Owning your own home

Yes, and they obviously save the 1% in estate agent fees.

Worth checking with mortgage providers for sure. And of course make sure you have your own solicitors and surveys etc.

We've had a similar situation. To get a fair market price we got valuations from 5 agents, knocked off the top and bottom ones and took an average of the remaining 3. Then agreed to knock off a few % to account for haggling down and general estate agent optimism.

As long as you're paying a market price (and as others have already suggested - get several quotes to show this (your mortgage provider will also be doing a valuation which should back this up) in case you need to prove this to HMRC etc) then i don't think there's any particular tax or legal implications for buying from family or friends. SDLT payable will be the same (you'd have to pay on a deemed market value if you were paying a non-market consideration) and IHT / transaction at undervalue issues shouldn't apply.

If you're a connected party to the seller, lenders may be wary of "undue influence", so you may have to use different solicitors to the selling party or provide confirmation that they've received independent legal advice. Or they may just refuse to lend because it goes in the "computer says no" box.

One thing to slightly bear in mind - when you buy a property you ask lots of questions about the property / title etc and you can rely on the seller's replies so that, if they misrepresent something, you have a potential remedy against them (although in reality this is often not worth much as replies are guarded / unhelpful / tell you to rely on your own enquiries). If you're buying from a family member or friend and an issue crops up down the line that they should have told you about (or may have inadvertently misled you on etc), it's a bit trickier (from a relationship, not a legal, perspective) for you to bring an action for misrep....

Not sure re the Help to Buy isa point - I don't see how identity of seller is an issue - you either tick the "first time buyer" boxes or you don't - but i haven't any knowledge on these.

Anyone bought a property in Spain?

My little sister has, whats'up?

I was hoping for someone on here. I'm looking into it and will obviously have a bunch of questions, like - do you use a UK bank/lender or a Spanish one? Did they buy as a resident or from the UK (there's tax implications with the latter)? How do you find a trusted translator/agent/etc for all the paperwork? Those kind of questions.

Many thanks all x

@hippy I looked into it and got put off by talk of town hall shenanigans, not knowing Spanish, exchange rate, market coming back and the likely scenario that anywhere I could afford would be a money pit to maintain. Plus, the country was a fascist military dictatorship barely 40 years ago: people think it’s so cool but it’s not. My parents bought a beautiful house in Andalusia in 1982 for £18000 and when my dad died mum sold it for 350000 to some Germans (sorry) who totally ruined it. I’m still sad about losing it, so is the whole street cos people used to just come round. Most people in Spain rent, once, after I started going again, I found somewhere I really liked I just kept going there until I found a local person to have an arrangement with and I book well in advance. My mate bought a cow shed in the hills outside Madrid and lovingly made it habitable. He still has it but it hasn’t increased loads in the 20 years he has had it - not that that is everything but it is a money pit - and the gentry from Madrid are apparently ruining the vibes in the village so he is thinking of moving on. He’d be surprised if a cyclist wanted to rent it - it still is a bit like a cow shed- but i cycled there once and the riding is great. Sorry for mad ramble

Girona was tipped in the FT:

“Where else in Europe can you cycle for five hours and not see
another person?”

https://www.ft.com/content/70267c20-cfc1-11e9-b018-ca4456540ea6

I'm thinking seriously now about moving over there. I'll probably rent somewhere first to see if I still like it living there, see if the novelty wears off. To be honest though I've got money burning a hole in my pocket and doing nothing for me so I could equally throw it at something and deal with whatever happens. Where I'm looking isn't super cheap anyway so I know I'm not looking for a 'deal', I'm looking for a lifestyle change. I'm also risk averse so it's not like I'm going to be buying an imaginary apartment off a website like some lunatic sun-damaged retired couple. ;)

That's where I'm looking at the moment. I can't read FT though.

Yeah town hall stuff is pretty bad in Spain. Obviously its somewhat dependent on what you're doing (i.e. just buying a flat might not be so bad since you'll be relatively limited in the changes you might want to make to the property), but it is pretty easy for a local to denounce you to the council at which point any permissions you might have been granted will magically disappear.

This happened to my Aunt & Uncle, who were pretty careful to get everything lined up and in order officially, as another Uncle had warned them how bad it could be. Even after getting everything done through official channels the moment a local decided they didn't like the plans it all got shut down

What 'plans' though? I'm not going to be building or renovating, just buying an established house.

Also, you think Spanish bureaucracy is a match for me? Mwuahahahaaa

Have you decided on a location now Hippy?

Anyone bought a property in Spain?

What about an English speaking country in the Southern Hemisphere?
New Zealand? Australia?

I bet they are really nice

Shit at sports though.
Bit right wingy.

May as well stay here.

Girona at the moment. But that's just because it's a known cycling-friendly area. It's also more expensive than elsewhere being Catalan and with lots of forruns. So, I'm still open minded about further south (Granada or on the coast south of Malaga). Either way I need to take the missus to check out a few areas before I can do anything more than ponder.

Been there, done that.

You could try a three month rental, see if you get on with the area - no need to commit to any one area straight away.

I live in Barcelona (and am from the UK) and will soon be looking at buying a place here in Catalonia.

These lawyers have been great with the immigration and business stuff I have done so far and have a number of simple articles on their website here: https://balcellsgroup.com/services/legal-advice-for-real-estate/

Also, Girona is great!

Talk to Laura...

I'll ask my sis and see what she did... she lives in a small town/village outside of Valencia and I can't recommend Valencia enough. Beautiful city, not wildly expensive, loads of good food (actual good food not that shit tourist trap of a food market that Time out set up in Lisbon) and plenty of things going on, but not too many tourists/forruns(English) ruining things.

That's the plan. I rented here for maybe 3 years before buying. But I still need to have an idea of real estate procedures and house costs in certain areas, what kind of thing I can get for my money, yada yada so I can move on something if I want to and so I know what I'm looking for while I'm over there.
I actually had a dream last night about just heading over now and working from there and seeing how long I could work remotely before someone noticed I'd stopped coming in to the office. :D

Nice one. I'll have a read (and probably ask you a load of questions in the future mwuahahaha)

Which Laura? About Spain or about FT?