did you manage to bag yourself a bargain spanish casa

[princess peach]

After watching all these living in the sun progs etc on the tv,and all the bargain houses they manage to find the ex pats,I was wondering how many of us did actually manage to get themselves a real bargain in spain.
I certainly didnt.I have a newbuild property.

Did you manage to get yourself a ruin or a bargain for next to nothing.
What did you buy,what price was it,when did you buy it,what state was it in,and what have you done to it from purchasing to now?

[Michaelinland]

In a Town near Granada we bought a town house 6 years ago, no kitchen, living room, dining room, down stairs bathroom, upstairs was just one area no seperate rooms, so we seperated it into 3 bedrooms and a bathroom. We have a small front terrace, it is a detached house..

We..

Put a new kitchen in
Tiled all floors
New bathroom upstairs
Other bits and pieces..

The house cost us 28,000 euros. We have probably spent 15,000 euros.

House is probably now worth 120,000.

So we did well and can't complain..

[bubba]

we bought a small house on 5000 m2 of land just outside of the town,for 53,000 euros 7 years ago. we have built a villa, a pool and a guest house
with own entrance. value 520,000 euros.
Hopefully in a couple of months we shall be able to sell them seperatley at 200 and 350,00 which will help them to sell quicker. Most people coming here want a property around 250,000 euros. Not much at that price these days.
Luckily inland property not far from the coast wont have to drop too much in price as you get a lot for your money compared to the coast.
My neighbour is having to sell her house below me if anyone is interested,
husband has recently died and she is in the uk, smallish house but modern, outbuildings and a good plot of land close to town. will probably sell for a good price. email me is interested, I am not making any money on this just doing a favour.

[frog]

hi princess,i love watching those programs,i am sure people in the uk think that that is the price you can get a house for now,they should say the show is a few years old
i got my house in fuengirola 6 years ago,off plans,exactly one year late which at the time i thought was bad for about 90,000 quid and hope to sell it for around that in 5 years time

[princess peach]

Oh dear poor Frog. ..I wont be selling mine to get what i paid for it...
Luckily the rental market is still booming here(not sure what its like for everyone else where they live)I suppose its because of Gib being so close.
The rental prices are still the same,if not higher,so mine would be rented and wrecked until the prices went back up(probs when im dead.. )

[scampicat]

We bought five years ago. Three bed village house in a traditional 'pueblo blanco'. 51,000 euros. Then we bought the ruina next door. 17,000 euros. Then we spent about 15,000 euros reforming them.

So altogether 83,000 euros and a valuation of c. 185,000 euros.

We did OK.

[princess peach]

very nice scampicat...I havnt had any bargains as such,but each time i have bought,i have managed to make money when i sold ,so eventually i was able(house purchase number 3 in 5 years)to afford my last purchase and buy my spanish house.

[Wicksey]

We bought land and had a small villa built 12 years ago and sold 8 years later for more than 4 times what we paid. What you have to remember is that what you then buy next has gone up as well, so it's not always just a case of pocketing the profits. I'm really glad we didn't buy when we returned to Spain last year, and we are happy just to rent now. We don't buy unless we think we will make a profit, which there seems little chance of these days

[geegee]

I find it hard to define what a 'bargain' really is Peach, as so much depends on your circumstances, what you want out of life and the going rate in the area where you buy. I bought what I considered a bargain in 2002 which, even after all rennovation costs are taken into account, is now worth more than double what I paid for it in total according to a recent bank valuation. I could have equally doubled my money with a rennovation project in the right area at the right time back in the UK - and indeed did - thats what gave me the cash to buy and rennovate my first Spanish property outright...

[scampicat]

We will not buy more property - we won't sell until we no longer wish to live in or visit Spain - so after taxes we WILL be able to pocket the profits.

[marchamona]

Bought an old 'casa de labor' in 1992 for £8000.
It made two houses, each with kitchen, bathroom, 2 bedrooms, lounge + couple of odd little rooms.Spent a total of £38000 on conversion.So total cost for 2 nice little rustic houses - £46000. Not interested in what it's worth today, won't be leaving unless they carry me out in a box!

[Wicksey]

Not interested in what it's worth today, won't be leaving unless they carry me out in a box!

I wish we could be like that but we have itchy feet and usually move around quite a lot, so we have to consider the buying and selling costs unfortunately. For the first time ever we are not tied to a property (as owners) so know that we can move on at the end of the contract without any hassle. Ironically, we love it here (at the moment) so have no plans to move on ...... but then we have said that before

[Kyt]

And we bought our Casa near Montefrio through `Living In The Sun' last year and shown this spring just gone - we are well chuffed and enjoying our new home and community. Not sure it's the best bargain that could have been had but it's the home we wanted...

[Zofia]

I've posted this on another thread, but we bought this house in 2001 for around £30,000. It was a two-bed cottage, with a rubbish corrugated kitchen and a brand new shower room! It was certainly liveable in though. We spent about £50,000 on it over the last 6 years, extending it to build a brand new kitchen and converting an outbuilding into another bedroom suite, generally tarting it up, to include air-con and most things we need for comfort!. We added a pool and extensive terracing, landscaped a bit etc. There is quite a lot of land (aobout 6 acres, don't know what it is in metres). I've no idea what it's worth now, but 4 years ago we were told about £110,000. It's in the campo, up a mountain but not far from a village and Loja.

We bought the Monefrio house for 140,000euros, it's a semi-ruin and will need complete rebuilding, so we will see how much that will end up costing, but it will be a 4 bedroom house with a seperate annexe with a small flat, pool, tennis court and gym/games room. There is a fair amount of land too, but not as much as here. I've no idea if it is a bargain or not!

[briansession]

My truthful answer to you in NO. Whatever I bought in Spoain was overpriced and has gone down in price since then. However, I still love Spain and the Spanish and will move there very soon. I miss a lot of things in Spain-spanish music and Nina Pastori singing in particular. You can't take it with you so enjoy living in Andalucia and forget about loss and profit.