PROS AND CONS OF EACH HOUSE TYPE

Apartment

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 2 pm, an evening meal at 9 pm and go to bed at midnight or after. Family discussion can be 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 (see Figure 3). 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 be older reformed 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(see Figure 4). 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 their main function is holiday homes, with neighbours rarely meeting. (See Figure 5) for a duplex corner – details of the property can be found in the appendices.)

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. However 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 and called a reformed house. In the country they are called fincas. In the town they are simply town houses.

A reformed 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 invisible from the street.

But the classic is a finca rustica, located in the country. It is where dreams are made. It can be a labour of love, together with considerable skill, determination and money in order to rebuild an old crumbling building into an individual, personalised 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 to deal with a lack of utility supplies.

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 (see Figure 6 for an example of an off-plan apartment). It is rather like buying a car. Why buy secondhand if you can buy new? A resale property is slightly more expensive, after all the drives have been laid, gardens are mature and it often comes with furniture and fittings. A resale property built within the last ten years will still carry a guarantee.

Mention should be made at this stage of Spain’s peculiar debt laws where the debt is on a property and not a person. Any outstanding property debt occurred by the previous owner is automatically carried over to a new owner. The complexities of this are explained later.

WHICH DIRECTION?

There is a bay at Calpe with a hilly headland jutting out eastwards to sea. Houses built on this hill face north. They are cold as they get little direct sun. Individual houses, a terraced row, or apartments facing north all suffer from the same fate – little sun in the winter months and consequently cold interiors. These properties are sold not by referring to any direction, but by saying ‘cool in summer’. For year round living it is better to choose a property facing south.

Or is it? Many Brits, starved of UK sun, usually want a property which faces south. They feel if they are going to move to the sun they must be in the sun. This can be wrong. Copy the Spanish, and let’s face it, they have a lot of experience of living in the sun, and choose east-facing. If the main rooms of the property face the morning sun the living area will not be flooded with midday heat. An alternative would be to purchase a property with a westerly orientation. Enjoy the late afternoon sunshine and spectacular sunsets but once more the living area will never be subjected to direct midday sun.

A compass is a handy tool when viewing properties for direction is rarely stated in agents’ literature. East, west or south but not north, for north-facing properties are the last to sell, often attracting discounts or special offers in order to complete the transaction.

AGICAL HOUSING INGREDIENTS

What do we really want when buying a Spanish home? Is it a property close to the sea with easy access to the countryside, a town and an airport? Is it to be new, white, set in a large plot of land? Do restaurants, pubs, hospitals, doctors and dentists have to be close by? Are neighbours only to be British, Irish and the rather pleasant Dutch?

No, not really! What we do is to set a number of priorities, which are usually the price, the number of bedrooms, the type of house and the location. Then we look for position and character.

Position means location. Overlooking orange and lemon groves! Close to a pine filled ravine! At the edge of purple hills! Next to a marina! More simply it can be exotic gardens or a house that has obviously been well loved and cared for. Location is that little bit extra which makes a property highly desirable – and probably that little bit more expensive. It is no good buying a large detached property surrounded by cheap flats. It will just lose value. A property at the end of a street, facing a commercial centre will suffer the same fate. A property in the middle of a row of similar houses has nothing to commend it. Future resale values are dependent on the general ambience of the area.

Character is a personal thing, something that makes a property just that little bit different. Is it an individual detached property that has a number of unique features? How about porches, terraces for sitting in the sun and enjoying a glass of wine? Or a swimming pool perhaps? Large, white, airy rooms with walls covered in colourful pictures. Whatever it is, in the eye of the beholder it is that something special that makes a house a desirable home to live in.

WHAT DO PEOPLE REALLY BUY?

People moving to Spain for the first time often purchase a new property near the coast, sold by an international property company of some repute, giving a sense of security in a country where the customs and laws are unfamiliar to the purchaser. There may well be an 18-month wait for the property, which can be built to standard or individual design and is usually located on an urbanisation. This type of purchase is simple, with no debt issues to worry about. The property company is on hand to deal with any outstanding problems.

In many parts of the country a resale property is a common purchase. Slightly older properties in mature areas, where new buildings are not so prevalent, are an attractive proposition. Away from the concrete, the coastal hustle and bustle. People have in mind life in a rural town, or on an individual plot avoiding the disadvantages of an urbanisation. They seek to blend into Spain.

Discerning buyers look for something unique, something different. They are in the minority. They know the country well. They understand its culture, customs and procedures. They may have lived in Spain for a few years or may be buying a second house inland. Buying a plot of land, a ruin for renovation, or perhaps building your own, are all possibilities.