spain

Useful links and independent information about the Spanish property market

You're interested in buying or renting a property in Spain and ..

• You don't live in Spain or
• Spanish isn't your first language and
• You want balanced and impartial advice rather than a sales-pitch

Overseas buyers are different - Spanish property portals don't work unless you already live in Spain.

Most property markets have a handful of portals which serve the local population. In Spain, the big three are Fotocasa, Idealista and Expocasa

region of South-East Buy Costa Calida, Buy Costa Blanca or in the Costa del Sol Sawsana Real Estate in  Marbella.

Even though they have each translated their web sites into English, the problem isn't just one of language

Overseas buyers have different requirements, different levels of local knowledge, different expectations and different complications 'at home' to take into consideration. For example ..

• When purchasing a home in Spain which will be mainly used for family holidays, proximity to an international airport will be a fundamental requirement to an overseas buyer (because travel time and convenience will make or break the usefulness of the property).
  
• A family relocating to Spain will need to know about local schools before even thinking about possible houses on the market (because the education of their children will be right at the top of their list of life priorities).
  
• A couple retiring to Spain for all or part of the year will be heavily influenced in their choice of location by seasonal weather trends (because too hot, too cold, too wet or too dry will have a large impact on them enjoying life.)
  
• Buyers concerned about capital growth will need some hard facts about market trends and historical performance before even considering Spain as an investment option (because there are so many new property markets opening up to foreign investors).

There are many such requirements, but these demonstrate that overseas purchasers need some basic questions answered before even considering purchasing property in Spain.

Despite this need for more detailed and different information, most of it isn't readily available. Some of it is available only in Spanish, or in summary form when detail is essential, or is available but unreliable, or just doesn't exist at all.

Spain is different - Familiar ways of finding a location don't work in Spain

Aside from overseas buyers having a different set of requirements than local purchasers, Spain itself offers some unique challenges.

• US buyers will notice the total lack of a single MLS. This means that the same property in Spain will most likely be marketed by several agents in different ways (and at different prices).
• UK buyers will notice that with a zip code system consisting of just 5 digits, an individual post code in Spain is virtually useless in locating a property, or even an entire town (the UK system can accurately identify a single street within a town).
• The location hierarchy goes Spain > Region > Province > Town. Some Spanish territories are actually in North Africa - Ceuta and Melilla are both Spanish autonomous cities, each with their own Spanish post code.
• Some 'provinces' aren't really provinces at all. The Balearic Islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera are all the same Islas Baleares 'province'
• The Canary Islands are split into two provinces: Las Palmas 'province' includes the islands of Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. The 'province' of Santa Cruz de Tenerife includes the islands of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro

• There are several spoken languages in Spain - Valencian, Castillian, Catalan, Basque and Galician. This means that many locations actually have two names in common use - one in the 'local' language and one in Castillian Spanish.

   

   

Buyers always beware.

• Recently we have been receiving many complaints about fraud schemes and illegal government activities expropriating foreigners' property in Spain, so beware. Always a good idea to contact a specialized attorney before making a big investment overseas.

   

Geocoding & Google Maps to the Rescue - How Internet technologies plug the gaps in the official systems in Spain

The post office and road sign people just don't keep up with new building and construction in Spain. The result is that the developer will often name the urbanisation - which eventually becomes the name of the 'town'. The well-known and established Puerto Banus, near Marbella, simply doesn't 'officially' exist as far as the post office is concerned.

There are almost always unofficial, colloquial names for towns and urbanisations. You won't find the Costa del Sol or Costa Blanca (or any of the 'other' costas) anywhere on a map and there is no standard definition for where one ends and another begins.

Sometimes, even the developers 'provisional' name for an urbanisation creeps into the official post office database - there are three 'towns' simply called 'Golf Course'.

All this means that it's difficult - even for people who live in Spain - to accurately pinpoint an urbanisation or town. The only reason that the Google maps on Kyero.com work at all is that they geocoded every Spanish town, it's coastline, its airports etc.

Useful resources

• Spanish Property Insight - Mark Stucklin is the Sunday Times 'Spanish Property Doctor'. He gives useful and unbiased comment on the do's and dont's of buying property in Spain.
  Nubricks - Adam Samuel publishes news, interviews and podcasts about investing in overseas property - well worth a read and a listen to.
• Eye on Spain - Justin Aldridge has put together the place for off-plan owners and prospective owners to meet and swap information and horror stories - lively forums.
• Ministry of Housing (Spanish only) - Download the latest house prices according to official government sources.
• University Search (Spanish only) - Ministry of Education site listing Universities in Spain
• Schools Search (Spanish only) - Ministry of Education site listing all other educational facilities in Spain
• Spain Statistics (some English) - Official government statistics about Spain