Illustrates how buying property in a recession is made easy thanks to a reliable real estate agent on Spain’s Costa Tropical.

Why buy a Spanish property in a world recession by N & Y Evans

In April 2008, I obtained a teaching post in Almuñécar's International School starting that September. Our first priority was to find rental accommodation from August; the town’s peak holiday season. We knew it would be hard to find a place in the town at the height of the season, and so we returned for a week in May. After visiting a number of inmobiliaria websites we came across the Tropicana Properties site – they seemed to offer a good range of properties, and gave indications of availability and pricing. We also found their independent site, www.spaincostatropical.com run by Martin Bright the proprietor. This site continues to offer user friendly pages packed full of information, showing a real love and understanding of the Costa Tropical. In fact, we still visit the site regularly to get updated information on the area and events which Martin posts as a kind of blog in the Latest News section.

During our 7 day May trip, we soon discovered that here In Spain you cannot normally view a rentable property unless it is unoccupied. Consequently there were some properties we had arranged to view that we could not see and, somewhat frustrated, we returned to England without finding anywhere suitable. However, there was an apartment close to the sea front, which we liked from the outside and its location seemed perfect. Although we had not seen inside, Tropicana soon arranged to email us some extra photos which showed exactly the interior layout and style as it is. This finally convinced us that we should go for it. We booked the apartment for 6 months and when we returned in August we found the property was ideal: clean, well furnished and centrally located.

My wife returned to England where we still had a property to sell; and when she returned later that Autumn, with our dog, Alice, we found that the outside terrace of the apartment was not perfect - we decided that we needed a more spacious property suitable for dog walks. We again turned to Tropicana, who sympathised with our change of requirements, and within days they managed to offer us a much larger property with more outside space. This pretty country house, just on the outskirts of Cotobro, again was well-maintained, well furnished and within walking distance of the local bus stop. In the Spring of 2009 there was a complicated problem with the air conditioning and heating system, which the team at Tropicana Properties sorted out with the owner and local engineers, who had to make a number of visits and to obtain various parts from abroad.

After several months here on Spain's Costa Tropical, our house in England sold, and with the world recession starting to bite, we nevertheless decided to buy a property in Spain. [#1]. Our criteria (our wish-list – in estate agent speak) seemed complex and, having explored various villages in the immediate area, we knew that we wanted to buy in Almuñécar but the prices here were just too high. Widening our searches we arranged viewings with a variety of local real estate agencies, including Tropicana Properties, and, as we had previously experienced in England, we came across some agents who were unhelpful, ill-informed and amateur in their approach. (By the way, by now, we both had a passable Spanish, and understood much of what was being said between agent and vendor!) One agent could not find details on the computer of properties which were prominently displayed in their office window. Another could not even find copies of the documentation for his properties. Therefore, and after some discussion, we decided to deal only with Tropicana Properties, as their approach appeared to be more professional and they checked out all the property paperwork beforehand to avoid complications later on[#2].

We viewed properties around the various districts of the town but really liked one on the outskirts of Almuñécar near the Rio Verde valley, just below Citasol. Though the property provided an excellent location and superb views, offered a small but manageable garden, it was still far outside of our price range, and it also needed quite a lot of work doing to it. We would have to take out a Spanish mortgage to complete and take advantage of the low price offered by the vendor. After further hard negotiations with the French-speaking owners and thanks largely to the multilingual dealings by Bernard Calatayud at Tropicana Properties, we succeeded in getting the property reduced by a very healthy and substantial amount; it was now a real bargain! Then to help find a mortgage, Tropicana Properties recommended we contact a local Spanish bank which at that time was one of the few banks still lending. In addition, they were not charging customers for a large proportion of current account transactions and staff were available to speak English. We spoke to the bank manager, handed over copies of our salary and savings and confidently moved our current account across to them.

Purchasing a property in the height of a world recession may not, at first, appear the most opportune moment. Due to the current world financial crisis and controls on credit, mortgage and loan applications are much tighter, and some of the details and documents required for submission could no longer be dealt with by the bank at branch level. Nevertheless, the team at Tropicana Properties never stopped, always helping to "chase things up" on our behalf and liaising with the friendly local bank manager. Tropicana Properties also recommended a specialist currency transfer company, Currencies Direct, who would help to transfer our sterling funds from the UK. The staff at the currency company, both here in Spain and in the UK, turned out to be very useful and the whole process straightforward. We know that Tropicana Properties only recommend companies which they have tried and tested previously. After our offer was accepted we put down a small holding deposit and signed the private sales contract. We were anxious to secure the sale by putting down our 10% holding deposit, but Bernard suggested that we wait until the bank finalised the mortgage because deposits are not usually refundable in Spain; that is unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The house we were buying had been unoccupied for the last couple of years, and the owners had disconnected both the water and electric supplies [#3]. Tropicana Properties pointed this out to us at the start and agreed with the vendors to have the work done prior to our eventual purchase. Consequently, and with very little cost to ourselves, the electricity and water supplies were reconnected with the most up-to-date meters and a new sewage connection to the mains. Again, Tropicana's team guided us through, keeping us informed of progress throughout, recommending local plumbers, builders and electricians who did the work. The reconnection needed official certification (boletin) which Tropicana’s team also helped to secure in our names as the new owners; José visiting Motril to sort out the official requirements and Sonia speaking with the utility company offices here in Almuñécar. Once more, Martin's team of professionals did what they have always done, saving us a considerable amount of time and travel by eliciting and collecting documents that were essential for the smooth exchange to take place as soon as our mortgage was approved.

Completion day finally arrived and we went to the Notary to sign for both the property and the mortgage. We were accompanied by Bernard, and as the vendors were French (the son carrying his mothers power of attorney), then the proceedings necessitated knowledge of Spanish, French and English. It was obvious to us that Bernard is well-known and highly regarded at the notary office. The warmth of the officers and secretaries at the notary certainly promoted a more relaxing, stress free, atmosphere. At all times we were told what was written in to the Spanish documents we were signing.

At the time of writing, we are now nearing the end of our lease at our Cotobro home and preparing to move into our newly reformed house in the Rio Verde valley. If we had not met Martin and his team: Bernard, Jose and Sonia at Tropicana Properties, back in April 2008 then we would not have found any of these properties. Perhaps, too, we would probably still be renting and have never found our new home here on Spain's Costa Tropical. True to their word, their service does not end at the point of sale: they are still looking after us. Sonia has just helped us to sort out our direct debit for the IBI (the municipal town hall taxes) payments, they have even helped us with sourcing furniture for our new home! There are many more things that they have done for us, too many to mention here. This account may seem a little far-fetched to those readers who are used to run-of-the-mill estate agents in the UK, but in truth, we would not hesitate in recommending Tropicana Properties & Spain Costa Tropical.

NOTES:

#1 – During the global recession of late 2007 to 2009 (still current in some countries), many nationalities were affected by the sudden halt on credit, deflation and bankruptcies. In some countries banking systems almost failed – forcing governments to effectively bail out the banks with taxpayers money. For some nations, Sweden for example, the effects were so bad they began to block loan applications outside their own territories in order to protect their currency reserves. Despite the recession, however, buying property can still be a prudent move. Cash buyers, and those free of credit and able to obtain financing can take advantage of exceptional property price reductions. It is important to shop around in this present market since not all distressed properties are flexible enough to drop more than 10 or 15% - while older properties (in the sense that they have been with the same owner for more than 5 years plus) can accept offers that are far more flexible – even as much as 50% less than the market valuation of similar properties in the area.

#2 – Today, in order to be compliant with the consumer protection act, decreto 218/2005 of the regional Andalucian government, all real estate agents (including website based agencies) by law should supply, when requested, a copy of the abbreviated information related to the property (ficha informativa sobre la vivienda). This document should be produced by the selling agent, on request, and will contain such information as vendors details, proof of charges paid (ibi, community fees, utilities, etc), recent nota simple, building plans and/or inventory (as appropriate). If the real estate agent you are using does not have this information available at your request then they are not complying with current Spanish consumer law; and furthermore they can face heavy fines or even prosecution.

#3 – Since 2006, Spanish utility companies have been encouraged to enforce strict building regulation changes and infrastructural commitments that have been introduced by the state. In order to do this, each time a property changes hands and when the contract for the supply is more than 10 years old then the company will ask for a new survey prior to the changeover being permitted. The effects of this action can be quite dramatic. In the case of electricity, the company can insist on complete updating of electric installations, surge protectors, meters that limit supply, or cabling being replaced before the new boletin (contract) can be issued. Water companies are responsible for both water to the property and also drainage from. Since it is now a legal requirement that all properties classified as urban must be connected to the sewage infrastructure, including those on the peripherals of the town or village, then as properties change hands such issues are investigated. Usually the cost of sewage connection is shared by the community of owners, each paying a part towards the final cost of installations and connection to the mains drainage system. For many vendors unaware of the issue, they are nevertheless still responsible for the all or part of the cost prior to change of ownership. A good estate agent should know these issues from the documents supplied by the vendor, the local authority, and community of owners; and which are paramount to ensuring that a healthy search on the property is carried out.