Welcome to BuyAssociation.co.uk

Spain: Types of Property

Overview

Spain offers a wealth of different properties, from small holiday apartments to huge country mansions set in acres of land, with just about everything in between. Each region has a typical type of property, for example a cortijo (large white-washed country house in Andalusia), a masía (a large stone country houses in Cataluña) or a pazo (typical country house) in Galicia. The purchase and restoration of these typical country homes is becoming increasingly popular among foreigners, especially those keen to establish small hotels or bed and breakfast businesses. However, the vast majority of foreigners purchase on the costas or islands where most property generally consists of apartments, townhouses or villas, most of which are purpose-built for the holiday-home market.

Below is a brief guide to the types of property available, including country properties.

Apartments

Apartments and flats (apartamento or piso) abound in Spain and the vast majority of Spaniards live in apartment blocks, particularly in large towns and cities. Resorts such as Benidorm, Lloret del Mar, Magaluf and Torremolinos are smothered to the point of saturation with apartment blocks purpose-built for the holiday market, although it’s now difficult to find any stretch of popular coastline without a sky-line of apartment blocks (and high-rise hotels). Construction of apartment blocks have continued unabated throughout Spain (as the numerous cranes dotting the horizon testify) since the late ’60s, and there’s still a good market for both buyers and sellers.

The quality and size varies enormously, from tiny studio apartments crammed into multi-storey blocks with ’70s-style bathroom fittings to spacious marble-floored apartments complete with all mod-cons. They may be situated in small side streets and be dark and cramped, while others are spacious front-line beach or golf developments with views stretching as far as the eye can see. Prices range from €80,000 for a small one-bedroom apartment in a less popular resort (e.g. on the Costa del Azahar or Costa Cálida) to well over €1 million on Marbella’s golden mile with just about everything in between. Bargain apartments are few and far between in popular areas and lower-priced properties usually require extensive modernisation and refurbishment.

Under Spanish law, all owners of apartments (irrespective of their number or size) are members of the community of owners (comunidad de propietarios) and as such must abide by the community’s rules and regulations and pay community fees.

Advantages of apartments include low maintenance (once you’ve carried out any necessary work), security – especially if the block has 24-hour security or a concierge (portero) – and the use of communal gardens and pool (and possibly other facilities such as tennis courts). Apartments situated in towns also have the added advantage of local facilities and amenities within walking distance. Disadvantages are noisy neighbours, poorly-maintained communities and crowded complexes during holidays.

Townhouses

Townhouses (casa adosada) are generally rows of terraced houses, often in typical regional style set around communal gardens with a pool. Townhouse complexes are increasingly popular around large towns and cities, particularly Madrid, where there are vast suburbs lined with row upon row of townhouses. In coastal resorts townhouses are often built in a style known as the ‘Mediterranean village’ (pueblo Mediterráneo) and houses may be white-washed or, as is increasingly popular nowadays, painted in shades of blue and yellow. Townhouses are usually spacious and often have three or four floors, including a basement for a garage and storage, and a roof area with a roof terrace known as a solarium. Townhouses generally have little outside space or garden except for a small patch at the front and back, often paved as a patio. Construction tends to be recent and is generally of reasonable to good quality.

Townhouses usually form part of a community property and owners must abide by the community’s rules and regulations and pay community fees.

Townhouses are generally located on the outskirts of resorts and towns or within urbanisations (see below), with prices ranging from €100,000 for a one-bedroom townhouse in a less popular area, e.g. Costa de la Luz, to over €750,000 for three bedrooms in a top quality resort. Advantages include low maintenance, plenty of living and storage space, use of communal gardens and pool without the upkeep, and community living with fewer neighbours than in an apartment. On the other hand, you may suffer from noisy neighbours, poorly-maintained communities, crowded complexes during holidays and exhaustion from climbing the endless flights of stairs!

Villas

In general, the Spanish don’t live in detached houses (casa, chalet or villa) and in many large towns and cities it’s difficult to find a large house unless it’s a mansion or palace belonging to the local aristocracy. On the coast, however, detached houses abound and are generally owned by foreigners or wealthy Spaniards who use them as second homes. Some villas form part of a complex and may share communal gardens and a pool, and are situated on small individual plots, while others are set in huge grounds. Villas built in the ’60s and ’70s tend to be single-storey and often need extensive renovation work, particularly if they’ve only been used as holiday homes and not properly maintained. Construction quality may be poor in older properties, although the quality is usually excellent in newer properties, which tend to be at least two storeys and more spacious than older villas. Prices start at €200,000 for a small two-bedroom villa with a communal pool in a less popular area, although villas in many parts of the Costa del Sol, the northern part of the Costa Blanca, and Ibiza and Majorca cost at least €1 million.

If a villa forms part of a community property, owners must abide by the community’s rules and regulations, and pay community fees.

More pages

Page 1: Overview
Page 2: Urbanisations

Holiday home insurance from intasure - Click Here UK insurance for your property overseas

Calculate how much you can earn - rent out your holiday home here

Travel insurance from £2.99 - Columbus Direct for instant worldwide travel cover

Holiday home insurance with Staysure - the over 50's experts