Living in Spain for non Spaniards Good/Not so good?
 

I have only vacationed in Spain and am considering relocating for a while (maybe the Costa Blanca area) and maybe purchasing something small (apartment or house) if I chose to stay longer.

I am sure some of the Brits on GFY must have some experience.

Favored area?

Anyone buy property there?

Any pitfalls?

Any advice?

Spain is bankrupt... so probably a nice time to buy

I just moved back after living on the Costa Blanca for 2 years....

I will book mark this and answer in the morning - Too much Indian food and beer tonight to answer anything seriously.

teencat is looking for a flatmate

I've seen some nicely priced properties, just wondering where the catch is.

That'd be great. Very much appreciated!

Having teencat as flatmate would probably be very entertaining
(if he had an on/off switch).

he has - it's called alcohol :upsidedow

I've just moved from Alicante up to Asturias. {North on the Atlantic Coast}

the costa blanca is suffering from massive unemployment, big rise in crime due to eastern euro gangs and gangs like the latin kings, and atm they cant afford to pay the electricity bills for schools.

Valencia, the province the costa blanca is in, is corrupt as fuck and keep putting local taxes up.

Yep houses are cheap there but still going down, the catch.. pick one there's alot to choose from. Make sure the house is legal for a start. If its new check its actually finished, where it is. they love to stick giddies in the middle of nowhere.

I know of one or two people over there. from what they say, if there is any problems or trouble, the authorities will ALWAYS back the locals. (basically the exact opposite of the UK really!)

It was always my dream to setup an Voyeur Spy cam villa in Ibiza. Perfect for shootings and pumping some extra capacity to the web. I know what girls earn there as dancers and its shit. Most of the girls go there to dance just to be on the Island

Are you fucking serious? Are things that bad over there too?

At least gas is 30cents/l cheaper than this side of the border ... :pimp

Thank you, nice little summary there.

I noticed many places for sale are in gated communities, would that be advisable?

As the Costa Blanca area sounds a little off, any other areas that you could recommend that are warm all year round?

Never been in Costa Blanca nor Valencia, but in general, Spain is a good place to live IF YOU HAVE MONEY. If you have your own income source and/or plan to provide jobs, they will receive you with open arms. Now, if you plan to take 1 euro off any of them... be ready for trouble.

On the legal side, they're annoying as hell, everything needs to be done 10 times, everything needs a new paper or a new sign or a photo of the Pope dancing the jota, so just save yourself headaches and hire a lawyer (some are very cheap and for common stuff you won't need much more than that) and they will do what you need... in 2 or 3 months. But at least it's 2 or 3 months you didn't waste.

Also, places close to sea tend to be more expensive and the interior of Spain is cheaper but can be hot as hell. But if that's not an issue, you can find nice villas and houses for little money.

A tip: there are a lot of old small towns that have no young people because they run away to bigger cities, so those towns are left with huge houses. If you go there, you can get a great big house AND become the king of the town since their inhabitants want people to live there. If you don't need the noise of cities, that's something you can look for, some of those towns are just 1 hour or less of big cities. :2 cents:

I actually live in Spain since 2 months. I am in Costa del sol.

I wanted to buy something last year in Alicante and I decided that it was a better idea to try it out before I buy.

I will stay here probably around one year, just to know how the four seasons are here.

Until now, 2 things are very unpleasant:

1 - The spanish are very unsympatic - It think that they hate tourists
(Even if I speak spanish)

2 - The internet incredibly slow

I will most probably never buy anything here.

Just moved back to Hungary after 3.5 years living in Gandia, near Valencia. Some years back, over 7 years in Barcelona.
Several points:
If you are young, then choose a city, as the provinces are just that... provincial.
Rent, as prices still have a long way to fall.
When you do buy, only go for "urbanized", other wise the local government will charge you for installing things like pavements and street lighting. As V4 Media says, check property legality, and then check again. For example, any changes made to the property ie swimming pool or extension added without proper planning permission will only come to light after you have bought...and you will be obliged to pay a fine and/or knock it down.
Do not buy/rent any where with "shared" facilities (like a swimming pool for all the residents) as in these hard times they will not contribute to the upkeep costs (Spanish peeps have a lot of face)...and you will have to pay their share or watch said facilities fall into disrepair.
Get a bike!
Speak Spanish and/or learn (your life will be much fuller).
Over 180 days residence means that you pay tax on your world-wide income.
Stay well away from sad old expats (with the fall of the UK £ vs Euro they are struggling and become a bit bitter). They do not integrate and still believe everything they read in the Daily Mail.

Fantastic weather, food and sea. Peeps are mad, emotional, loud and tell it as it is. Seize the day and get your lardy arse over there.

hehe lol nice replies here :) and sure it is a good time to buy, there is many people who cant pay, banks are getting their properties and selling very underpriced, dont know how to say better in english. first germans, then russians, and now nobody is building it there, so prices are low! as far as i know from my few months living there

oh and btw man, vamos! i have been in calpe, near alicante, and it was nice there but still much tourism, now i want to move there again in one or two months, and want to go near tarifa, where is many young people cause of that kitesurfing, no big hotels hundred kilometers around, it is on the cross of ocean, sea, africa and europe, and i believe and hope in the summer it will be not so hot there. but, if we can talk at least about it, i have no limits so i am opened to move anywhere. but, its up on you, as stefan said, my alco switcher works well :winkwink: maybe see you there! :)

living in barcelona since the summer, not looked back.

good weather, good food, better looking women than in the UK.

i cant afford to live in spain... :(

About the same as living in France no doubt

I life for about 7 years on one of the Balearic Islands. :)

First off the Costa Blanca isn't warm all year round, you get cold winters, not freezing but not beach weather, if you want that then look at the canaries.

The trouble with gated stuff is it's built out of town usually, so you depend on transport to get anywhere, you've also got the problem that if it's in a resort a lot of people just have it as a holiday home, so most of the time it's deserted.

If an urbanization has a lot of flats for sale, then no one may be paying the community fees, cause probably the developer has shut down the company he set up to build the place so he can't get sued.

Best thing to do is rent for a while, see if you like it.

If you can afford it, Barcelona is the best city to live in in Spain. But it's bastardly expensive compared to everywhere else.

Depends where you live, I could get a 50mb line in Alicante with ono.
Now I live up a mountain in a village of 30 people so only get 6mb. Can get 42mb mobile connection though if I really needed it.

How's the visa situation there for long term?

Kind of a bitch, and when you add their love for paperwork you are in for a treat.

I never had to deal with Visa issues as I am a citizen but the people I knew who did had a really hard time and like almost every process in Spain it takes ages.

http://www.maec.es/en/MenuPpal/Consu...nas/visas.aspx

I lived in Barcelona and Sevilla, of the two I will keep Barcelona even with the sucky weather in the winter (The summer there more than makes up for it). The south just gets too ridiculously hot for my taste.

I do agree with the people that have recommended renting, as I think property prices will still fall farther and it is a nice way to see if you actually like the place.

Judging by the amount of Russians pouring in, it can't be that difficult.
I get in cause of the EU and I'm married to a Basque.

I have much faster internet then i ever had in the US , 50Mb down 10Mb up at home, and double that in the office. It's great.

Si no hablas espanol, ni pensar vivir alli.

Yeah you wont need a visa.

Also, silly of you to even suggest that everyone in Spain actually goes through the regular Visa process and not just staying there as illegal inmigrants, specially when in Spain if you live there for 3 years under irregular status but manage not to get caught, the government rewards you with resindecy (Its called "Arraigo Social").

If you want to live in SPAIN, there are only two places to stay, Barcelona or MADRID.

The big cities are great. The rest is shit.

Sure, the beaches are nice, but they are for tourists, not for people who want to live and specially for an adult webmaster. And the rest of the cities are not for an adult webmaster. Everything is closed pass 10 pm. It sucks so much.

Oh and properties in SPAIN are still damn expensive, because the spaniards don't want to sell them low. It's much different from USA, where properties that were 600K are now 100K (damn I still remember a post in another forum from TIM from Skintraffic [is he still in the business?] posting his house he bought at 650K pre crisis, and then 1 year later it was 100K.. ouch)... Well, that didn't happen in SPAIN still... And I don't know if that will happen, because spaniards are harder to lower the price of properties.

Anyway, If I had to choose in Europe, I would never live in SPAIN, even though I speak perfect spanish and have european passport. I would choose GERMANY. That is the perfect country to live. I love GERMANY so much. The ideal country in this world.

Germany is indeed absolutely awesome. But muslims are slowly taking over the country.
Due to bad councious, germans are not aloowed to say anything.
Sadly.

Hmm have you lived in every city in Spain to make such an assumption?

San Sebastian on the north coast is an amazing city that goes all night.

Why are the rest of the cities not for an adult webmaster, that's just an odd statement, what specifically is wrong with them for an adult webmaster? I've lived in 6 different provinces in Spain, been an adult webmaster in every one, never had a problem with anything.

Maybe a silly question but if they are there illegally, how does the government know they've been there for 3 years?

It really depends on your ability to live there legally.

The stamp on their passport from when they first got into the country as tourists and no other stamp showing them leaving, would be the first thing I would think of, but pretty much anything that shows you have been there for that time.

Spaniards are awful people ...

I live on Gran Canaria. Canarias are way different than main land Spain. Gasoline is under 1 eur per liter, tax only 5%, we are duty free zone...

Weather is warm all year around. People are great. Good life.

Living in spain now for the last 4 years and wouldnt change it for anything in the world..

Better cost of living, cheaper taxes and if you get a good lawyer everything runs smoothly including setting up company, buying house and paying everything in the tax department etc..

One single piece of advice, dont try this without a lawyer, they will save you sooo much time and worries that the extra bucks you spent will be the best money you ever paid anyone.

How about Holland? I hear frisky is looking for roommate.

please is possible to rent there something for lets say three months for some good price? i mean something with view to the ocean, something with internet, with accessories and so? i dont mean something through booking.com or something through agencies, but something local, is possible to get something there if i will go there for lets say first two months to hotel, will be possible to get something for good price for longer term? thanks much in advance for any answer and see you there maybe in few weeks :)

Living in Barcelona and not going back, that says enough :)

No issues, language sometimes is a bitch with the Catalans but beside that it´s great

If anyone is interested in Barcelona and needs a job, we are hiring... :pimp

http://www.exoclick.com/jobs.php

Wow what have you people done to my thread, so many words:thumbsup

Thanks everyone for the input and discussion I'll start reading now.

I have been living for over 10 years by now in Spain. First in Barcelona, now in Sitges. My piece of advise: Do NOT buy in Spain (yet). Houses/apartments are of a really crap quality, and are still way overpriced. Wait for another 2 years until the prices have come back in touch with reality. Or even better, invest in one of the financially stable countries in the North of Europe, and take the money to rent something in Spain. In comparison to buying, the rent prices in Spain are already a lot more in line with Spain's current financial reality.

Just my 2 cents of advise ;)

Spain is beautiful, but people are fucked up

I love the Costa Brava, don't know if I could live there though.