Spanish Property in Spain

So you have come to the decision that you want to buy a property in Spain. Okay, now the decision has been made – what’s the next step? Ah – look on the Internet, enquire about properties that look similar to what you had in mind, and send enquiries to as many agents as you can find requesting details and brochures. Two weeks later you are knee deep in property details and what started as a simple decision is now turning into the most indecisive time of your life. Why? Information overload.

There are literally thousands of properties available all over Spain – every type of property in Spain that you can think of, so you really need to take a step back and think about the exact type of property and location that will 'tick all your boxes'. The three most important considerations are:

1. Location
2. The right type of property
3. The use of the property (see Buying the right property)

Sometimes an agent may offer you a property that suits your basic requirements but is not something you would have chosen for yourself. Leave your options open - if there are some aspects that you like, it is often worth looking at anyway. It will give you food for thought and help in the selection process. You may even find you love it, and a completely different type of property or location has been bought to your attention. Very rarely have people picked a property from the internet, come over and bought it!

What you think you want is often not what you want. It happens time and time again – people’s requirements change once they look around. For instance, last week I had 10 properties lined up for viewing with a client – all 3 bed villas with pools in and around Denia. He wanted a spacious house, but wasn’t concerned about the plot size as he said he wanted the outside area to be ‘low maintenance’. After 3 days here, he realised that outside space was very important to him and his criteria changed. In instances such as these where you have a fixed budget, compromise will often have to be made – bigger plots mean bigger prices!

You wanted a front line villa – okay, for those with a high budget – but ask the agent if you can sit on the terrace at night, it may be perfect by day but at night all you see is pitch black.

As an estate agent here in Spain, I see the same mistakes made time and time again which can can amount to considerable cost to the purchaser. I'm not referring only to the purchase itself, it's also the viewing process where errors are made. (see Viewing property in Spain).