House hunting

Jardines de Altea Hills

When looking for a property in Spain, it is natural to want to see as many properties as possible before making the "right" choice and common sense dictates that a handful of alternatives should be viewed before buying. Our job as professional estate agents is to help buyers make decisions that are genuinely in their best interests, which, without our assistance, they might have had difficulty making. So here are some pointers for those buyers who might be struggling to balance the merits of Casa A with its new kitchen against Casa B, with the better garden.

First, there is a place for instinct and sometimes the heart should be allowed to influence, if not rule, the head. This is a home after all and not a stock-market share. Ask yourself the obvious question, "Could we be happy here?" However, sometimes you need your head to agree with your heart. Is your favoured property a significant improvement on where you already live, or are you just being bowled over by a smart exterior or fashionable lighting?

Weigh up the important aspects of life – commuting time, school run, parking, entertaining space (although do you really entertain that much?) Satisfy these first before allowing the view or the extra storage space to sway you away from your reason for moving.

Finally, you can be absoluely assured that if you instinctively like a particular house, other buyers will as well. We usually find that a property that fills most  people's basic needs, as opposed to their wants, will sell very quickly. The more you see, the more difficult it becomes to make a decision at all.

So our advice is this: decide your minimum criteria with your head and once these are satisfied in a property,
let your heart take it from there. Happy hunting!

Hello again and wow, long time no blog! Six weeks to be precise but then again it has been Summer here in Spain, far too hot for work, I mean blogging.
Of course being Summer, Spain does slow down and well, I'm not going to send out a blog every Friday just for the sake of it.
So what does September and the rest of the year bring.
Well there was a pleasant surprise when the Government woke us all from our 35º Centigrade siesta to inform us that IVA on new-build property completing before the year end would be halved by 50% from 8% to 4% . No doubt a shot in the arm for the construction industry with properties to sell, but it would have been nice if the tax reduction be passed onto private sellers too, but not to be (at the moment anyway).
It remains to be seen whether this latest measure really does  help reduce the stock of new homes for sale, as well as giving the construction sector a boost and stimulating employment.
As recently as July last year, the Government increased IVA on new homes from 7pc to 8pc in an attempt to increase revenues and reduce the budget deficit so this is a U-turn that hardly covers the Government in glory.
The opposition Popular Party has promised to extend the rebate for an extra year if it wins the general election in November.
It has also put the pressure on those that need to sellre-sale property now, leading to further price reductions which we will be announcing (one to start with in Denia) over the next day or two as we get back into the swing of business once again.
It's good to be back!