When you have decided that Spain is the Country for you, and a wonderful country it is, steeped with tradition, great climate and being just over 2 hours flight away from the UK, why wouldn´t you choose it.

Spain is unbeatable for a heathly lifestyle, do as the locals do, outside living is the way to go. Lots of fresh clean air, fresh food, and if you want the Blue flag beaches of the Mediteranean, there too many to choose from, inland, vineyards, olive, lemon & orange groves, are a lovely sight and smell.

Whether you are looking for that traditional finca, a rural plot of land to build yur dream house, a villa or even an apartment we are here to help.

We can hold you hand throught the whole buying process, & point you in the right direction for legal advice, mortgages , insurance, security, getting your NIE and services connected. We will help as much as possible , to make it as stress free as we can. Please check out our property search for your Ideal home in the sun.

Apartments from 84.000,00€ priced at July 2006

* See what properties we have for sale by using the search opposite.

Buying in spain

If you come to spain with the intention of buying a property, you will have to pay a holding deposit on it to make sure nobody else can buy the property, this is usually 3000€ and is not refundable, so if you need a mortgage make sure it is possible to get one before you part with any cash. You will also need to obtain an NIE number (numero de identificacion de extranjeros). A legal advisor can offer advice and arrange these things for you for a small fee.

You will need to produce the following documents when applying for a spanish mortgage:

• employed status
• P60
• last 3 months payslips
• bank accounts statements

Self employed must provide business accounts (balance, profit,loss)

• Last months summary
• bank account statements

To open an account

• full postal address
• contact telephone number
• copy of passport

You should always consult a spanish lawyer and tax advisor before purchasing a property or applying for a spanish mortgage.

When a property is purchased, you will need to pay IVA (tax) and stamp duty, the rate you pay depends on the property you buy, eg. On a new property you would pay 7% IVA and 1% stamp duty, On a re-sale property you would pay 7% transfer tax, and on plots of land or commercial property 16% IVA + 1% stamp duty. If you take out a spanish mortgage you will be charged 1% for setup fees.

Buying off plan

Buying off plan means reserving a property on a development that is not constructed or finished yet. These properties are usually cheaper than buying a re-sale but you don't know exactly what your property will look like when it is finished, you will only have a show house and floor plans to go buy.

This type of property is always very popular with investors as they don't need to like the house they are buying and they will probably only ever step foot in it once ,if at all. These properties are very good for rental as they will be brand new and can sometimes be bought fully furnished with everything including the curtains and cutlery or a furniture pack can be purchased for around 5000€ including a leather sofa and everything else you would need.

Often by the time the property is actually built it will have gone up in value by 10-20% or even more, this is why buying off plan is so popular. When the properties first enter the market as a set of drawings the price will be at its lowest. Buying at this price ensures optimum increase on the value of the property when the purchaser comes to sell. Many dedicated investors will sell before the building is even complete, as all of the properties will have been sold at the lowest price and people can only buy them at this new higher value, these people only buy to make a quick profit, this is known as flipping a property. Some investors however keep the property and rent it out, if they have taken a mortgage out on the property then the repayments can usually be covered by the rental. So in 10 years time, the property will have doubled in value, they will still own it and their mortgage will be well on its way to being payed off with little input from the owner themselves.

These properties are also attractive to people who wish to buy a holiday home, they are usually a very reasonable price and can sometimes be customised more to the buyers specification, these developments are also usually built in sought after areas where there is more demand for property, so people can get their foot on the Spanish property ladder without having to shell out a lump sum of cash as they would have to with a re-sale property. The approximate build time for most off plan properties is around 12-18 months and although this may seem like a long wait, it gives the purchaser more time to come up with the money as it will be payed in installments and at the end the property will be worth more then the purchaser has actually paid for it.

Excellent mortgage rates, English speaking banks and many developers offering easy buy payment schemes will keep the off plan property market booming for a long time to come.