Buying a property

Hi, buying off plan used to be risky, however as long as your solicitor speaks very goodcEnglish you are generally OK now. Having your own pool in a holiday home is expensive, as it needs weekly maintenance in the summer and at least monthly in the winter whether you are here are not. A property with a communal pool is a better option if you are not here on a permanent basis.

San Pedro is a living Village, so doesn’t really close down in Winter, however, the tourist areas of Lo Pagan do tend to close at the end of the season, so many of the restaurants close from October to March. The little bars along the beach close too, however the main square in San Pedro is always open, year round.

With regard to renting out, yes you can, however if you are renting to people you don’t know for 1 or 2 weeks holiday, and charging, you must have a tourist licence. 

The police are becoming more vigilant about this and are now knocking on doors to check who’s there and who they are. If you rent it out long term (6 months minimum let) then you don’t need a licence. Your solicitor can help with this, plus the additional insurance needed and the taxes involved n the income made, and there are many people here who can recommend local, reliable key holders, meet and greet, cleaning and care taking services; completepropertyrental.com are a lovely Scottish couple here in San Pedro who offer a complete service.

We have a house and an apartment here, both with communal pools, the house is for us and sleeps up to 10; the apartment is a 2 bed purely for rental and sleeps up to 6. We come all year, winter is still winter, it rains in April, it can be very cold in Jan/early Feb, but generally it’s a pleasant place to be.

Hope that helps 😁

Hi, 

I’d like to share my view on a private pool versus a communal pool.....as part of our decision making we did the calculations on how much it would approximately cost to care for a private pool and how this compared to annual communal fees, for us the difference was very little and very much depends on what the communal fees are, our pool 8x5 costs in the region of €800 per year. Of course a private pool increases the IBI (similar to property tax) however it also enhances your holiday/living experience and for us the private pool won out. You will also find someone to look after your pool in the same way you will find someone to look after your property...

The website www.idealista.com will have most if not all properties in San Pedro and surrounding areas listed for sale....always worth a look.

Good luck with your searching, decision making and house buying.

I think it definately depends on the community fees in that case, as ours are 290 a year! Our communal pool is beautifully maintained, not sure of the size but 8+ people can swim easily at the same time, plus there is a toddler area too 😁

Entry by key so secure (up to people to lock themselves in and out to stop others from using it of course) two showers, 8 or 10 benches,  areas for sun loungers if you want to bring them and we don't have to lift a finger...well, to be honest there is a net for taking out flower petals etc that get blown in.

All in all, we prefer this as we are not giving keys out to maintenance people as well as our key holders, paying far less than if we had our own and it is a wonderful way to socialise with our neighbours. 😁

Hope that helps.

Thank you everyone for your reply’s so great information there. Once everything’s back open we’ll have a visit and view some properties

Thanks again