Hi

My wife and I are coming to Spain from England at the end of March to look for property/land with a view to retirement.  We have never been abroad before and so this will be a totally new experience for us.

We are hoping to look in areas from Alicante in the North to Almeria in the South, ideally not too far from the coast.  We will be in our Motor-home and so will find it easy to “move around”

I don’t know if anyone can help us with the information needed?

We would like to find a piece of land/finca where we could build a medium sized house.  As I have built “wooden holiday cottages” over here, we were wondering if this sort of property is allowed in the above areas.

I have checked many sites but we would be grateful for any information and on “must bring with us” things and also suggestions for good estate agents etc.

As this is our first trip abroad we would be grateful for any help at all as there are still so many things to find out.

Many thanks, best regards, John & Margaret Gardiner

Hi Folks, I have read your post and whilst I am not trying to shatter your retirement dream it has filled me full of dread! You say you have not been abroad before so you obviously dont speak Spanish and have no knowledge of local planning laws etc so you need to be very careful! If you are intending to build a wooden house there are companies selling the whole kit to build a house you will then need to buy land and ensure it has correct planning permissions and the option to have water and electricity! This could turn out to be a bigger undertaking than perhaps you realise. Good luck and do plenty of research before you part with a penny! Keep us posted!

PS I have just remembered a post I did some months ago regarding a ruling on wooden houses - there used to be a way round the law on planning permissions that as they were not permanent structures (because they are not brick) permissions were not required but this has been ruled AGAINST in court - so please dont buy land on the understanding that you can build anything on it if it has not got the full permissions.

Planning rules, and the severity with which they are interpreted and applied, vary hugely between autonomous communities, provinces, comarcas and even municipalities. There are also lots of restrictions applying to natural parks and other areas subject to special control, and some of these are being expanded and indeed applied retrospectively.  What you can do in Alicante you may not be able to do in Almeria or vice-versa, and although you’ll see lots of evidence of planning law being flagrantly broken or ingnored, it doesn’t mean you’d be able to get away with it yourselves.

Wooden houses in Southern Spain?  There may be a reason why it’s never been done. Traditional buildings here have thick stone walls and tiny windows to keep cool, and new ones have sophisticated air-con.

My advice anyway would be to hold off and rent a place, check things out, learn some Spanish.  Rents are cheap and the price of property and land is slowing right down or even falling, so I really think you should take your time.

Just thought of some other advice - when you come over, register with a police station for NIE numbers (that’s a non-resident ID).  It’s an easy process of showing passports and filling in forms, but it takes a couple of weeks for the document to come through.  Then open a bank account, even if it’s just with a few euros.  You can do all this before you settle on an area you want to live in and it will make it that much easier later.

Hi John

You have some time before you start your trip to Spain. The area you have suggested is a long way maybe Newcastle to Lands End. Cost of property will vary from Denia in the North to Vera in the south, on the coast or just a few miles inland. Moving inland a few miles can make the difference of sometimes 20k + on the same type of property.

Start to look at the main area’s on the Internet, get a map, draw a line on just how far inland you realistically want to be, remember, the further inland you go, the more reliant you will need to be on the Spanish language, so start and practice NOW. when you have your line, just pick a place name and google it and find out something about the place, if it is not to your liking, cross it off the map and don’t waste time on it, it will give you more time in the area’s that meet your needs.

Get yourself a brief of the type of property you want, if you want to build wooden lodges, then how much will they cost and have your budget on a sheet of paper so that you know if you can afford the land. Remember it you cast about 10% on top of the purchase price to cover taxes etc.

There is a lot of work to do before you go and by doing all that work before you go, WILL save time in the long run.

Dave