Terenia Taras
Luckily Anton (my son) was fine and didn’t have any serious COVID symptoms. He has however developed COVID Toe, seriously it’s a thing, but hopefully nothing to be too concerned about. I’m quite relieved in a way that we’ve both had COVID and not been really ill, which I appreciate is not the case for many. And fingers crossed there’s less chance of us getting it again!
Anyway, back to our latest challenge of moving home.
Yay, we found a new apartment finally after viewing so many! There’s a lot of properties on the market right now for rent as many owners who normally let their apartments as short, summer rentals are uncertain as to whether the tourists will come again this year, so they’re putting them up for long term let.
I think in a year or two there will also be a lot of properties up for sale, as not only haven’t they been utilised properly for a couple of years but with the new Brexit restrictions, only allowing people to stay for 90 days, many holiday home owners who came out here in Spring and stayed until the Autumn won’t be able to now. A flooded property market means the prices should come down. So there you have a COVID silver lining if you hope to buy here in the future.
We viewed so many apartments, some even undergoing complete refurbishment. Now, I’ve got vision, but take me to what looks like a building site and I’m struggling to picture the end result! That one was obviously, No! Next! As we all do when looking for a new home we had a wish list, but perhaps not the budget to match! It had to have a large terrace so our friends and family wouldn’t have to take turns sitting outside. I also cannot live in a dark, dingy space.
Some of the apartments which were furnished tastefully weren’t a contender because they just felt instantly gloomy when you walked in because of a lack of natural light. So ground floor, garden apartments were generally out. Parking is pretty essential on this island too because even in winter you can struggle to find a spot, and who wants to traipse their food shopping and water from streets away!
As you’ll all know, moving is meant to be one of the three most stressful things in life. But after Covid anything seems relatively easy. We eventually narrowed our search down to two apartments we liked. One had an amazing frontline sea view with a fabulous pool, but the apartment itself was a little dated and lacking in storage. Another essential on our list, as we’re both neat freaks! So all the apartments with little knick-knacks and crap I just took one look and imagined sweeping it all into a cardboard box and putting it somewhere safely out of sight. If I’m going to have knick-knacks on shelves I want my own crap, thanks.
We went with the second place we liked which had been totally refurbished, had a large sunny terrace, amazing storage, and was light and airy. The one big negative, it was unfurnished. Between Paul and I we have duplicate furniture back in the UK, some of which we’re paying to keep in storage. So we decided it made sense to get that out of storage, remove one cost and bring it to Mallorca. Simple. Not so now after Brexit. Having spoken to a couple of removal firms, they’re having a nightmare with legislation and not operating as normal. Factor in the removal cost and then add tax plus customs charges. Maybe, it would be cheaper and easier to just buy new stuff here? So not only do we have all the restrictions with COVID to deal with. Brexit has just added another layer of bureaucracy, which this country does not need!
You can follow me @tereniataras
I can recommend Bill Webb at webbs-removals.co.uk. We’ve used them three times in the last year as we’ve closed offices and apartments in the UK post Covid. They have proved totally reliable and also they are nice people got deal with. Don’t go anywhere else! We’ve had horrific experiences with other prominent companies. Webbs are different and it’s good to be able to talk to the boss man if you need to. A family business and it shows.