Category: Foreing

This is undoubtedly the stress-free option (so long as money isn’t short). Buy on a resort and you won’t have to worry about cleaning the communal pool, watering the garden, maintaining the roads or finding rental guests. Depending on the resort you choose, of course, you are likely to be living among a wide range of foreign owners as well as Spanish. There will …

50 years ago, the vast majority of Spaniards lived in villages and small towns. From the 1970s to the 1990s more than 10 million moved provinces. Many of the younger people moved to the coasts looking for better paid work in the tourist trade while millions more moved to the cities. Since then, however, in the south and east especially, expats from Britain, northern …

Budget flights to Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca and so many Spanish cities have made the idea of a weekend bolthole very appealing. While city apartments are often highly expensive, and cities can be polluted and noisy, Spain has invested heavily in those things that bring in tourists, such as transport infrastructure, museums, the arts and culture. Compared to many countries’ cities, …

Most overseas buyers come for the seaside. It isn’t just the chance to swim in it, the coastal strip also has the facilities and infrastructure – airports, golf courses, nightlife, international schools, attractive property, English-speaking professionals – as well as cooling sea breezes and a ready-made expat social life. Prices are, of course, more expensive, but you might not necessarily need a sea view …

Spain has around 95 people per square kilometre. The UK has 265, Belgium 370 and the Netherlands nearly 500. So for new arrivals from northern Europe, Spain is bigger, emptier, hotter and far more mountainous. Go just a few miles inland from the coast and it’s not unusual to see farmers riding donkeys and shepherds tending flocks. This is the ‘campo’, the countryside. People …

The Canaries, sitting off the coast of Morocco, are warm, but not especially hot, all year. Buy here and you can get four seasons of enjoyment (or rental). They are comprised of seven islands: Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro. Each is different, some sandy, some more volcanic, others with vibrant nightlife and cheap holiday apartments, others quieter. …

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Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza (and the tiny island of Formentera, off Ibiza) form the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. On Mallorca, the madness of resorts like Magaluf sits alongside classy seaside villages and resorts where the Spanish royal family spends its summers and the likes of Richard Branson have homes. It has something for everyone, including the beautiful (and expensive) city of Palma, arty …

The south of Spain includes the well-known Costa del Sol in the middle, the less famous Costa Tropical to the east and Costa de la Luz running up to Portugal. With resorts like Almuñecar, Nerja, Torremolinos, Fuengirola, Mijas, Marbella and Estepona it is the classic Spanish property-buying destination. The British are still the biggest buyers here, but there are also large numbers of Russians, …

Spain becomes more arid as you head south from the Costa Blanca, including an actual desert at Almanzora. However, it is also a major agricultural supplier too, especially in Murcia in the northern section and inland to the south of Almeria city. South of Murcia, within Andalusia, Almeria was a relatively quiet and poor province until the tourists and new residents arrived, priced out …