SELECTING THE TYPE OF ACCOMMODATION

Apartments

An apartment offers easy living in secure surroundings. Apartments are always built to a high standard with outside balconies included. Some economy flats exist where low cost living is a priority in large cities or for holiday rental. Apartments are cheap, easy to resell but often attract high community charges. Living in an apartment will probably mean Spanish neighbours. Nice people they may well be, but they tend to be noisy and have a different ‘body clock’ to other nationalities. Normal behaviour is to rise late, have lunch at 14.00, an evening meal at 21.00 and go to bed at midnight or after. Family discussion is often loud, very loud, Spanish voices having a unique ability to penetrate all bricks and mortar.

Linked, terraced and town houses

Some of the most attractive new designs are for linked and terraced houses. These houses are on two levels with a third floor roof utilised as a solarium. They too are cheap and easy to resell, but lack privacy. Town houses are available new, but can also be older, restored, traditional properties in the narrow streets of a Spanish town where car parking is a problem.

Corner properties

Corner housing is mostly found in a duplex design, but can also apply to single level homes. It is a cheap form of building having few external walls. Services, although individual to each home, do have some common elements. Corner duplexes are noisy, but they mainly function as holiday homes, with neighbours rarely meeting.

Detached

These properties offer privacy at the expense of security. They can be expensive. Built to an individual design they are sometimes perched precariously on hillsides, so much so that insurance companies charge a premium for cover. Windswept plots make dust a perpetual irritant. Even with some disadvantages a detached property is desirable, particularly one that overlooks the sea or the mountains or even a lush green golf course.

Traditional homes

Older Spanish properties exist. In most cases they have been modernised or rebuilt. In the country they are called fincas. In the town they are simply called town houses.

A restored town house is in many respects an ideal property since it gives easy access to a town with the benefits of living in new modern surroundings. Found in the narrow streets of small towns and villages these properties have a number of cool, shady rooms. Built on a slope they often have several floors, balconies and internal courtyards.

But the classic is afinca rustica, located in the country. It is where dreams are made. It can be a labour of love and a marriage of considerable skill, determination and money to rebuild an old, crumbling building and turn it into an individual property of pride and charm. Renovating a property, or indeed maintaining it, demands very good DIY skills. Living in a rural location needs patience, tolerance and enthusiasm.

New or resale?

Most people prefer to buy a new property. It can be good value. In some parts of Spain, an off-plan property is the only type available. It is rather like buying a car. Why buy second hand if you can buy new? A resale property is slightly more expensive: drives have been laid, gardens are mature and often furniture and fittings are included. A resale property built within the last ten years will still carry a guarantee.