Moving to Los Alcazares area

For estate agents l used Aurea Inmobiliara they were great to work with, very helpful and not pushy at all. I dealt with Belen she is fluent in english. I felt at ease with them and they answered all my problems like any first time buyers. Everything was seamless. They are just behind the townhall in Los Alcazares. Look them up on google. Hope this helps. 

Hi, we bought on Sierra Golf last year through Janine at Luxury Bargain Villas - she’s Torrevieja based but has contacts over here. Very reliable, Spanish speaking and tells it straight. I have recommended her to other new buyers with no regrets. She will help with the bank and solicitor too. luxury bargain villas.com 

If you want to private message me your number I can ask her to ring?

Whichever way you choose, have fun!!

Tim

My advice is rent for a minimum of 6 months first.  Meet the locals, for example Monday mornings @ the Garden Bar 11am. Walk, cycle etc the area at different times of the day & evening.  What is good for one is not suitable for another.  Buying property in any country is a life changing experience. You want to get it right. Good luck.

I agree  there is no set way to do it but hiring for 6 months to a year will give you a better picture socially, lifestyle wise economically,  foodwise weatherwise etc.

Hi We have been here 1 year full time but visiting for 15+ years and have only rented so cannot help with any of those questions. I agree however with recommendation to rent first- it will not be wasted money as you can learn the area. We live in Los Narejos and love it but some may not.Your questions 

1 weather- winter up to 20/21 oc middle of the day but cold at night- c 5 oc.you might only get max temp for an hour or so as like the UK the days are short

Spanish houses are generally not built with lots of insulation so you will need good heating in the evenings in winter. Can be winter storms which can be torrential but don't usually last long then the sun will come out again

   spring- gets warmer from march/april- not much warmer than 20-23 oc but as the days get longer you get longer with max temps. Some rain- easter here this year it rained pretty much non stop for 4 - 5 days but then stopped and we haven't had much since.

summer- surprise surprise it gets hot - high 30 ( we saw 40oc on sunday ) but generally coast is cooler than even 10 miles inland - more humid though. Trick is to live as the Spanish- get everything done early and treat the afternoons as siesta time. Go out much later than uk- when sun is down and its cooler. 11pm on ?

autumn-  I think best time- less busy but cooler.as you get into late autumn you can get storms (gota fria) as the med cools down.Can be cold /wet for a few days but on the other hand you can get long warm dry periods.

Other points

Noise- you will be lucky to find somewhere quiet in July/August- combination of lots of people on holiday, kids, dogs barking , fireworks,     discos - if you buy/rent house with basement think about moving down there - its cooler and quieter! Having said that there are lots of free concerts etc in summer - so just adjust!

cost of living - I would say similar to UK. electric quite expensive I think but bottled gas cheap - and wifi/ mobile phones cheapish

 Council .Rates lots cheaper for a much better service.

Spanish banks don't get good reviews often- pick carefully. 

Hope that helps

Try Intasure (UK based). They are very good, and insure for things like earthquake damage etc if you need it.

We used them for 15 years as our insurer in Cyprus.

Re. Estate Agents. Do your own research as much as possible, and use them only for questions initially then viewings. For everything else use a good independent lawyer and neighbours are a great source of local/property info. Theyll tell you more than any Estate Agent will with  no holds barred. We’ve done that a lot and learned so much more than the agents told us.

Remember too that however good an agent is, they are acting (and being paid by the seller to do so), for the seller; their interest in you as the buyer is (largely) only in so far as it sells the property and achieves a commission for them.

Actually my view is that the true test of how nice/helpful an agent is.....you only find out if you DONT buy that particular property! Are they still nice to you then? We’ve dealt with agents who didnt even speak to us to acknowledge feedback we’d sent to them after viewing, coz it wasnt the feedback saying we wanted to buy.

Use google and youtube extensively; theres lots of info out there, and Youtube date their videos, which is very useful. We had agents telling us a property had ‘only’ been for sale for 6 months, only to find a listing by them on youtube goin back 3 years!!!

Be careful!!!!!!

Thank you so much for that advice

Very very helpful advise. Many thanks to you.

Good tip. Many thanks to you.