I think what we needed to establish, if we were going to do this, is what the short and long term use of the property would be. ‘How would you like to use this property, just as a holiday home?’ I said to Deb. ‘You said it yourself before’, she replied. ‘After you retire do you want to be in the same place but with nothing to do? Of course not. So what about a holiday home for now and permanent retirement home when we give up work’.
Actually, that would really suit us. We are not ‘all inclusive hotel’ kind of people. We like our privacy, really enjoy each other’s company and thrive on peace and quiet when we are away. For that reason we aĺways go self catering and always in a detached property in its own plot with privacy.
Deb is getting so sick of looking for suitable properties in a chosen area at the right price. Most offer privacy but few give it, and when you turn up at your ‘secluded’ villa and see another villa directly next to you with a first floor balcony overlooking ALL of your garden what can you do. That has happened a few times, along with having a building site next door and one with a golf course at the bottom of the garden. What’s wrong with the golf course you might ask? Well, you’re on your sunlounger trying to read, sleep, chat, or whatever and every 10 minutes you get a group of up to 4 people wandering past, with their clubs shouting ‘good morning/afternoon/evening (yes it goes on all bloody day) or they randomly stop to have a chat with you. Now I haven’t got a violent bone in my body but I had come up with a few alternative uses for a 7 iron by the end of that holiday.
I said to Deb ‘ That makes so much sense but are we sure it’s inland Northern Spain or is there anywhere else you would like to consider?’ Obviously this didn’t include France or Portugal. ‘Florida’. She said. Now I knew she was referring to the Gulf Coast and not Mickey Mouse world. We love it out there, pace of life, beaches are amazing, love the people when we do get out and about, I could go on and on. But a holiday home in Florida? The cost of the flights, car hire etc would limit you to one, maybe two, visits a year and the last couple of times we’ve returned it’s taken me a week or more to get over the jet lag. Must be an age thing. Deb knew all this and I know she still loves Florida, as do I, but it’s unrealistic. We have also said that it’s fantastic to holiday there for 2 or 3 weeks but permanent living? We don’t think so. Northern Spain it is then, with the occasional foray to Florida for the odd holiday maybe.
Ok, location sorted, what about budget. I said to Deb ‘We obviously can’t afford to buy somewhere like that one for 100,000 cash, we’d need a mortgage. Shouldn’t be too much trouble getting one though so what do you think on budget?’
Note here that the last mortgage I had applied for was for our family home back in 2004. The criteria at that point for qualifying for a Self Cert mortgage was that you essentially just ‘told’ the lender you could afford it and then they gave you a big bag of cash. This system worked great for self employed people. They knew they could afford it even if the books didn’t quite reflect this.
I ‘knew’ we could afford a small mortgage for a Spanish property so it shouldn’t be an issue, I’m not stupid, I wouldn’t risk everything. So we went onto a mortgage calculator with, I think Caixa bank in Spain, and established what we thought we could afford, which then established our budget. Really useful item with their mortgage calculator link also reminded you to take into account 10-14% of the purchase price for fees. We now have 130,000 Euro budget, with just over half of that mortgaged, and for that it seems we can get a large detached property with all the bells and whistles. But what bells and whistles would we want?
‘Ok,’ I said, ‘We have 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, pool, indoor kitchen and a barbecue. We also now know that your life will never be fulfilled until you have an olive grove. What else do we need?’ Deb looked at me then, a little bit emotional and said quietly ‘Can we really do this, it’s not a pipe dream?’ I said ‘Of course we can hun.’ ‘Well’, she said ‘in that case let’s go for it! I think we should have outstanding views, no overlooking neighbours, private and secluded but not isolated, in the country but easy access to all amenities and within about half an hour or so to the coast. Oh yes, a couple of orange and lemon trees would be nice.’
Well you’ve got to start somewhere haven’t you.
Moving to Spain? Help! 