Owning your own home

IIRC Fluff and Leo are out there as well, Brendan is in BCN too...

Someone I was talking to recently just came back from Valencia. Shit I have a terrible memory and I'm fucking sober right now?!

Valencia is close to Ibiza.. I'll have to get a boat... oonce oonce oonce

Not been there though so no idea. I quite like the idea of being somewhere hilly for a change, hence moving my thinking from the coast more towards places like Girona and Granada.

Yeah, Scherrit said they were in Girona a while back, not sure if they're still there.

HA, as do I!

A lot of the clubbing culture started in Valencia, my sis is going out with a local lad (they actually met in The London) and he gave us a tour of all the old derelict clubs they used to spend the entire weekend in drugged off their tits and driving between venues (which the police finally took a dim view of). I've been to Beefa a few times, it was actually quite pleasant, even Craig Davids pool party was fun (not a joke).

They got out of The London because they were not really into it and loved the hills and gubbins which they regularly venture into.

Laura and Nathan are still there... Obvs... Along with all the other pros...

Aren’t they in Copenhagen now?

Most of my Aussie mates left London 10 years ago, most of my British mates moved out of London maybe 5 years ago. I'm kinda done with the whole toxic Brexit thing, the weather has always got on my tits but being a hero I would ride through it all - now I'm tired of dealing with the arsehole drivers here and I'm tired of all the suffering and component wear. Plus moving somewhere else could be a nice change. It could be a shit change but I can always come back here so it's not really a big deal.

Maybe I should add Valencia onto the list. We will probably have to have a few trips over to check stuff out. If I race Badlands or Transiberica I might get the missus to come over to the finish and then we can do a bit of regular sight seeing.

I only know of Dan Craven oh and the Mitchelton Scott team but pro cyclists aren't going to be on the same page for what I'm going to be doing out there (getting hammered and working on my tan).

No idea, really. I'm pretty sure Scherrit said they 'were' there, ie. past tense so that would make sense.

We also have friends near Barcelona who have a new child so they're keen on us coming over as I think they were a bit lonely, at least before child. He's Spanish and they own a place there so will probably be useful when it comes to property stuff but I have a lot more reading and looking around to do before it comes to that. Just trying to get a feel for prices and areas and suss out what I want for my cash, ie. I don't want to live in town proper, where all my rides will have to start and finish with tiny streets full of people. Ground floor, etc.

Dan Craven is in California these days.

Ah, ok, apparently he used to own a place in Girona.

His Strava still says Girona and he did https://ourgirona.com/ but he's riding in the US at the moment. Is he living there now? #stalky

His partner(wife?) is working in the US these days. They’ve just had a baby too.

Damn, I was really looking forward to crushing him up Rocacorba... oh well, that'll have to wait.

Maybe I should add Valencia onto the list.

+1 for Valencia. Wife lived there for years and we visit friends there every year. Imagine it would be a very easy (and cheap) city to live in.

Well this is fortuitous...
https://www.transiberica.cc/transiberica/checkpoints/

START | VALENCIA (ES)
Valencia is the third-largest metropolitan area of Spain and one of the most important cities of the Mediterranean coast.
Valencia was founded as a Roman colony in 138 BC, and largely occupied by Arabs with big influences on their language, religion and customs.
Its historic centre, close to the local beaches, is plenty of ancient monuments and cultural attractions.

Also I'm told there are good small donuts to be had.

"CHURROS!!!!"

says my missus every time she sees them

Other half's cousin lives in Valencia (rather just outside).

I'm sure he could help out with tips & guidance.

https://www.aplaceinthesun.com/

;)

Out of curiosity, why do you want to buy a property in Spain?

In the UK I get it. Essentially unless you're wealthy enough to rent you can't afford not to buy.

But take the financial benefit out of it, what is the advantage? So you have a place to call your own / spend your disposable income on "renovating"?

From what I understand 3+yr leases are not uncommon, so the AST bullshit you get here is less of an issue. Capital grown has been awful, and global warming forecasts mean you're going to have to move north in the medium to longer term anyway.

My 2p would be to have a BTL in the UK (or at least another country offering a good yield) then rent long term 5yr lease once you've picked a spot.

You either pay your mortgage or pay someone else's?
Live in a place for 25 years, you own it.
Live in a place for 25 years, you dont own it.
Pretty simple no?
BTL's are no longer profitable for anyone not buying with cash (roughly).
Good point reg global warming though, Southern Europe will be cooked in 25 years.

Bit of cognitive dissonance in your post. If housing is a bad investment (ie BTLs are no longer profitable with a mortgage), then why would you buy a house, it makes no difference whether it’s your own or someone else’s. Rent and divert the savings from mortgage principal and maintenance into another asset class.

Bit of cognitive dissonance in your post. If housing is a bad investment (ie BTLs are no longer profitable with a mortgage), then why would you buy a house, it makes no difference whether it’s your own or someone else’s. Rent and divert the savings from mortgage principal and maintenance into another asset class.

That makes no sense.

You have to live somewhere.
You can either buy or rent and they cost about the same per month.
So you have to put, say, £1500 a month somewhere.
You can either put it into a mortgage where £150 goes to interest and £1350 is effectively saved.
Or you can put it to rent, where 0 is saved.

BTL assumes you already have a property and you've got extra money hanging around that you can choose to either invest in a 2nd property or another asset class.
Sure, you can do BTL and get 5% return on it, or choose shares and get 7.5% return. But that's on property 2 onward. The same argument doesn't apply to your first property.

(If you can convince me otherwise then I'm definitely all ears, since I'm completing on my house sale in 3 days and am about to rent for a short while.)

If the cost of renting is roughly equivalent to the interest cost of borrowing 100% of the purchase price, plus the maintenance costs, of an equivalent property, then the argument put forward by @NickCJ is valid.

I was going off the premise in the previous post that ‘BTLs are no longer profitable’. If that’s true (and it could be), it implies that the rent doesn’t compensate for interest, maintenance, insurance letting agents, stamp duty and so on.

In that case, renting would be a better choice than buying, setting aside the soft factors like security of tenure, decorating it how you want etc etc.

Mathematically it doesn’t make a difference whether it’s your first house or your tenth - the imputed rent versus return on capital discussion is the same.