Greetings

[owdoggy]

A good agent is essential and in our opinion, you can't do better than Sarah at Spanish Hideaways. She's as straight as a die and has been an absolute diamond for us. We couldn't have realised our dream without her :clap:

When you're down here call in & have a chinwag with her & see what you reckon.

Hope you get sorted whatever you decide :tiphat:


Doggy

[Geminis]

Hi Andy, the coastal areas have had their fair share of problems too...  We love it in Arboleas, and although there is some merit in renting first you may miss out on finding what you are looking for.

One thing to look out for is if the property is on "builders" water or electric. In other words if you see pipes and cables being fed into the property then it is not on main supplies and would therefore assume the property does not have all of it's proper paperwork.  Certainly call into the helpdesk at the town hall, but seek a solicitor outside of the area.  Will send a pm with details of the people we used and could not have asked for better help.

Good Luck  :tiphat:

[AndyF]

We've been living and working in Madrid for the last 9 years and won't be selling up to do this.  The idea was to try and buy something for holidays and eventually retirement before the market recovers, whenever that may be.

We're in no rush and we're still unsure whether to buy an inland villa or a seaside apartment/duplex somewhere like Mojacar or Vera.

Would anyone know if it was legaly safer to buy on a coastal development/comunity than inland?

Thanks for the advice and I am very sorry to hear about all the problems people have been having.  I can't even begin to imagine all the stress that you must have been suffering.

[Titch]

Don't be in a hurry to sell up in UK. We could have rented out the house in UK, rented in Spain and still be in pocket.

Why didn't we? We wanted our dream villa which turned into a bad dream and is now a nightmare.

Titch

[Danno]

Hi Andy

There have been similar enquiries over the last year or so on this forum and I think the concensus of advice would be 'you're mad' to considering buying anywhere in the Almanzora Valley, and many other parts of Spain, for the foreseeable future.

I believe the best advice, if you want to live in the Arboleas area, is to rent for a year or so.  There are stacks of cheap rentals around, so don't rush into the first nice villa you see.

Renting will give you the chance to really get a feel for what is going on.  The legal situation is 'all over the place', demolition orders are coming out of the woodwork, houses that were 'fully legal' are turning out to be 'not so'....etc.

An election next May could change the political landscape such that 'fudged legal' housing could be exposed as illegal.

Dodgy times.....be patient, and do your homework.

Good luck

Danno

[AndyF]

Hello everyone.

I stumbled across this forum while looking for information on the Arboleas area as we will be visiting the area in July and are considering buying a house in the area.

Obviously, before parting with any money, we'll be getting a non-local solicitor to do all the necessary checks but is there any other advice that you can give us please? 

Can anyone recommend an out of town solicitor (English speaking is not a priority)?

Has anyone recently completed a purchase and could give us the benefit of their experience?

Are there any areas that are safer to buy (from a legal perspective) than others?  Are there any areas that we should avoid?

What should we look out for when we visit the properties and what should we be asking the agents?

If we bring some addresses of properties to the Town Hall to the Wednesday help desk, will we be able to advise on the legality of them?

Do we need to make an appointment before we turn up?

Finally, are we mad to be considering this at the moment?

Many thanks in advance for any help and advice that you can give us.

Andy