What they don't tell you when you buy a new home in Spain

Like many other hundreds of thousands of North Europeans, we have been smitten by the prospect of owning a second home in the sun in Spain.

We were attracted buy the almost year round sun, the cheaper living and the relaxed lifestyle that we just don’t have in the UK. Many thousands of ex UK residents have sold up and moved across and changed how they live with the expectation of a better and a longer life.

Like many, we booked ourselves on an inspection trip to see what was on offer and at what price. We had already had two trips across previously away from any salesmen to decide on the area, prior to the inspection trip. We had now decided we were going to buy, providing a suitable property was shown to us.

This all happened over two years ago now, amiss of a hug increase of property prices and a shortage of good homes. But of course things do change and now on reflection we can comment on things that were not discussed by the salesmen on our inspection trip and what we learnt on the way.

1/ Completion Date.

We already had an idea to ignore any completion dates and add at least 6 months to what is quoted. However many who bought in the same complex as us had sold up at home and had no option but to rent in Spain for 7 months after the quoted date. No one informed them that it would be this late and during the build the agents claimed everything was on schedule.

2/ Extra Legal and Administration Costs.

We were given a ballpark figure that a further 10% on top of the purchase price would be needed to cover purchase tax and other legal and administration costs. We learned soon after signing that this could be a gross understatement. Many previous buyers had received unexpected bills on their doormats for administration costs and extra visits needed to get legal papers etc. We were lucky and employed a Spanish solicitor to do all this for us and it cost only 1% of the total cost. This included signing for the house in our absence, taking care of keys etc. They were excellent. Of courses we still had the 7% purchase tax to pay still.

3/ Crime Just after taking Ownership

There is a real issue with crime from property in Spain in certain areas, but it especially high with new properties. Most who buy think about adding security grill etc as secondary importance to say furniture, rather than a necessity. However in the Torrevieja area, just about without exception every new development suffers from crime until all the residents get security grills on and more people start moving in and monitoring workmen and strangers. Again, anyone selling property never mentions the cost of the grills and how important it is to ensure your home is secure before you anything of value in it. It would also be wise to get home and contents insurance too.

Often the empty houses within the complexes give access to the roofs of those who live there or holiday there. It is worth noting that most of the crime on our complex has occurred whilst someone was holidaying or living there. The burglars are more interest in credit cards, passports and jewellery etc, things that you would only have if you were staying there.

Unfortunately in a few cases, some people who had intended to live in Spain have returned home because of the crime and other issues. However if they had known before hand and had protected themselves from this, they may have still been in the sunshine. If you intend to move out there or buy a holiday home, consider buying a used home where the crime will have settled and security grills in place and no extra legal costs.

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