it a whole host of aggravation for not a lot of money, typically the agent gets 1 months worth of commission compared to anything from 3% upward on a resale. You can quickly appreciate where their focus is.

Now the next point, which I know some will not like me stating, is that a lot of rentals are carried out on 'black money' ie paying cash and away from the tax man. I am not judging, just saying!

For most reasons the biggest part of the rental market is done on word of mouth and by knowing people. Once you have found an area and start to socialise in the local town then the people of the bars and cafes will no doubt direct you in to a direction.

That said, there are a few good agents (rare as rocking horse droppings though!) My last interaction with a very large agent in the Alicante province told me that besides all the usual deposits to be paid, perfectly acceptable, that the tenant then has to pay the agents commission! I queried this... its for the landlord to pay... all the marketing etc is for the landlord right? When I started to question this I suddenly got blocked from communicating any further with them.

There is no easy answer to your question and your monthly allowance should be fine, depending upon where you intend to stay. I am more than happy for you to send a private message and I can try to help further if you like. I cant name sites etc here as I fall foul of the ruling as I understand it )

Good luck in your hunt!


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## Horlics (Sep 27, 2011)

I dunno, these threads about renting always leave me wondering....

Apparently, rental is in high demand and typically goes very quickly. Rentals are done on a cash basis thereby avoiding tax. The tenant pays the commission. (not disagreeing with any of that)

Contrast this with the UK where tax is paid and landlords have to pay a finders fee.

Marry it with the fact that where I own property in the UK the price is stagnant, whilst is Spain it's on the up.

And yet whenever anybody asks whether there's money to be made from owning a rental property in Spain it's a pretty solid "are you a raving lunatic?", well, not quite those words but that's the subtext.


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## jonny512379 (Oct 24, 2017)

Horlics said:


> I dunno, these threads about renting always leave me wondering....
> 
> Apparently, rental is in high demand and typically goes very quickly. Rentals are done on a cash basis thereby avoiding tax. The tenant pays the commission. (not disagreeing with any of that)
> 
> ...


Spain does seem to work a backwards way to the UK, but as you say, it does seems to work.
We looked all over southern Spain (we put 3,000 miles on our little hire car) and there were very few properties available. the best advice we were given was "it will take months to find the right property", so someone is making good money from the rental market... if only Spain could get them to pay their tax now, maybe they would not be short of money either...


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## jonny512379 (Oct 24, 2017)

After much looking and disappointments (and looking at 2 really nasty properties that were closer on being a shed than a villa! Really!!). 

Eventually we saw a new listing on idealista, rang the agents, but got little response (just left our email), so we drove the 200 miles to the estate agents to find a really nice efficient German lady dealt with the rentals. 
The property had just become available owing the the current tenant needing to move out for personal reasons. 
We arranged a viewing for the following day (our last day of a 15 day visit).
I think we were VERY lucky, as the property was almost 100% what we were looking for. It was not in the area we originally thought we would find somewhere, but the area never mattered to us anyhow.

We took it, flew home to the UK and transferred a deposit.
The estate agent says they will get all the bills changed over to our name (internet, electric, water (the landlord is paying for the waste))
We are due to return in 3 weeks to sign the papers and pay the first months rent and the agents fees.
(the total payable to move in was: 1 months rent as deposit, 1 months advanced rent and half a month in agents fees, which we were very happy with)

We are hoping that all goes well from now on.... if it was in the UK i would have no worries, but.... i really hope it all goes through OK still...

FYI the area we found the best value for money in was around Vera and the municipality of Antas, Almeria Province


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## jonny512379 (Oct 24, 2017)

booksurfer said:


> My apartment is just up the road from Vera on the coast at Garrucha, it's a very nice part of Spain with some lovely beach areas and restaurants. Puerta del Rey, Playa de Vera eg. Mojocar is a little further up the coast with quite a large English population.
> 
> Vera should only be about 45-60 minute drive from Almeria airport.
> 
> It surprises me more people don't look in this area, it really is a lovely part of Spain and one of the hottest driest areas.


We were surprised at how nice it was there, and there did seem to be more properties that way too 
I think the property is in Antas. but the estate agents were in Puerto Rey. it looks a lovely area!
We did stay the night in Mojocar, and found it very nice (and as you say there seemed more British there than in some parts of the UK  )


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