Spain House Build - Land Bought

[Martynt74]

Holiday homes in spain can make some decent money. We try to get out there every year and were spending £3-6k a week on a place.

Haha i think that might be slightly over where we'd be!

I'm thinking i could get 2 units similar to this.

Two Bedroom Log Cabin With Large Veranda Edward / 37 M2 / 6 X 13 M / 70 MM - Casetas de Jardin 24

The Edward log cabin is nearly 40 m2 in size and is ideal for use as a holiday lodge, large camping house, garden guest house, office or as ancillary living space to your existing home. The standard cabin comes with massive 70mm wall logs, extra thick 28 mm floor boards, double-glazed doors and...

casetasdejardin24.es

As long as they're well insulated it shouldn't get too hot in summer/cold in winter and would provide a nice country break for people.

Probably aim for a brick build though. Wood is expensive so probably cheaper out of brick!

 

[mattyg]

When we do our Euro trip. we move around and usually stay in 2 or 3 different villas. Theres good money to be made for sure.

We stayed in one last year. Looked like a mafia house. Stunning location. The owners had a small cabin next door which they moved into when renting their home. Not an ideal setup. But they were using that rental income to fund another villa purchase to rent out...

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Haha i think that might be slightly over where we'd be!

I'm thinking i could get 2 units similar to this.

Two Bedroom Log Cabin With Large Veranda Edward / 37 M2 / 6 X 13 M / 70 MM - Casetas de Jardin 24

The Edward log cabin is nearly 40 m2 in size and is ideal for use as a holiday lodge, large camping house, garden guest house, office or as ancillary living space to your existing home. The standard cabin comes with massive 70mm wall logs, extra thick 28 mm floor boards, double-glazed doors and...

casetasdejardin24.es

As long as they're well insulated it shouldn't get too hot in summer/cold in winter and would provide a nice country break for people.

Probably aim for a brick build though. Wood is expensive so probably cheaper out of brick!

Concrete base then you would build one if them in 1 day and another to roof them fully.
Would probably need 2 people with 70mm logs

 

[Martynt74]

Concrete base then you would build one if them in 1 day and another to roof them fully.
Would probably need 2 people with 70mm logs

Yeah exactly, it's a very tempting proposition. Although being in a place to have ~€70k cash is another matter given how much we need to spend at the moment!

Interestingly. It's estimated that 1acre of land can produce 800 bottles of wine. As a lover of Primitivo, and with Syrah not being as popular here in Spain yet apparently growing in popularity. I wonder if i could import some old Shiraz Vines and make some decent wine I need to get on a few wine tours and find an owner who can speak good English and pick their brains on the possibilities of a small production facility.

 

[Jimbeam3678]

Nothing to add to this thread, apart from I love reading the updates and I hope you keep the updates coming when the building starts!

 

[Martynt74]

Nothing to add to this thread, apart from I love reading the updates and I hope you keep the updates coming when the building starts!

Yeah 100%. I imagine there'll be quite a lull from now as it's just going to be waiting on the architect and then the council planning office.

Maybe there'll be some fun updates if i manage to buy a digger Although my wife has decided she doesn't like the rental we've found from March to August, and so keeps looking further afield.

 

[petridish]

I've seen your threads around but not read them in detail so forgive me if it's been asked before, how are you finding it discussing important details in Spanish?

Not doubting your language skills more projecting that if it was me I'd end up with 14 toilets in the lounge and an oven in the bedroom due to a small slip up or something

 

[Martynt74]

I've seen your threads around but not read them in detail so forgive me if it's been asked before, how are you finding it discussing important details in Spanish?

Not doubting your language skills more projecting that if it was me I'd end up with 14 toilets in the lounge and an oven in the bedroom due to a small slip up or something

Haha luckily our estate agent is english but speaks Spanish.

The builder is also capable of good English but anything he doesn’t understand through me then the agent rephrases for me!

I think they biggest issue the builder has is my wife’s Mancunian accent

 

[petridish]

Haha luckily our estate agent is english but speaks Spanish.

The builder is also capable of good English but anything he doesn’t understand through me then the agent rephrases for me!

I think they biggest issue the builder has is my wife’s Mancunian accent

Not as daunting as I thought then. At least it's only Mancunian, I imagine there are much harder accents for Spaniards to follow!

Living abroad and building my own house are two things on the bucket list so I'll be following with interest for sure.

 

[Martynt74]

Nah, maybe it would be worse in some situations, but i think we've found good people. Albeit definitely not as cheap as other options. Obviously no guarantee of an issue free process, but we're as confident as we can hope to be.

 

[Martynt74]

Well still waiting for planning permission to even be submitted. It was meant to be last week, then something popped up which caused concern with the agent at the planning office, then the builder had to speak to the bank manager as it related to how costs are recorded on the planning application and what the bank would accept as the costs for mortgage purposes.

We've now got a meeting later today, but all being well it'll be submitted tomorrow!

Final plans below

House and pool. We've added an outdoor toilet. Seems an absurd cost but beats having to walk into the house when wet. Also a room for pool supplies/pump which is otherwise a bit of an ugly plastic unit

Garage

Layout/Orientation

 

[jpaul]

so what are the mortage rates & term like in Spain ?

The new pool house proximity to pool is not too imposing/shadows, pump needs to be close I guess, or, face doors away from pool, too
- could still give space for a partially covered bbq/pizza oven placement,
... but I guess you get into analysis paralysis on such designs.


Did your house modifications from the original plan ultimately add much cost : top stagger, but, kept window count,
was adding any windows on the east, out, from a structural perspective say like more rsj's

 

[Martynt74]

so what are the mortage rates & term like in Spain ?

The new pool house proximity to pool is not too imposing/shadows, pump needs to be close I guess, or, face doors away from pool, too
- could still give space for a partially covered bbq/pizza oven placement,
... but I guess you get into analysis paralysis on such designs.


Did your house modifications from the original plan ultimately add much cost : top stagger, but, kept window count,
was adding any windows on the east, out, from a structural perspective say like more rsj's

Mortgages are a bit weird. 1 it's much more limited than the UK, although that could be our situation. Banks tend to not like 3 things

Non Spanish Citizens
Property on Rustic Land
Self Builds

Guess who's ticking all 3 boxes!


The main difference to the UK are that they're generally entered into for the life of the mortgage with less tendency to jump around every 2-5years. Generally it makes sense to fix for the duration, and you can get around 3% on a 20yr fix. I'm eyeing up a Euribor +0.7% deal at the moment. Although might go with a fixed and then tracker as they can generally customise a rate for what you want rather than the UK where you just choose what is available.

The other difference is they use a mortgage as a way to blackmail you into other products. Mainly various insurances/investments where you can reduce the mortgage rate by having more products. I need to do some calculations to see whether that's worthwhile or not.

 

[Martynt74]

Wooohooo, and confirmation planning is submitted

 

[Martynt74]

There does also seem to be some discrepancy around whether we can get the full 80% mortgage which is reserved for Spanish Tax Residents. It's not usual for foreigners, but given we're both working here and paying into the Spanish system we might get the option.

We don't particularly need it, but having the option of another €35k would be nice and allow us to not have to hold back on a few things. Especially more of the landscaping side of things.

 

[Martynt74]

My wife is keen on being super efficient and planning pretty early. So that we're not causing any delays as we get to it with decisions. She also knows the value of having a design early so you get loads of time to think about it.

As such, we've got our kitchen pretty much designed. I'm half tempted to import from DIY Kitchens because of how crazy expensive everything is here!

We've also settled on the floor tiles (ignore they're used on the walls here!)

 

[Richie]

Whats the idea of the cupboard on the floor under the bar bit?

 

[Martynt74]

Whats the idea of the cupboard on the floor under the bar bit?

I shall reply with question mark. My wife saw something similar in a showroom and it looks pretty nice. It just looks awful in that render!

 

[Richie]

I can imagine it getting in the way for cleaning and trapping dirt and other crap in the corners.... Showroom displays don't always translate to practical settings.

 

[Martynt74]

I can imagine it getting in the way for cleaning and trapping dirt and other crap in the corners.... Showroom displays don't always translate to practical settings.

Possibly. It did sit flush with the floor so it doesn't really add much more dirt trapping than it being completely open (other than a surface to wipe rather than mop)

I'm still pushing for a bigger island, so that's not fully agreed on yet!