Yep. I was looking at a house and was told I couldn’t put a shed on the plot I was interested in because the local mayor was also in prison and there was a huge backlog investigating prior approvals.
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Relocation to Spain Experience
- Thread starter Martynt74
- Start date
Yep. I was looking at a house and was told I couldn’t put a shed on the plot I was interested in because the local mayor was also in prison and there was a huge backlog investigating prior approvals.
This week has pretty much cemented us going for a new build, unless we can find a resale which has been built in the last few years and we can see the building documents.
It's down to 10C outside now and not too bad if you're in the sun, however in my current office it's absolutely freezing. The AC units will heat too, but the house just loses the heat as quick as you can warm it up it seems. From one build, it's literally just a single skin brick wall with render on the outside and plaster on the inside. Even the worst of new builds will at least have insulation on the internal side of a single skin brickwork.
I question how much worse it'll get over the next few months!
Saturday we went to view a plot. The agent mentioned they'd sold a house to a woman years ago, and because she didn't want any neighbours, she proceeded to buy up all the available plots around her. She then sold up and moved back to the UK but still owns this land. We checked it out and love where it is, however it's 50,000m2
It's down to 10C outside now and not too bad if you're in the sun, however in my current office it's absolutely freezing. The AC units will heat too, but the house just loses the heat as quick as you can warm it up it seems. From one build, it's literally just a single skin brick wall with render on the outside and plaster on the inside. Even the worst of new builds will at least have insulation on the internal side of a single skin brickwork.
I question how much worse it'll get over the next few months!
Saturday we went to view a plot. The agent mentioned they'd sold a house to a woman years ago, and because she didn't want any neighbours, she proceeded to buy up all the available plots around her. She then sold up and moved back to the UK but still owns this land. We checked it out and love where it is, however it's 50,000m2
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How much electricity(
Honestly i'm not sure, the owners were meant to send me an invoice at the end of October but not seen anything yet.
Central heating seems to be powered by butane bottles, but we've not worked out how to use that! Currently have a fire on but it doesn't reach my office.
Ever have those moments where you think, "**** me i'm a genius"?
If i was to buy the 50,000m2 plot mentioned about, we could then buy something like this to put on the plot. Then either live it in during the build and rent it out, or keep it for ourselves and no longer need to build a garage for my home office
The rent over ~12-18 months wouldn't be far off covering the cost of the unit, and then once the house is finished it would be a decent rental income.
They do also do a nicer option which is a bit bigger and much better insulated.
If i was to buy the 50,000m2 plot mentioned about, we could then buy something like this to put on the plot. Then either live it in during the build and rent it out, or keep it for ourselves and no longer need to build a garage for my home office
Casa de madera para vivir PREMIUM (Aislada PLUS, 34 mm + revestimiento), 10.5x4.5 m, 47 m²
Casa de madera para vivir PREMIUM (Aislada PLUS, 34 mm + revestimiento), 10.5x4.5 m, 47 m² | Nuestra preciosa casa de jardín PREMIUM es muy apreciada por los cl
www.pineca.es
The rent over ~12-18 months wouldn't be far off covering the cost of the unit, and then once the house is finished it would be a decent rental income.
They do also do a nicer option which is a bit bigger and much better insulated.
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Man of Honour
Hang on, what? Have you got a couple of million in the bank or something?
Haha I wish, but have around £130k from the house sale.
Santander offer 5.25% and it’s paid monthly.
I have 85k in that and then the rest in Chip which is 4.75%
Man of Honour
Nice, you're lucky if you get get 2.8% here!
Oh yeah. Same in Spain. I think N26 gives 2.25%
I’ve taken the risk to leave the cash in the UK earning interest although not sure if that’ll bite me given the EUR/GBP pairing isn’t moving in the right directing!
I’m just hoping it moves less than the corresponding interest rates.
Man of Honour
Just keep an eye on getting taxed on it as global "earnings"
I still have 9k in my UK bank that I should probably move at some point.
I still have 9k in my UK bank that I should probably move at some point.
Ooh yeah good point. Hadn't even thought of that.
Got a response on the land for sale. It's actually (only) 40,000m2 rather than 50 as i'd thought. It's split into 3 plots.
19800
5000
15000
If we took the big one it'd be around €2.50/m2, but if buying it all would come down to €2/m2 so around £80k. Its a pretty great price considering what some other plots are going for. There's another builder we're meeting today who's just bought a pile of plots not far from where we currently are, planning is all approved for them and whilst they're priced at the upper end of build prices, it'll be interesting to have a chat if it means we're in by next Summer. Either way i think we should have a decision one way or another soon.
That still seems insanely excessive. I accept they're not linear, but even if you look at a boiler replacement costing 3-4k, that should last 15-20+ years, so that works out about 250 a year. Chuck in a 15k kitchen every 20 years is 750 a year, 10k on a bathroom refit makes that 500 a year. So you're looking at 1500 a year for those major rooms. On a half a mil house that's suggesting maintenance costs of 10-20k a year...
Soldato
I would have to ramp up my self control if I moved to Spain, from my Camino 2019 not sure if still this cheap ?
I would have to ramp up my self control if I moved to Spain, from my Camino 2019 not sure if still this cheap ?
Yeah, wine is cheap, although my wife is more discerning than me and whilst i will enjoy nice wine a lot more, i'll also drink anything (current glass included). The local Bodega is very good though. It's not cheap but the wine is as good as any i've tasted in Spain.
What was nice is that if you sign up for a running event in the UK you maybe get a bottle of water at the finish. Here i did a local 10km and got a "goodby bag". It contained a bottle of red wine
Met the builder of the house last week with the big underbuild today. He showed us another plot in a nice location he could do the same house for the same price and would only be 8 months to completion. He could also make the basement taller so i could floor/board the ceiling and not be limited on Space.
The plot was near a quarry and you could hear some noises from there and see some dust when the wind picked up. The benefits being it's close enough to town to have mains drinking water which we wouldn't get in most places. Downside being it's "only" a 9000m2 plot. This can be built on though as the town is classed as Murcia which has looser restrictions.
I think we're getting closer to a final decision now. We prefer the original builder, but that would be 15 months away for our final build. It would also be around €70k more expensive than the above which is sizeable enough to raise questions.
So today was also another day in the series of "the joys of Spanish beaurocracy". I applied for my wifes Residency appointment through a company a while back, all this time i've asked them for the forms so i can pay the taxes. They finally sent them last night and then at 11am today i get a text to say the appointment is tomorrow at midday. So i rush to the estate agents to ask them to print the forms i need to pay the fees. Then find the local bank has decided to shut so head to another town. Then one bank (BBVA) doesn't do it on that day so go to another (Sabadell). Wait in a queue for 30 minutes whilst the single teller deals with a women. Then get asked for my NIE. This is a "foreigner ID number" and is used for most things. I know the number which is usually enough, but on this occasion i need the piece of paper so they can take a photocopy.
I say i'll go home and get it, however it's now 1:30 and they stop accepting cash at 2pm. He asked if i knew anyone who could pay on my behalf and looked towards another customer, but my Spanish isn't at that level yet! So now tomorrow i hope i can get it paid and we get my wifes Residency. That's a huge step forward as she can then register for the doctors and start to be tested for disability parking badge.
We bought a house over in Spain nearly 20 years ago .
Hate the place (not Spain, the place i bought the house).
Its about 10 miles outside of a town called El Perello , Tarragona , at first thought a house in the middle of nowhere with 16 acres of land would be awesome grow my own vines and olives etc live self sufficient.
the 16 acres is mostly tick infested scrub grass with rocks that are perfectly hidden for twisting your ankle.
The only thing is ever time i go back over there i spend half the time doing maintenance,weeding cutting back the scrub and trees , painting , varnishing ,finding the latest leak in the roof .
For some reason even though the land is virtually a baron moonscape the forest surrounding my house grows like mad .(its my responsibility to make sure theres a fire break between house and trees)
The olive groves and grape vines are long overgrown as that is back braking work (dont drink wine anyway so that was pointless and get my olive oil for 5 euro from mercadona).
Did have a nice veggie patch going till the local wild Boar found it.
if the Missus didnt love the place i would have flogged it years ago
and Mosquitos hate me with vengeance dont touch the missus or kids or grandkids but get me all the time and now we have Tiger mosi's which are even worse.
Hate the place (not Spain, the place i bought the house).
Its about 10 miles outside of a town called El Perello , Tarragona , at first thought a house in the middle of nowhere with 16 acres of land would be awesome grow my own vines and olives etc live self sufficient.
the 16 acres is mostly tick infested scrub grass with rocks that are perfectly hidden for twisting your ankle.
The only thing is ever time i go back over there i spend half the time doing maintenance,weeding cutting back the scrub and trees , painting , varnishing ,finding the latest leak in the roof .
For some reason even though the land is virtually a baron moonscape the forest surrounding my house grows like mad .(its my responsibility to make sure theres a fire break between house and trees)
The olive groves and grape vines are long overgrown as that is back braking work (dont drink wine anyway so that was pointless and get my olive oil for 5 euro from mercadona).
Did have a nice veggie patch going till the local wild Boar found it.
if the Missus didnt love the place i would have flogged it years ago
and Mosquitos hate me with vengeance dont touch the missus or kids or grandkids but get me all the time and now we have Tiger mosi's which are even worse.
Man of Honour
Alright Victor Meldrew
I enjoyed reading that though, thanks!hehe . i know just wanted to go over there relax next to the pool with my cans of mercadona clasica cheapo lager ,of course that never happened , i dug a huge 20x15 hole in the ground that is virtually concrete only for the local inspector to say fill it in this is a national park , nazi wouldnt even take a bribe.Alright Victor Meldrew
Absolutely wounded that no bribe was an option! 16 acres is a heck of a lot of land. I thought we were buying a lot at ~10! Sounds like my ideal place though! My plan is to get olive/almond trees and then get a local farmer to attend to them. Best of both worlds
Big few days. Friday my wife got her residency. Was relatively straight forward. We then walked around Alicante for some food. Had millions of options and yet ended up in Burger King! My wifes not been feeling great recently and has been struggling to eat due to a hernia in her oesophegus. She's also been hit by a few bugs after eating which we wonder if it's down to water so decided BK was likely a safe risk free choice.
Speaking to the company who we used for her residency, getting me added should be an easy process. I just need to get a digital certificate and then we complete a form at the local town hall to identify me as her dependant. Sounds like easy process, but we'll see!
Today we on the Padron (council register) for our local town. This means we can register for the local doctors etc, as well as get them to update my status as above.
House plans are nearing completion. Today they got made a lot simpler as the builder who makes the house with a big underbuild has said that he'll only build on land that he owns, rather than us buying the plot and then building ourselves. As he has no available plots which suit us, removing him from the equation makes things easy!
This is the render of the house we're likely to go with and floorplan. Only variations are that we've flipped it, so that the master suite is on the left. Also moving the front door to the other side of the house rather than inline with the terrace and making the utility room bigger.
This is the floorplan
It's a more modern design that what we'd have preferred, but to get to build a house we want internally and with decent building materials it's a compromise we're happy to have. There are things we can do outside to make it less clinical.
Speaking to the company who we used for her residency, getting me added should be an easy process. I just need to get a digital certificate and then we complete a form at the local town hall to identify me as her dependant. Sounds like easy process, but we'll see!
Today we on the Padron (council register) for our local town. This means we can register for the local doctors etc, as well as get them to update my status as above.
House plans are nearing completion. Today they got made a lot simpler as the builder who makes the house with a big underbuild has said that he'll only build on land that he owns, rather than us buying the plot and then building ourselves. As he has no available plots which suit us, removing him from the equation makes things easy!
This is the render of the house we're likely to go with and floorplan. Only variations are that we've flipped it, so that the master suite is on the left. Also moving the front door to the other side of the house rather than inline with the terrace and making the utility room bigger.
This is the floorplan
It's a more modern design that what we'd have preferred, but to get to build a house we want internally and with decent building materials it's a compromise we're happy to have. There are things we can do outside to make it less clinical.
