OK, that makes perfect sense, I thought ~50K is way too little for something nice - never mind the actual dire economy, Barcelona is one of the world’s greatest cities…
Thank you for the sites…I’ve browsed a bit and have found some more properties which are within the budget…so I guess the best thing to do would be to follow Patricia’s advice (and we really like and appreciate her mature responses - thanks again Pat) and come for a longer visit - 6-12 months, and then we’ll decide what do buy and what to do.
Again, thank you all for the wealth of info! We keep doing our homework and will follow up with more questions.
LM
Again, you are welcome. There is a wealth of property for sale out there. You may wish to live in the city centre (Barcelona is a very large city), or at some distance from the city.
Of course, if you are able to work from home (and more and more people do work from home) then it is immaterial where you are in the area.
Now, since you know the area, can you point us to any neighborhood in the outskirts which is nice and not too far, let’s say pretty well connected by means of roads/public transportation? Perhaps some property links?
I realize RE is very subjective, and very personal, but at this point we have no better source of information. My wife now says she’d want a house and out of the city…and since I’d prefer to work remotely, at least part of the time, the distance won’t affect me much.
As I live in the south of Spain (and part of the time in Ireland) I am not all that familiar with Barcelona and its environs. I’ve visited the city a number of times, quite a while back.
I can see why you might be drawn to a large city; however, it is just a thought, you might prefer a smaller city, somewhere less overwhelming than Barcelona. I know, I am biased, as I do not like large cities for living. Given that you can work from home, I suppose it matters not where in Spain you base yourselves.
Anyhow, you could google “Sant Cugat del Valles” for example (it is very close to Barcelona), and see what you think. I note that the British Council has a language academy there.
I think once you are in Spain, and rent at first, you will probably decide to drive around the country a bit, and maybe go in a different direction altogether.
I’d agree with Patricia (again) ? Sant Cugat is probably one of the top places on the outskirts. Others: Vilasar de Mar (or the costa maresme in general), Sitges, Casteldefels, or, closer and actually IN the city (but family-oriented (read: boring)), would be Sant Gervasi.
Thank you both for your messages and advice - it’s very appreciated, and we are looking forward to share a glass of wine one day!
I’ve looked at the recommended outskirts cities around Barcelona, but couldn’t find many listed properties, hence a new question: is there any chance to buy a small detached house with some garden, at a distance covered either by a <1hr driving commute or in reach of public transportation, for no more than 100,000 EUR?
Hi guys ! Its been a year from your last post .How is everything ? We’re thinking to do the same move . We live in Vancouver and now we want to move to Valencia for the same reasons , plus ... we have a baby girl and we want something different for her. We are Canadian citizens but we also have our Romanian citizenship.
How do you like Spain so far ? Any advice would be greatly appreciated ! Thanks
Hi guys ! Its been a year from your last post .How is everything ? We’re thinking to do the same move . We live in Vancouver and now we want to move to Valencia for the same reasons , plus ... we have a baby girl and we want something different for her. We are Canadian citizens but we also have our Romanian citizenship.
How do you like Spain so far ? Any advice would be greatly appreciated ! Thanks
Unfortunately we didn’t move yet, but we are going to make the move this summer. Why did you guys choose Valencia? And in what sense do you think life there would be different for your young one than in Canada? (we agree, but we were curious about other parents’ opinions).
Thanks a lot for your reply. We understand that meanwhile you guys became parents? Congrats! First of all, let us tell you that we share all your feelings and thoughts detailed in your first post. Your reasons for leaving are ours too. Btw, we are hoping to make the move this summer too 😊
Why we decided on Valencia? It’s a a very beautiful city, not too expensive nor too crowded and very safe. It has many bilingual schools and the only language spoken there is Spanish (compare to Barcelona where most of them speak Catalan, which is completely different from Spanish 😖 ). We had in mind Barcelona too, at first, and the language thing was one of the reasons we decided to choose Valencia. Also it is not as expensive as Barcelona 😉 .
We did some research and we were really pleased to find out that the schools in Valencia are very good.We’re talking here about primary & secondary levels, not Universities, which are some of the best in Europe anyway. Kids have the option to learn another language starting primary school (usually English), and then another one in secondary school (we would go with German). There are so many outdoors activities for kids that Valencia can offer: the City of Arts and Science, Oceanografic (which is the biggest aquarium in Europe and the 2nd biggest in the world), the Bioparc Zoo and many others. You can find more details about this here http://www.mumabroad.com/costablanca/Activities_for_kids_in_Valencia-12676.
The fact that our little girl will have the opportunity to play outside with the other kids in the neighbourhood means the world to us. We always think of our childhood, how great it was that we could go out and play all day, and feel sorry for the kids nowadays that spend most of their time playing video games, and if you want your kid to socialize, you have to plan ahead a play date. We really like the good old fashion education. We find it much healthier.
Anyway, we’re pretty sure that most of this aspects go for Barcelona too, but we feel that Valencia is better for family life. This post here really helped us with our decision, maybe you’ll find it useful too. http://beyondmanana.com/keeping-our-children-safe-uk-and-spain/.
When it comes to employment, we are still doing research. Unfortunately we won’t be able to go there with jobs, so this is our only concern :-(.
Regarding relocation, we really give it a 90% chance for this summer. It was an awful winter here, so even with the relatively cozy jobs here we feel it’s time for another change.
I’ve done some more research and have enlarged the area - taking into account Germany and other German-speaking countries - being my mother tongue it’s an advantage that I’d like to use more than I did here in Canada. I’m just saying this concerning employment, otherwise I’d still go for Spain, because I consider the culture to be more compatible with ours.
Have you decided on a moving date? When exactly are you going? Have you made all the planning concerning closing account here, or setting them dormant? We are a little confused and undecided on that front…checking, savings, rsp, tfsa, business account, credit cards, etc.
