Adam Neale (Columnist)
A RECENT survey by the UK’s leading online real-estate portal, Rightmove, found that Spain has overtaken France as the place most British buyers will look to purchase a second home in the future.
Rightmove Overseas, the popular website’s specialised foreign property section, surveyed more than 3,000 people last autumn to find out where they are planning to buy abroad, and their reasons for doing so.
One of the goals of the poll was to understand prospective buyers’ motivation when acquiring a property overseas. The results revealed that more than half (51%) of all potential purchases would be for use as a second home, while over a third (36%) of respondents intended to move to their new home abroad permanently, and the remainder (13%) were buying for investment purposes.
France continued to be first in the rankings for those planning to emigrate, ahead of Spain, Greece, Cyprus, and Italy. Many of those planning on starting a new life abroad said they chose the UK’s European neighbours, rather than destinations further afield, like Australia, Canada, and the US, to stay closer to family and friends.
But, when it comes to choosing somewhere they would like to own a second home, Spain led the rankings for the most in-demand destination. The UK’s traditional favourite, France, still accounted for 23% of the total, but Spain was 37% of respondents first choice for where they would be looking for a place in the sun.
Shameem Golamy, head of overseas at Rightmove, said: “Spain has always been a popular location for buyers and this report, coupled with being the most popular search, shows it’s set to become even more popular. As well as people looking for a place for their perfect holiday home, there are also those looking to buy as an investment due to the number of rental opportunities buying a property out there will bring.”
According to another survey by Rightmove Overseas, published last November, Spain also came out top of the list of countries in which British property investors would choose to buy in 2014,, ahead of the US, France, Greece, and Italy.
Spain’s combination of climate, culture, cuisine and close proximity to the UK, with many destinations on the coast and inland served by short flights with low-cost airlines, helped put the nation in first place. And price reductions of up to 50%, compared to the market-high in 2007, have certainly attracted investors. Rightmove Overseas register an average 500,000 searches a month for the Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol, alone.
Poor sods have no idea what they are getting themselves into. Estate agents are the last people to properly inform buyers about the risks of purchasing in a country with endemic corruption and no proper legal or planning system.
“there are also those looking to buy as an investment due to the number of rental opportunities”
Rental is a big problem given the liklihood of new laws in Spain that directly affect this, yet no mention of that in the article. Best to avoid the advice of people who live in the Marbella bubble.
I can smell the countryside reading this!
Don’t listen to the line upon line of miserable people on this website who say don’t live in Spain.
They live in Spain and probably like living in Spain.
It’s just a computer thing. Call them trolls if you like. No lifers maybe.
Who would they approach to buy a house? ..AN ESTATE AGENT. There are good and bad ones. A lot are selling quite a bit lately.
As for comments on this website – yes, mostly bad.
Then keep your heads on and buy established properties with full legal papers and check out the property on the Spanish land registry web site.
Yes Derek, let us not listen to the people who live here, work here and own homes here. in any event, you don’t need an estate agent to purchase a house. If you like the look of a place, just knock on the door and ask how much – everything is for sale in Spain and the seller will cut you a deal to avoid the ludicrous estate agent fees. Alas, you are just another property noob, Derek. You didn’t even tell us how to tell the difference between a good agent and a bad one. lol indeed.
I was just on about people like yourself Fred that seem to bash everything in Spain for some reason. I’ll let you carry on though you grumpy old sod.
Most people DO need estate agents to handle everything from start to finish you twerp.
Please watch out for this man knocking on random doors everybody.
Derek, i think you missed the sarcasm. Fred was *obviously* stating a naive and foolish method of buying a house, reflecting the poor fools who believe devious tricks like the one mentioned in this article.
Spain is now known worldwide as THE worse place to buy property. Anyone who doesnt live under a stone knows EVEN IF you get all legal papers, your home can still be bulldozed into the ground, and you’ll have no recourse.
Maybe you shouldnt insult people who clearly know more than you.
Derek, estate agents don’t handle everything from start to finish. My goodness, you really don’t live in Spain, do you? No wonder so many people get taken for a ride with gullible people like Derek buying houses lol. Look at Portugal instead, their land registry is much more accurate.
You’re a laugh a minute as usual Fred. Good to see you never change gramps (or is that grumps), and see you’ve still got the blinkers on to anything that goes ok in Spain.
If you really need to know we DID buy in Spain and our estate agent DID handle everything we needed sorting from start to finish. (as in making sure the transaction went through ok and going to the notary with us, until we bought the place, making sure we were insured etc. What more do they have to do to ‘finish’ something?). Not sure why you’re against estate agent process that 99% of people use.
I’ll let you carry on knocking on people’s doors & wallowing in any Spanish news SWILL though Grumpy.
I imagine you walking around with your own personal cloud ha ha.
Derek, your estate agent actually did very little, simply because they are not qualified or even legally permitted to do anything else other than show you the property.
Your lawyer actually did 99% of the work – hopefully lol. I did not personally use an estate agent, and most people who are buying unique properties (mine is an old convent, 10000 sq m, for example) do not either. I approached the landowner and he divided the land. I did also use three property lawyers however, and I had them all checking each others information independently to make sure the property and land was all legally sound, and that involved visits to the paper records archive at the Junta de Andalucia, in Malaga. I appreciate this is not a normal purchase.
You’ll just have to get used to people with different views than your own Derek, and learn not to judge and insult them because of that. You just look silly and ignorant when you do that.
Fred,
I’m sure you’ve noticed that the ‘everything in Spain is good’ brigade always without exception resort to insults – a sure sign that they never had an argument to make in the first place – your comment ‘silly and ignorant’ is spot on.
The last person I’d get to “handle everything” on a Spanish property purchase is the estate agent! That’s just asking for trouble in the future…
Fred is really a perennial Spain basher.
Wow pot calling the kettle black. Look back at past post to see who flies insults fast and furious. Arghhh…Enough all ready, everyone has their own experiences so stop with the “everything in Spain is good brigade” tag line. Just because some of us have not had awful experiences or don’t constantly troll this site to complain every waking moment doesn’t make us better or worst/wrong or right. I for one don’t deny what you all went through, so don’t deny the pleasant experiences I or others have gone through.
GIVE IT A REST! Some people are very diligent and do their homework and prepare years before to avoid pitfalls as much as possible; does that mean there aren’t any? Of course not.
Is it possible in this new year to begin in some way to give advise or opinions through their experience without constantly slamming other that don’t agree. Let’s try shall we?!
I’m not bothered about differing views Fred at all, just letting you know my EXPERIENCE. Sorry that our estate agent helped us go through the whole process, suggesting his regular LAWYERS etc etc etc. You have to trust someone when purchasing property.
You are an extremely dull man. And what a surprise! your French Spain-bashing mate’s just popped up too!
Christine, oh do put a sock in it. Some very basic errors were made in Derek’s comments, so I corrected them, and you call that trolling. You are trolling yourself by constantly saying other people are trolling lol. I notice we’ve gone from “estate agents handle everything” to “estate agent helped us” lol.
Derek, so you used a lawyer that the estate agent suggested? Doh, someone tell him please.
Things went ok Fred. Don’t go worrying now will you… and when you cross the road look left then right!
Bye Derek.
It’s no use trying to be reasonable along with my sincere call for the end of slamming each other. My comment was made in general but just the fact that you FRED yes now I’m talking to you directly- started off with “put a sock in it” just proves this will never be a place for civil exchange. So take your trivial lols and lack of what the definition of internet troll means and stuff it! There now, happy? I stooped to your level LOL LOL LOL
BTW….
In Internet slang, a troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, either accidentally or with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response.
Things need to be said.
I bet 99% people move to Spain putting their lives (albeit nervously) in the hands of estate agents, banks, solicitors, lawyers, locals… The lucky majority, like ourselves, had zero problems and love it here. Who knows what lawyer or solicitor is dodgy or not when you move to Spain. I’d just wish everyone good luck and don’t be too scared of living, like Fred is.
What a complete tool! Bullied child?
I thought Roger was quiet, now he is called Derek! Using the lawyer the estate agent recommentded, the worst thing you can do, the number 1 no no. Spain probably has more hits than France on websites as the property is so cheap and it is cheap for a good reason.
We moved to Estepona from Johannesburg last year and the first thing we did was seek a lawyer independently. Every online forum and advice we received from friends and just people generally confirmed this was the best and correct thing to do. Your estate agent is just the first link in the chain and should never be used for anything other than viewing properties and communicating with the homeowner. As some of the wiser commentators have said above, the agent can do none of the actual work in finding out about the legality of the property and the land it sits within.
It seems Derek has made a classic error here since agents and lawyers often collude with one another to push through sales quickly, and just because you are ok now, does not mean you will be in the future, as so many have found out. You can purchase safely in Spain but always choose your legal adviser totally independently. Ours was based in Madrid and nowhere near where we eventually purchased.
Wise words from Roxanne (and Fred)…
Reap,
I have been thinking the same ever since this ‘derek’ surfaced.
Easily for the OP to confirm or deny.
Well the IP address they post from is the same!
People who won’t put the same moniker to their comments, can’t have much confidence in them. This is a case of one person running round a lot to appear to be many. someone to be pitied really…
Calm down ‘gang’, I am simply anonymous, but obviously strike chords. What does that say? I do try any angle though to combat people interested in Spain & moving to Spain reading ONLY constant MISERY on this site.
If I believed everything that the OP wrote, and let the negative ‘gang’ post (half of which don’t actually live here), I’d never ever have moved to this great country and would have missed out on getting to know Spanish culture and it’s fantastic people.
Now I’ll let you all carry on spewing whatever filth you normally do about Spain.