buying an apartment in spain

[Phil.]

Arrived in southern Spain last night. Very quiet on the ET and the roads except for a bit of Friday night traffic south of Madrid. I think people were heading for the coast for the weekend.

Everyone in France and Spain being very sensible about COVID unlike the British press and government!

Thought you guys might be interested in the RR stats for the journey. Firstly, the RR was a dream, I can't think of a better vehicle to use for such a long journey. All stats from the InControl App. Mine is a SVD8 4.4:

1455 miles
20.5 hours actual driving
30.4 MPG
71 MPH

Add to the journey time the ET crossing and various rest breaks and its about 24hrs total travelling time. Plus we stopped over south of Bordeaux on the first night.

The average MPG is down to to my wife who demonstrated she could drive almost as fast as me but using less fuel

I bought a car fridge (31L Dometic) prior to the trip and filled it with food which meant we didn't buy anything on the journey other than fuel and a couple of drinks. It's an excellent device in a hot country.

[Chris Stott]

Welcome to Spain Phil!

Not quite a RR, but the Touareg I had for my trip was equally brilliant... didn’t quite get your MPG though!

[ooid]

Hi Gents,

I'm suprised did not notice this thread before. I'm quite familiar with Spain, as I have family down there and we have a business in Barcelona. (Bakery). I'm also sort of familiar with house purchase legalities, as we were trying to buy a place for my parents a few years ago. I thought I've lost the bargain Barcelonatta studio flats back in 2008/09 with 50-60k euro prices, but it seems like there are some bargains to have around Murcia, like the example below?

https://www.idealista.com/en/inmueble/89547422/

I'm seriously considering a mini trip soon to check this area. We did not have much luck this year due to covid but, I really appreciate the value of just jumping to a cheap easyjet/rynair to Spain during depressing weather in U.K., and change of a scenery/culture or weather is quite different than our slowly decaying old blighty

[Shnozz]

Phil. said:

Arrived in southern Spain last night. Very quiet on the ET and the roads except for a bit of Friday night traffic south of Madrid. I think people were heading for the coast for the weekend.

Everyone in France and Spain being very sensible about COVID unlike the British press and government!

Thought you guys might be interested in the RR stats for the journey. Firstly, the RR was a dream, I can't think of a better vehicle to use for such a long journey. All stats from the InControl App. Mine is a SVD8 4.4:

1455 miles
20.5 hours actual driving
30.4 MPG
71 MPH

Add to the journey time the ET crossing and various rest breaks and its about 24hrs total travelling time. Plus we stopped over south of Bordeaux on the first night.

The average MPG is down to to my wife who demonstrated she could drive almost as fast as me but using less fuel

I bought a car fridge (31L Dometic) prior to the trip and filled it with food which meant we didn't buy anything on the journey other than fuel and a couple of drinks. It's an excellent device in a hot country.

Welcome back mate! Journey sounds great and bet you are pleased to have returned. Nice way to run in an RR and I should imagine perfect for that trip. I have a road trip dilemma at the minute as my Aston is stuck in the UK in storage that it needs to be out of by mid September latest. I can have it shipped down for £715 or potentially could fly back and drive her down.

However, as that was looking on the cards I ended up doing a virtual deal with the owner of a Corvette for a swap. I have wanted a Vette down here since buying the place and with no imminent return to the UK thought a swap would give me a usable LHD sports car that can remain in Spain and I will just buy myself another RHD sports car when eventually I return to the UK. However, the quarantine imposition has put the brakes on the whole idea. It's getting increasingly complex. The Aston is at my parents place so I could potentially fly in, travel straight to there and remain, asking the Vette owner to attend their house to do the swap and thereby not leave the house for quarantine purposes. I understand I do not need to remain 14 days so long as my departure is then to leave the country - so I assume I can fly in, remain at parents, then leave within a day or 2 after deal done and drive straight to ET or ferry port and get back to Europe. The other fly in that ointment is that my parents are high risk and shielding so not ideal to stay in their house...headache all round! First world problems and all that...

Anyway, life in Spain has been good thus far. Had the inlaws down from Copenhagen this weekend so been out and about doing touristy things. Great to have a relatively good pipeline of friends and family as we are yet to make a big circle of friends down here but are gradually expanding our friends also. That said, we are both working Mon-Fri with relative success. Broadband upgraded to fibre to help with zoom meetings etc but still not too great in terms of connection so that will need sorting if my partner is to remain in Spain and deliver online lectures when the new term starts. Be a shame if that idea is thwarted simply due to the broadband but neither of us are IT savvy enough to know how to resolve the problem (the 600MB connection is delivering that speed at the router so its not the cause of the connection).

Being here full time has seen the "real world" 24/7 bills and not too bad when compared to when we used the house 1 or 2 weeks in every 4. Electirc bills even with a lot of air con use are reasonable. Phone bill was rather high but that is largely down to my business calls in a month. Sadly reception is shockingly dreadful on my mobile or else I would have free calls (at least until Brexit transition ends!).

Still yet to buy a car down here and the whole experience (service, prices, condition, presentation) of dealerships has been dire. Hoping to nip down to Murcia after the inlaws return tomorrow to do a deal on one I have seen there that looks promising. Just a simple daily drive and will become in time an airport parked car so nothing fancy and parking in Spanish cities is always going to give rise to dents and scrapes so this is very much a daily beater.

[Shnozz]

ooid said:

Hi Gents,

I'm suprised did not notice this thread before. I'm quite familiar with Spain, as I have family down there and we have a business in Barcelona. (Bakery). I'm also sort of familiar with house purchase legalities, as we were trying to buy a place for my parents a few years ago. I thought I've lost the bargain Barcelonatta studio flats back in 2008/09 with 50-60k euro prices, but it seems like there are some bargains to have around Murcia, like the example below?

https://www.idealista.com/en/inmueble/89547422/

I'm seriously considering a mini trip soon to check this area. We did not have much luck this year due to covid but, I really appreciate the value of just jumping to a cheap easyjet/rynair to Spain during depressing weather in U.K., and change of a scenery/culture or weather is quite different than our slowly decaying old blighty

That place is a few miles from me. More than happy to check it out if you ping me an email.

Obviously with taxes etc that is double your studio flat consideration, but still looks great value for its size. Properties in Lo Crispin are a little cheaper than Quesada next door as it is a little cut off in terms of a development kind of out on its own with little by way of amenities without driving to them. The Lo Crispin tavern is I believe quite nice ( i haven't visited) but I think that is the only bar and the houses are all pretty similar and by its nature I think many are holiday homes so less of an all round "town" feel to some other areas, Quesada included. It's walkable to the high street of Quesada and probably in fact closer to that part of the town than where I am on the other side of the town. However, with many properties marketed to older less mobile folks, many overlook properties that require such a walk so you are a bit out on your own in that sense.

And although it shows as being closer to Murcia I should imagine that is as the crow flies. We pass by Lo Crispin en route to the airports (Murcia or Alicante) and its quicker for us to drive to Alicante by some margin. The added benefit though is that you are almost equidistant so you have the option of either airport, with different carriers going to most European airports easily and cheaply. Having the two airports and variety of routes tends to mean the competition keeps prices low and flights plentiful.

Having 2 airports serving where we are was a comfort to me, particularly as years ago when my parents had a place in Denia they were served by both Valencia and Alicante airport. The former seemed to fall out of love with many airlines and UK routes but that wasn't an issue as Alicante took up that slack and they were not effected. It made me realise however that ideally it was an insurance policy having the 2 airports within easy reach to ensure you didn't see flights dry up and the route to get here and back buggered up. As it happens, Murcia seems the more likely to run into issues as flights seem less plentiful and since relocating to Corvera I am not so sure the airport is at any sort of % capacity as they hoped. To be fair, I rarely include Murcia on my flight search most times as Alicante is usually cheaper as well as being easier to drive to. I am also getting annual parking only for Alicante (albeit you can pay a little more for ability to access your car parking at either airport to give you the choice). Last time I drove to Corvera was February when a mate who had visited had her flight moved from Alicante to Murcia on account of some storms we had (combined with Alicante airport having a weakened roof due to a fire the previous week).

Talking of which, anyone know if Alicante airport premier lounge is back up and open after the fire damage? Was a nice lounge to chill when in passing en route back to the UK..

If you have sights on any places in the locality, feel free to give me a shout. It's an easy cycle or car journey as I literally pass Lo Crispin most times I am heading anywhere out of the town. You will have to join me and Mart63 (my soon to be new neighbour!) for a beer when you do a scouting trip.

[omniflow]

Shnozz said:

Welcome back mate! Journey sounds great and bet you are pleased to have returned. Nice way to run in an RR and I should imagine perfect for that trip. I have a road trip dilemma at the minute as my Aston is stuck in the UK in storage that it needs to be out of by mid September latest. I can have it shipped down for £715 or potentially could fly back and drive her down.

However, as that was looking on the cards I ended up doing a virtual deal with the owner of a Corvette for a swap. I have wanted a Vette down here since buying the place and with no imminent return to the UK thought a swap would give me a usable LHD sports car that can remain in Spain and I will just buy myself another RHD sports car when eventually I return to the UK. However, the quarantine imposition has put the brakes on the whole idea. It's getting increasingly complex. The Aston is at my parents place so I could potentially fly in, travel straight to there and remain, asking the Vette owner to attend their house to do the swap and thereby not leave the house for quarantine purposes. I understand I do not need to remain 14 days so long as my departure is then to leave the country - so I assume I can fly in, remain at parents, then leave within a day or 2 after deal done and drive straight to ET or ferry port and get back to Europe. The other fly in that ointment is that my parents are high risk and shielding so not ideal to stay in their house...headache all round! First world problems and all that...

Anyway, life in Spain has been good thus far. Had the inlaws down from Copenhagen this weekend so been out and about doing touristy things. Great to have a relatively good pipeline of friends and family as we are yet to make a big circle of friends down here but are gradually expanding our friends also. That said, we are both working Mon-Fri with relative success. Broadband upgraded to fibre to help with zoom meetings etc but still not too great in terms of connection so that will need sorting if my partner is to remain in Spain and deliver online lectures when the new term starts. Be a shame if that idea is thwarted simply due to the broadband but neither of us are IT savvy enough to know how to resolve the problem (the 600MB connection is delivering that speed at the router so its not the cause of the connection).

Being here full time has seen the "real world" 24/7 bills and not too bad when compared to when we used the house 1 or 2 weeks in every 4. Electirc bills even with a lot of air con use are reasonable. Phone bill was rather high but that is largely down to my business calls in a month. Sadly reception is shockingly dreadful on my mobile or else I would have free calls (at least until Brexit transition ends!).

Still yet to buy a car down here and the whole experience (service, prices, condition, presentation) of dealerships has been dire. Hoping to nip down to Murcia after the inlaws return tomorrow to do a deal on one I have seen there that looks promising. Just a simple daily drive and will become in time an airport parked car so nothing fancy and parking in Spanish cities is always going to give rise to dents and scrapes so this is very much a daily beater.

If you want someone to drive your car down in September I'll do it happily for nothing more than fuel and ET costs. If you are even slightly interested in this, PM me, and I'll attempt to re-assure you that this is a workable option.

On the broadband front, try plugging your laptop / tablet / whatever directly into the router with an ethernet cable

[Chris Stott]

Shnozz said:

Still yet to buy a car down here and the whole experience (service, prices, condition, presentation) of dealerships has been dire. Hoping to nip down to Murcia after the inlaws return tomorrow to do a deal on one I have seen there that looks promising. Just a simple daily drive and will become in time an airport parked car so nothing fancy and parking in Spanish cities is always going to give rise to dents and scrapes so this is very much a daily beater.

I bought a car back in November - a painful process. I'd only intended to spend £5k or so, but when I started looking at stuff in this price bracket it was shockingly bad... poorly prepared, dents and scratches everywhere, huge mileage, patchy service history, no warrantee, etc. I ended up going to a main dealers spending nearly double my original budget (€9,5k) to get a 4 year old 1.0l Focus... but at least it came with a 12 month warrantee, FSH and relatively low miles (55k)... and it had been properly cleaned before being put in the showroom.

ooid said:

Hi Gents,

I'm suprised did not notice this thread before. I'm quite familiar with Spain, as I have family down there and we have a business in Barcelona. (Bakery). I'm also sort of familiar with house purchase legalities, as we were trying to buy a place for my parents a few years ago. I thought I've lost the bargain Barcelonatta studio flats back in 2008/09 with 50-60k euro prices, but it seems like there are some bargains to have around Murcia, like the example below?

https://www.idealista.com/en/inmueble/89547422/

I'm seriously considering a mini trip soon to check this area. We did not have much luck this year due to covid but, I really appreciate the value of just jumping to a cheap easyjet/rynair to Spain during depressing weather in U.K., and change of a scenery/culture or weather is quite different than our slowly decaying old blighty

I'd advise having a good think about how you'll use it over the long term... it's very important you get the right place as property doesn't appreciate in value here like it does in the UK (I paid the same for mine in 2014 as they sold for off plan in 1999) and property purchase tax is 10%... so you're most likely you'll lose money on anything you buy/sell over the short/medium term.

Some comments on property linked above..

It looks like it's on a big development of similarly sized/designed places, which will make it difficult to sell if you decide it's not right for you a few years down the line... property outside residential areas doesn't sell very quickly, and any prospective purchaser will have a lot of choice as there's always plenty of holiday homes for sale.... what will make your place stand out from the rest?

At 82sqm, it's quite small for a 3 bed. Our apartment is 132sqm, plus we have 130sqm of terrace and a large storeroom. It's OK with 6 here in the summer, as you spend most of the time outside. But in the winter, when you're inside more, it feels much smaller, even with 4 people here.

As above... outside space is really important as it's where you'll spend most of your time. Does it have enough private & covered space to sit outside/eat outside.

What's the surrounding area like? Are there places open all year round?

[Shnozz]

omniflow said:

If you want someone to drive your car down in September I'll do it happily for nothing more than fuel and ET costs. If you are even slightly interested in this, PM me, and I'll attempt to re-assure you that this is a workable option.

On the broadband front, try plugging your laptop / tablet / whatever directly into the router with an ethernet cable

Thanks for the offer. Let me see whether Corvette man accepts one of the 2 proposals I have put to him about whether the deal can be done remotely using a car dealer mate to sort administration. If I cannot get the deal through, however, I will drop you a line. Very kind of you to offer.

On the broadband, with the laptop plugged in we are getting the contracted speed. By wifi, there is a large drop off. However, even plugged in my partner is struggling particularly it seems with Teams which her university are preferring to use and will be for online lectures. The speed of teh net seems very good (plugged in especially), yet Teams seems to say there is a poor connection. With 600mb download speed and 300 upload I have no idea why there would be any issue.

[Phil.]

Shnozz said:

Welcome back mate! Journey sounds great and bet you are pleased to have returned. Nice way to run in an RR and I should imagine perfect for that trip. I have a road trip dilemma at the minute as my Aston is stuck in the UK in storage that it needs to be out of by mid September latest. I can have it shipped down for £715 or potentially could fly back and drive her down.

However, as that was looking on the cards I ended up doing a virtual deal with the owner of a Corvette for a swap. I have wanted a Vette down here since buying the place and with no imminent return to the UK thought a swap would give me a usable LHD sports car that can remain in Spain and I will just buy myself another RHD sports car when eventually I return to the UK. However, the quarantine imposition has put the brakes on the whole idea. It's getting increasingly complex. The Aston is at my parents place so I could potentially fly in, travel straight to there and remain, asking the Vette owner to attend their house to do the swap and thereby not leave the house for quarantine purposes. I understand I do not need to remain 14 days so long as my departure is then to leave the country - so I assume I can fly in, remain at parents, then leave within a day or 2 after deal done and drive straight to ET or ferry port and get back to Europe. The other fly in that ointment is that my parents are high risk and shielding so not ideal to stay in their house...headache all round! First world problems and all that...

Anyway, life in Spain has been good thus far. Had the inlaws down from Copenhagen this weekend so been out and about doing touristy things. Great to have a relatively good pipeline of friends and family as we are yet to make a big circle of friends down here but are gradually expanding our friends also. That said, we are both working Mon-Fri with relative success. Broadband upgraded to fibre to help with zoom meetings etc but still not too great in terms of connection so that will need sorting if my partner is to remain in Spain and deliver online lectures when the new term starts. Be a shame if that idea is thwarted simply due to the broadband but neither of us are IT savvy enough to know how to resolve the problem (the 600MB connection is delivering that speed at the router so its not the cause of the connection).

Being here full time has seen the "real world" 24/7 bills and not too bad when compared to when we used the house 1 or 2 weeks in every 4. Electirc bills even with a lot of air con use are reasonable. Phone bill was rather high but that is largely down to my business calls in a month. Sadly reception is shockingly dreadful on my mobile or else I would have free calls (at least until Brexit transition ends!).

Still yet to buy a car down here and the whole experience (service, prices, condition, presentation) of dealerships has been dire. Hoping to nip down to Murcia after the inlaws return tomorrow to do a deal on one I have seen there that looks promising. Just a simple daily drive and will become in time an airport parked car so nothing fancy and parking in Spanish cities is always going to give rise to dents and scrapes so this is very much a daily beater.

Good to hear from you Shnozz.

From experience, I think you need a new router. A decent router makes all the difference to the quality of connection. If that doesn't work then get your internet providers out to test and resolve it. A quick ask in the Computer section here will get you a recommendation for a new router. I find Amazon.es works as well as the UK and we have packages delivered for free to the local post office. All you need then is a tech person to install it for you. It's definitely a resolvable issue and shouldn't mean you have to move countries to solve it

Agree a run-around is the way to go. I had a look at second hand car prices and came to the conclusion that buying a nearly new one from a main dealer was probably the best option, and then keep it for 10+ years. With the RR I'm finding I'm parking half a mile from the entrance when visiting Carrefour



A LHD Vette should be fun in Spain. I agree with all your logic in regards to what you can and can't do travel wise. I guess the only issue is staying with your parents after flying in to the UK. The chances of you catching it on your travels and infecting them is small but a possibility. You could hang out in a Travelodge or similar for a night then visit your parents to pick up the car as part of your allowable return journey, meeting them outside.

As for routes down to where we are, I took quite a bit of advice from regular travellers to the area. It's best to avoid Paris and the AP7 Barcelona/Valencia route. Apparently lots of thefts at service stations and people trying to get you to stop you car claiming to be police. We drove ET - Rouen - Tours - Bordeaux - Burgos - Madrid - Murcia. All the roads were great and fairly empty. Don't forget to buy a toll tag. They take about a week to arrive. I used Bip&Go.

Edited by Phil. on Monday 10th August 12:48

[omniflow]

Shnozz said:

Thanks for the offer. Let me see whether Corvette man accepts one of the 2 proposals I have put to him about whether the deal can be done remotely using a car dealer mate to sort administration. If I cannot get the deal through, however, I will drop you a line. Very kind of you to offer.

On the broadband, with the laptop plugged in we are getting the contracted speed. By wifi, there is a large drop off. However, even plugged in my partner is struggling particularly it seems with Teams which her university are preferring to use and will be for online lectures. The speed of teh net seems very good (plugged in especially), yet Teams seems to say there is a poor connection. With 600mb download speed and 300 upload I have no idea why there would be any issue.

Speed in Internet terms is quite misleading. 600mb is the bandwidth you have available - with width being relevant. The actual speed of the connection is the round trip time for a ping (more commonly known as latency). It's a bit like comparing a 44 ton artic with a motorbike - the lorry will move alot of data, but it will take a long time to get there. The motorbike moves much less data per trip, but each trip will be faster.

For something interactive like teams, you not only need the bandwidth you need a low latency connection.

You can use a speed tester to check your latency - mine is 10ms - I think up to 30ms is acceptable.

For Teams it will be the latency from your connection to whatever Teams server the university are using.

[RC1807]

Shnozz : for the wifi, you're probably competing with everyone else's in the area on the channels being used. You can download an app to check where overlaps are and adjust them by logging in to your router and updating them to remove conflicts.
I did this in my house and improved wifi from 5MB to 100MB, only now thwarted by my Apple Airports' capacities. (Wifi next to router is 500MB.)

For the car transport, I'd happily head to Blighty, collect your car and drive it down to you, too.... I'm not working at the moment (live in Luxembourg), so I'm not short of time!

[Phil.]

Just run the Speedtest app on my phone and the results are:

73mb Download
89mb Upload
17ms Ping
1.1ms Jitter
0% Packet loss

It's absolutely fine for Teams, FaceTime etc.

[ooid]

Gents, thank you so much for the info! I can take your offer shnozz, whenever you are free to look over there, happy to email you.
Alicante Airport distance does not look so bad, it is 30 mins car drive? I mean comparing to what we have to suffer between East London and Gatwick Airport (min 90 mins)...

Chris, good to consider the outdoor space really. I think, I would not really consider selling in short-term, as long as it is decent enough to live for shorter periods. For the last year or so, we have been really considering to get out of U.K. but I do not think this place would be a forever escape. We have another similar small flat in Bodrum Turkey, but we currently do AirBNB, due to luck-down and etc, hardly using it. I've got family in Barcelona too so Spain always make sense.

I really can't wait for this covid19 nonsense to be over, we need a serious road-trip down there!

[Phil.]

RC1807 said:

Shnozz : for the wifi, you're probably competing with everyone else's in the area on the channels being used. You can download an app to check where overlaps are and adjust them by logging in to your router and updating them to remove conflicts.
I did this in my house and improved wifi from 5MB to 100MB, only now thwarted by my Apple Airports' capacities. (Wifi next to router is 500MB.)

For the car transport, I'd happily head to Blighty, collect your car and drive it down to you, too.... I'm not working at the moment (live in Luxembourg), so I'm not short of time!

Can't you switch wifi channels on the router from the default that everyone else around you uses?

How to Boost Your Wi-Fi Speed by Choosing the Right Channel

[RC1807]

Phil. said:

Can't you switch wifi channels on the router from the default that everyone else around you uses?

How to Boost Your Wi-Fi Speed by Choosing the Right Channel

I did exactly that. The Airports have limitations. They're quite old now in tech terms.
Laptop is plugged in upstairs on Ethernet, so it's at 500MB.

[Shnozz]

RC1807 said:

Shnozz : for the wifi, you're probably competing with everyone else's in the area on the channels being used. You can download an app to check where overlaps are and adjust them by logging in to your router and updating them to remove conflicts.
I did this in my house and improved wifi from 5MB to 100MB, only now thwarted by my Apple Airports' capacities. (Wifi next to router is 500MB.)

For the car transport, I'd happily head to Blighty, collect your car and drive it down to you, too.... I'm not working at the moment (live in Luxembourg), so I'm not short of time!

Thanks for the advice and the other kind offer. Will keep these in mind when the situation becomes clearer. I was in fact looking forward to the road trip as we usually do a boring flight as makes no sense financially to drive. This time it makes sense and Covid puts it in jeopardy! (although if it were not for Covid we would still be living the majority of time in the UK so the situation would never have arisen to be fair).

What app would you recommend to check the channels? I was following a beginners youtube guide to check channel usage and find the "best" (least use) channels but every app I downloaded on ios did not seem to have that feature despite what the tutorial telling me.

[Shnozz]

Phil. said:

Good to hear from you Shnozz.

From experience, I think you need a new router. A decent router makes all the difference to the quality of connection. If that doesn't work then get your internet providers out to test and resolve it. A quick ask in the Computer section here will get you a recommendation for a new router. I find Amazon.es works as well as the UK and we have packages delivered for free to the local post office. All you need then is a tech person to install it for you. It's definitely a resolvable issue and shouldn't mean you have to move countries to solve it

Agree a run-around is the way to go. I had a look at second hand car prices and came to the conclusion that buying a nearly new one from a main dealer was probably the best option, and then keep it for 10+ years. With the RR I'm finding I'm parking half a mile from the entrance when visiting Carrefour



A LHD Vette should be fun in Spain. I agree with all your logic in regards to what you can and can't do travel wise. I guess the only issue is staying with your parents after flying in to the UK. The chances of you catching it on your travels and infecting them is small but a possibility. You could hang out in a Travelodge or similar for a night then visit your parents to pick up the car as part of your allowable return journey, meeting them outside.

As for routes down to where we are, I took quite a bit of advice from regular travellers to the area. It's best to avoid Paris and the AP7 Barcelona/Valencia route. Apparently lots of thefts at service stations and people trying to get you to stop you car claiming to be police. We drove ET - Rouen - Tours - Bordeaux - Burgos - Madrid - Murcia. All the roads were great and fairly empty. Don't forget to buy a toll tag. They take about a week to arrive. I used Bip&Go.

Edited by Phil. on Monday 10th August 12:48

Yes, used amazon.es a huge amount since I arrived and nice that prime is also only €36 for the year so great value. Still have to have items delivered either to the local amazon locker or pay €3 a time for a local shop to take in packages as like a lot of places in Spain, letters and parcels and delivery men in general can never find the address. The internet provider (new one) have confirmed we are getting the contracted speed so have pretty much stepped back now which is fair enough I guess as we are getting what we pay to get - the problem is now our side. If needs be, I will pay a tech guy to buy a router and do a set up that resolves the issue.

Don't blame you for parking the other side of the car park. A blue Huracan pulled into our local supermarket the other day and parked a few cars down from me near the front and I was surprised he didn't hunt down a space right at the back!

Am due down near you tomorrow in fact to go and look at an Audi I have my eye on. Fingers crossed it is better than the Mercedes cabrio I had a look at in Denia a few weeks ago that was presented in the most god awful condition. Really is a joke at the prices they want. Cannot help but see an opportunity there going forward, especially with the size of my garage to store cars. Not so much as a career but would be an enjoyable thing to do whilst potentially earning a few quid or at least the cars paying for themselves.

Good shout on the Travelodge idea. Got a few ideas out there with the Vette owner and one with the car dealer friend of mine might work. Going to give it some more proper thought this week as truth be told, not sure I want to let go of the Aston if the option is to just bring it down here to store it and use it occasionally. I can always add a Vette rather than replace the Aston with one and I am conscious that I am perhaps blindsided now I have no UK return date to wondering why I would hang on to the Aston when I could swap it and have a Vette for "free" that is better suited for this side of the road.

On the bip n go - did you manage to get one delivered to a UK address? My understanding was that wasn't possible? Reminds me I need to get one ordered here mind.

Edited by Shnozz on Monday 10th August 18:52

[omniflow]

Shnozz said:

What app would you recommend to check the channels? I was following a beginners youtube guide to check channel usage and find the "best" (least use) channels but every app I downloaded on ios did not seem to have that feature despite what the tutorial telling me.

Personally I would look to troubleshoot your issue in a methodical manner. If you're having problems with Teams even when connected to the router via ethernet, then ignore Wi-Fi for the moment and focus on addressing this problem. Otherwise you could end up trying to fix a problem with the Wi-Fi when in reality there's nothing wrong with it. Once everything is working fine when directly connected, then you can move on to look into any remaining issues.

[Shnozz]

Chris Stott said:

Shnozz said:

Still yet to buy a car down here and the whole experience (service, prices, condition, presentation) of dealerships has been dire. Hoping to nip down to Murcia after the inlaws return tomorrow to do a deal on one I have seen there that looks promising. Just a simple daily drive and will become in time an airport parked car so nothing fancy and parking in Spanish cities is always going to give rise to dents and scrapes so this is very much a daily beater.

I bought a car back in November - a painful process. I'd only intended to spend £5k or so, but when I started looking at stuff in this price bracket it was shockingly bad... poorly prepared, dents and scratches everywhere, huge mileage, patchy service history, no warrantee, etc. I ended up going to a main dealers spending nearly double my original budget (€9,5k) to get a 4 year old 1.0l Focus... but at least it came with a 12 month warrantee, FSH and relatively low miles (55k)... and it had been properly cleaned before being put in the showroom.

ooid said:

Hi Gents,

I'm suprised did not notice this thread before. I'm quite familiar with Spain, as I have family down there and we have a business in Barcelona. (Bakery). I'm also sort of familiar with house purchase legalities, as we were trying to buy a place for my parents a few years ago. I thought I've lost the bargain Barcelonatta studio flats back in 2008/09 with 50-60k euro prices, but it seems like there are some bargains to have around Murcia, like the example below?

https://www.idealista.com/en/inmueble/89547422/

I'm seriously considering a mini trip soon to check this area. We did not have much luck this year due to covid but, I really appreciate the value of just jumping to a cheap easyjet/rynair to Spain during depressing weather in U.K., and change of a scenery/culture or weather is quite different than our slowly decaying old blighty

I'd advise having a good think about how you'll use it over the long term... it's very important you get the right place as property doesn't appreciate in value here like it does in the UK (I paid the same for mine in 2014 as they sold for off plan in 1999) and property purchase tax is 10%... so you're most likely you'll lose money on anything you buy/sell over the short/medium term.

Some comments on property linked above..

It looks like it's on a big development of similarly sized/designed places, which will make it difficult to sell if you decide it's not right for you a few years down the line... property outside residential areas doesn't sell very quickly, and any prospective purchaser will have a lot of choice as there's always plenty of holiday homes for sale.... what will make your place stand out from the rest?

At 82sqm, it's quite small for a 3 bed. Our apartment is 132sqm, plus we have 130sqm of terrace and a large storeroom. It's OK with 6 here in the summer, as you spend most of the time outside. But in the winter, when you're inside more, it feels much smaller, even with 4 people here.

As above... outside space is really important as it's where you'll spend most of your time. Does it have enough private & covered space to sit outside/eat outside.

What's the surrounding area like? Are there places open all year round?

Your budget "creep" is almost identical to mine. But perhaps rather than the usual man maths to allow creep its born out of necessity as you say. In the UK, £5k would get you something half decent. Here it buys you a £1k - £2k equivalent. Moon mileage, scratched, dents and generally with a feeling you might get 12 - 24 months out of it if you are lucky.

As for your advice on the property, couldn't agree more. That said, I am keeping in mind its a €90k house. 3 not too large bedrooms but a nice enough place for the money but not much by way of terracing and, like you, we find that massively important. We have a large terrace off the kitchen above part of the garage, small terraces off 2 bedrooms front and back and then the whole footprint of the house is a roof terrace. We live on those 2/3 of the year. Even in winter months we take to our little "lounge on the roof" where we effectively have an outside sofa set and chairs and will watch a film. Might add a fire pit this year too.

Also agree what you say about buying "right". As the early days of this thread showed, I was first tempted when I saw a few cheaper (£100k ish) properties that looked extremely good at that price point. However, the transactional costs are such that I knew I wanted to only buy once, with room to live in if needed, or to not desire a change if I was here in Spain more or less time etc. I decided to change my budget substantially to get what I really wanted and be done with it. Handing over a bankers draft for 10% stamp duty is painful, as well as an addition 6 - 7% on top for legals and various charges. All sunk money that I would not want to do again.

As for the surrounding area, its pretty much my town so I can speak for that and say yes, it is a year round town. Its quieter of course in winter, although this summer is reminiscent of the winter months due to Covid! As I mentioned, however, this particular house is strictly not in that town but a short walk away, and does strike me as a bit of a ghost town due to few year round inhabitants and little by way of shops or bars. For me personally it didn't feel much of a community; many identical houses alongside each other with little hub in the form of bars or restaurants, just rows of v similar houses. Not so much of a town as a large development. However, I do feel thats reflected in the price.

[Shnozz]

ooid said:

Gents, thank you so much for the info! I can take your offer shnozz, whenever you are free to look over there, happy to email you.
Alicante Airport distance does not look so bad, it is 30 mins car drive? I mean comparing to what we have to suffer between East London and Gatwick Airport (min 90 mins)...

More than happy to take a look so feel free to email me any details.

I can do Alicante airport in 25 - 30 mins from me if I press on, and lo crispin is 5 mins drive from me so I would say 20 mins if you are a true PHer