Retire Overseas

Investing in Your Holiday Home Abroad

To many, owning a holiday home abroad is nothing more than a dream; a luxury which is the prerogative of the rich and famous or of bank robbers. It’s hardly for the likes of ordinary folk like you and me, is it?

Not so! If you investigate the possibilities of joining well over 250,000 other Britons and buying your own holiday home abroad, you could be very pleasantly surprised at how affordable it actually can be, and with property prices currently low but set to rise in many resorts overseas it could represent a real opportunity and provide you with a very high return on your investment.

With expert advice to help you secure exactly the right property, it’s really not difficult to buy a home overseas, be it for holidays, retirement or investment. There are some very attractive deals on offer. With some, you may only have to pay as little as 15% deposit, with nothing else to pay for three years and with 85% mortgages available, together with free packages for furniture of the highest quality! If you choose your advisers carefully, those people in the know will guide you every step of the way and ensure that the entire experience is stress-free and enjoyable.

Just imagine the sheer joy of having 300 days of sunshine a year virtually guaranteed; balmy temperatures, no grey skies and an umbrella as rare as hens’ teeth. Think how it would be to enjoy fabulous views of beautiful mountains and clear blue skies from the balcony of your luxury furnished apartment, ski chalet, villa or penthouse, and to be within just a few minutes walk of a pristine, white sandy beach or a superb golf course with all the amenities.

So what would be your fancy? A townhouse on the coast of Spain with its amazing beaches and intriguing culture? Or for a relaxed and informal lifestyle with great food, exciting nightlife, magnificent scenery and almost constant sunshine, you’d have to go a long way to beat a property in Crete. There again, have you considered Egypt, another very attractive option for investors? Definitely a country of the future, its wealth has traditionally come from oil, but this may well change as many predict that tourism will forge into the lead.

How about an apartment in South America’s largest country, Brazil? Home to more than 180 million people, this economically developing country with a very low cost of living is becoming increasingly popular with investors and would appeal to anyone with a sense of adventure and a love of excitement, be it a trek through the wild rainforests, a visit to the lively cities or partying at the famous Rio de Janeiro carnival.

Those with a fascination for history could not fail to be smitten by beautiful Bulgaria, with its immaculate beaches, sparkling clear lakes and rivers, magnificent mountains, gorges and natural hot water springs. It’s an enthralling country, rich in ancient monasteries, churches and mosques and with folklore traditions dating back more than thirteen centuries. Furthermore, as an investor, Bulgaria will offer you real value for money.

If your yen is for a superb climate, colourful culture and friendly people, you’d find Turkey hard to beat. With miles and miles of dramatic coastline, beautiful seas and pine-clad mountains, it’s little wonder that it’s become so incredibly popular with tourists, and with its current property boom, there’s never been a better time to invest in a Turkish holiday home.

A holiday home in the former British colony of Malaysia could well prove to be a lucrative investment for you. It’s a wealthy country with a very bright future and a property market looking increasing buoyant, due in part to the influx of investors from nearby Singapore and Hong Kong. Owing to its proximity to the equator, it enjoys a fabulous, year round tropical climate and boasts some of Asia’s best beaches.

If you’re not looking to retire abroad just yet, why not let your property work for you by renting it out during the holiday season? There are many emerging markets with a lower cost of living than in the UK, offering high rental and capital growth potential. Even the recent problems in the global economy, such as the credit crunch and increases in the cost of living don’t seem to have made a dent in people’s appetite for travelling abroad. The future’s looking much brighter for ‘buy-to-let’ investments and don’t forget, today’s cheaper and more frequent flights to many of the popular resorts are making the whole package much more attractive and affordable for everyone.

So you see, you don’t actually need to rob a bank. There are far easier and more legitimate ways of turning your dream into a reality…

Surging Buy-to-Let Market Interest

Purchasing a buy-to-let investment property has become increasingly popular in recent years, with growing numbers of both first time investors and those already with a substantial property portfolio.

Buy to let properties have gained appeal due to the increase in interest for real estate investments, with the possibility of enabling the property to pay for itself. In much the same way as rental properties provide an income to the owners in local areas, the overseas market has gained appeal due to the lower purchasing costs and a number of other interests to suit the individuals.

Depending upon the location, the owner potentially has a full 12 month season to rent to holiday makers, often originating from the same home country as the owners. Some people purchase with the intention of moving to warmer climates for retirement, allowing the rental during the preceding years to cover the costs of the mortgage. This way the property is owned outright when the time comes to move.

Others purchase a buy-to-let investment property in a location where they often enjoy visiting for holidays, saving the trouble of searching for over-booked hotel accommodation. Owners can also generate an income renting out the property during the times when it is not in use. The same set up is often used by people who travel regularly to a particular location for business, finding their own property more agreeable to staying in hotels. This is especially beneficial when they can earn an income from it when it is not in use.

Even when the owner is not planning to use the property as a home during retirement, the constant increases in property prices allows for potentially substantial capital growth at the moment of re-selling.

When thinking about a buy-to-let property purchase, along with choosing the area, considerations such as the mortgage, associated buying costs, taxes and maintenance are especially important. The length of the rental season will have a great effect on the potential income, as in a tropical climate the season is normally 12 months of the year, while if buying in a ski resort, the rental season will be more restricted. City centre properties can be ideal for buyers who do not wish to constantly be searching for tenants, as many inner city properties attract long term rental clients.

Where ever the property is purchased, if planning to buy-to-let, it is highly important to have confidence in the selected management company. Receiving professional advice at the buying stage is crucial to fully understand the processes and the expectations you will be under as the owner.

It is also worthwhile to consider that if purchasing an off-plan property, no rental will be generated until the property is fully constructed. While off-plan purchases often provide some of the best deals to buyers, as the prices are more often than not below market value, a good amount of capital growth can be obtained upon the completion of the construction process.

When buying in an unfamiliar foreign market, many investors opt for developments with a guaranteed rental period, enabling them to be assured of an income during a set amount of years. Some re-sell the property after the guaranteed period has expired, while others continue to rent the property through their own advertising or buy using a local agent.

There are many options in the buy-to-let market and many markets to choose from. Using a good agent to provide assistance and advice can offer other possibilities that the purchaser may not have previously considered.

retire overseas malaysia Penang Kek Lok Si temple(28)

Image taken on 2009-11-05 10:51:37 by WohinAuswandern.

retire overseas Malaysia Penang Floating Mosque

Image taken on 2009-11-04 13:52:52 by WohinAuswandern.

How Qrops Can Server You?

Are you suffering from depression these days? After switching to your home country after spending your entire life in the UK are you unable to get your pension fund? Don’t worry; all your worries in this regard are going to an end soon with QROPS.

Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes, popularly known as QROPS, is a UK pension scheme that allows people to transfer their UK pension fund to the overseas countries. There are many people who belong to other countries outside the UK and spend their entire life in working with the UK organizations and after their retirement settle back to their own countries. A large number of people among them face the problem of not having their pension amount on a regular basis. But, now all those days of worries in this regard are to going to an end with one of the most recent pension schemes QROPS.

Now the question may arise that among all the fund transfer plans and schemes available in the recent time, why choose QROPS? Well, now let’s get into the discussion that how you will be benefitted with QROPS.

Handling Income Tax Issues smartly: As a part of Government’s pension simplification initiative, QROPS was introduced in the year 2006. Before its launch, people with UK pension wanted to retire abroad had to pay 25% tax of their total pension amount to the UK government. But, with QROPS no such hassle is associated. QROPS enables its members of the UK registered schemes to transfer their pension funds to the foreign schemes have been authorized by the HRMC. After that the pension fund is then dealt with under the pension tax regime of the hosting country hence no need to pay the UK tax.
Make investment decision without having any tension: In the recent time, the members of the UK pension scheme are easily having control over their pension investments, as the Self invested Personal pensions are becoming more and more popular. Transferring your fund into QROPS meaning having more control on your investment decisions.

Before you move on for any pension scheme you are suggested to consult with a QROPS advisor. If you are unable to find out an advisor then the Internet medium would be a perfect consideration in this regard. Over the web medium you will find hundreds of QROPS advisors, among which you need to go for the most experienced and reliable one.

Two Different Points of View

It’s grey and chilly. Throngs of thirty and forty somethings lumber through the drizzle to an agricultural hall outside Coventry. I pay the £11 entrance fee and once through the door everything changes. Sunny optimism illumines the interior. Maple-leaf flags hang like bunting while red, white and blue balloons jostle for attention with inflatable kangaroos and surfboards. This is Emigrate, the largest migration exhibition in Britain, at which financial advisers, estate agents and lawyers from more than 60 organisations offer advice to 7,000 visitors on how to gain entry to new lands of opportunity.

I join the queue of visitors who are eager to discover how to clinch the golden ticket: an Australian visa. We take our seats and the game-show begins. On the stage, a smiling Australian migration lawyer talks up the prize of a one-way ticket to the land of surf, sun and beer. “Once you get a visa you can sit on the beach for the rest of your life. You don’t need to work if you don’t want to.”

At Emigrate, points win prizes. Later in the day, at stalls dotted around the fair, there are talks on how to gain the differing number of points required for entry by Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Each country has its own list of desired skills and professions and the fair’s walls are pasted with posters cataloguing each nation’s sought-after occupations. Are you a bee-keeper? A civil servant? Welcome to New Zealand. Hairdresser? Last year Australia was desperate for you.

Now, after admitting large numbers of Chinese and Indian scissor-hands, hairdressers are no longer required. Qualification for permanent residence can be a lottery but there are some certainties. All countries allocate more points for youth, English-language fluency and education. And if you are an entrepreneur with thousands to invest in your new country, Australia, New Zealand and America all want you.

Myths about points swirl around the show. To demonstrate the abundant migration misinformation, the presenter, Ben Willis, a migration agent and lawyer, asks, Paul McKenna-style, for a guinea pig who believes he or she has the 120 points to qualify for permanent Australian residency.

The victim says confidently that he is an engineer, aware Australia is desperate for them. “Do you have a BSc in engineering?” the presenter asks. “No. I switched careers later and took an MSc in engineering,” he replies. It is not enough. The BSc would have given him the necessary points but the MSc counts for less.

The volunteer’s face falls. The presenter looks vindicated: “My main message is: don’t assume you will manage to get 120 points,” he says.

Registering the wavering mood in the audience, he attempts to gee them up: “It’s worth going through the hurdles or else you’ll be stuck on the M1 thinking, ‘what am I doing here?’ Australia is the best place to be. Once you’ve made a decision to come, just do it.”

To keep wannabe migrants’ eyes fixed on the prize, we are introduced by video link-ups to Brits who have leapt through the migration hoops to settle in new countries. At one talk, entitled “Chat with Brits in Canada”, we’re presented to Maxine, a migratory role model who moved from London to Ontario two years ago: “She got a whopping 79 points! She only needed 67 to qualify!”. Canada’s craving for her postgraduate social work qualifications ratcheted up her score.

It’s a gold rush for the emigration industry. The Office for National Statistics’ figures show more British citizens left the UK in 2006 – 207,000 – than in any year since records began in 1991: 49,000 for new lives in Australia, 71,000 upped sticks for EU countries, mainly Spain and France, and 16,000 to the US.

More and more people hanker to move abroad. A 2006 BBC survey found that 13 per cent of 1,000 people asked were planning to emigrate in the near future, twice the number who wanted to leave when the same question was asked three years before.

Yet the British press and politicians have been so mesmerised by the rising number of non-British nationals arriving – which the ONS recently showed had swelled to 510,000 immigrants in 2006, double the number a decade ago – that the British exodus has been ignored.

Of course, emigrating Brits are nothing new. At the height of its imperial power in the 19th century, Britain experienced mass migration not only to colonies and dominions such as India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa but also to countries with colonial connections, such as the US.

Professor Tim Hatton, a labour market economist from Essex University, estimates the annual emigration rate in the years before the first world war at around 5.3 UK citizens out of every 1,000, though this included a disproportionately high share of Irish emigrants when Ireland was part of the UK.

Even today, according to Jim Hammerton, emeritus professor at Melbourne’s La Trobe University, who has written extensively on the history of migration, Brits are cashing in on the “colonial dividend”, empire having established “common language and family ties to countries”.

A couple at the Emigrate fair support Professor Hammerton’s observation. The woman, in her late 30s, pacifying her toddler with an apple, tells me her parents came to Britain from India in the 1960s, and her husband had lived in Australia as a child for 10 years before they met: “I know it’s possible to uproot a family and be happy.”

Brits are departing their home country in greater numbers than the French or Americans.

The Institute for Public Policy Research estimated that 5.5m British nationals, or just over 9 per cent of the UK population, were living overseas permanently in 2006. It dwarfs the number of French living overseas, which is only about 1.2m, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Yet even the French eclipse the Americans: the OECD finds 1.2m US-born citizens, out of a population of 300m, live overseas, making the US diaspora proportionally much smaller than the French or British.

While the legacy of empire has provided Brits with some choice destinations, this alone can’t explain the difference. Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, IPPR’s director of research strategy, suggests the British are more outward-facing than other nationalities: “Brits care about international issues – it’s in British newspapers. Whereas American and French societies are more insular.” This, he says, helps explain why Britain has, in relative terms, one of the largest diasporas in the world.

If Brits, as Sriskandarajah says, do have a wider view of the world, then cheap travel and improved communications make abroad not as foreign as it used to be and emigrating less daunting.

In fact, for many middle-class families across the world, living abroad is a rite of passage, whether it is gap-year students digging wells in African villages, high-flyers studying for MBAs or investment bankers accepting foreign postings.

Dr Sam Scott, a lecturer in social geography at Liverpool University who has researched European migration, suggests the experience of foreign living and culture is a social aspiration and may be a way some families give themselves a mark of cultural sophistication. He says: “People’s social and cultural experiences abroad are useful as a form of class ‘capital’. It’s about how you change as a person and the networks you enter that set you out as different.”

The pursuit of this badge of distinction increases the likelihood of accidental migration, which takes place when the intention to return home is re-routed by, say, romance. Prof Hammerton suggests growing numbers of accidental migrants are making redundant the distinction of permanent migrants and short-term expats living overseas on a work posting.

How, for example, to define Ian Corfield? He is a 35-year-old chief executive of Bank West’s retail division, who moved with his wife and two young children from central London to Perth after HBOS, which owns Bank West, offered him the post. “We always wanted to live and work abroad. We weren’t sick of Britain; we just wanted to experience a different environment and culture,” he says.

For the moment they’re keeping their London house but think they might sell up and make Australia their permanent home, thereby blurring the demarcation between expat and migrant.

I ask Paul Beasley, editor of Emigrate, a magazine offering migration news and advice, why so many Britons want to leave. He says unemployment is not an issue but taxes and house prices motivate people to up sticks. “The property market is a big factor; they want their children to be able to get a foot on the property ladder. There is a dream, buoyed by the strong pound, that people can buy their houses outright abroad and have a nest egg.”

Indeed, everyone I speak to at the fair raises the issue. At one stand, I ask what I could buy if I sold my one-bed London flat. “You could get a 3,000 square feet, four-bedroom house on an acre of land and three-car garage – a mini-mansion if you moved to Saskatoon,” the Canadian consultant enthuses proudly.

Foreign homes allow us to experiment with migration. A survey by Barclays bank showed that 35 per cent of people buying a holiday home planned to relocate or retire there. David Bloor, a 49-year-old maths teacher from east Yorkshire, says that buying a property in Turkey has given him a taste for life abroad and now he hopes to settle farther away. Some commentators dub the fashion for buying overseas homes “pre-emigrating”.

Professionals on overseas postings and Brits in possession of foreign properties are making British migration more middle class than it used to be, according to Prof Hammerton. He says traditional “migrations of austerity”, when people felt driven out of Britain by hardship, notably in the postwar years and high unemployment in the 1980s, have given way to “migrations of prosperity” as people quit a Britain that is relatively affluent with high employment.

Prof Hammerton also says that migrants are both more wealthy and skilled than was the case in the 1950s. In part this reflects the fact that the middle class is bigger than it used to be and that tougher immigration policies in settler countries weed out lesser-skilled potential migrants, consigning the “Ten Pound Poms”, British migrants who received financial assistance from the Australian government, to the history books.

However, if some Brits are migrating by accident after relaxing in their Provence holiday home or putting down family or work roots abroad, most people I meet at the Emigrate fair just want to leave Britain. There is something rather melancholy in visiting a fair with hundreds of people who want to leave the country.

Some of the would-be emigrants say they are fed up with Britain’s “uncontrolled immigration”.

The Elstons, a couple in their 30s from Nottingham, have been thinking of moving to Australia for the past 18 months. At first it was Canada, but then they changed their minds. “Canada and Australia are very different,” I suggest. They shrug their shoulders. “It’s more that we want to leave this country than go to another country. I pay too much tax. There are too many foreigners coming to this country due to EU restrictions being lifted,” Mr Elston explains. I ask him if he doesn’t see the irony that he will be an immigrant in Australia – the kind of person he is complaining about. He shakes his head: “I prefer other countries’ immigration policies. They’re controlled.”

According to Paul Beasley, Gordon Brown’s decision not to call an election until 2009 might exacerbate the exodus, not because of the prime minister himself, but because “when a political party has been in power for a number of years, people start to become disillusioned; they begin to feel that politics is a dead game”.

But talk around the fair isn’t just of policy and property. People at Emigrate speak of their motives for migration in therapeutic and emotional language. They want “space to breathe” to “get away from stress”.

Beasley sums it up: “People just feel that life in Britain is becoming more stressful, more difficult. They believe that moving overseas will balance their lives and they will have much less stress.”

I talk to Paul, a 43-year-old graphic designer who is planning to move to Australia with his wife and four children: “We want a better quality of life. I don’t like Britain. My spare time is pressured. You live for your holiday. I want to be in an environment where the lifestyle is slowed down and you can take advantage of time to be with your family.”

Paul’s remarks appear to confirm Prof Hammerton’s verdict that the “migration of prosperity” has replaced the “migration of austerity”. Aspiration for a better quality of life these days need not be a hankering for increased riches but a reaction against the perceived stress of modern life.

Stress has become a “virulent epidemic” in British society, according to David Wainwright and Michael Calnan, authors of a study entitled Work Stress, published in 2002. The idea of being “stressed out” grips the nation. It radically alters how people look at work and the world around them. Work in pressurised Britain seems undesirable, and countries that appear to offer a more relaxed lifestyle are attractive.

Some people I met at the fair lusted for adventure but most were fed up and desperate for sunnier climes and eager to escape the stresses of life in Britain. So much unhappiness made me desperate to get away and I plonked myself in a mini-cab. It wasn’t just me that felt infected by the visitors’ discontent. “Everyone’s been so miserable,” my cab driver remarked. “I’ll tell you what, we’re better off without that whingeing lot. Give me the immigrants any day.”

Property in Spain – Guide to Buying Property in Spain

The Spanish Property Market

When it comes to investing in property in Europe, Spain has been on the top of the list for nearly thirty years. A significant number of foreign nationals have spent a great deal of money on property located in Spain during this time period.

As time moves forward into the 21st century, the Spanish real estate market has not been as hot as it was some five years ago. Nonetheless, the returns that most investors have realized through real estate holdings and investments in Spain have remained high. In addition, the market itself has remained fairly stable overall.

Population: 40.4m

Currency: Euro

Capital: Madrid

Country dialling code: 0034

Flag of SpainFlag of the European Union

Investment Property in Spain

As referenced previously, a significant number of buyers from different countries around the world have invested rather heavily in real estate in Spain. Since the restoration of the monarchy in Spain, the gates have been opened to heavy foreign investment in property ownership by overseas buyers. (During the reign of General Franco in Spain, foreign investment in real estate was restricted. The regime of Franco enacted fairly stringent laws that limited foreign investment in real estate.

Residential Real Estate in Spain – Single Family Properties

Over the course of the past decade, many foreign nationals have spent vast amounts of money on single family residences in Spain. Primarily these foreign nationals are buying the residences for use as second homes, for use on holidays to Spain. (Spain has been a popular end destination for European travellers for years.)

In many parts of Spain, the single family residential market is what some people would term a “buyer’s market.” In other words, people interested in buying residential, single family homes in Spain — including foreign nationals — have a significant number of housing choices available to them (in major cities and in rural communities alike).

While the residential property market in major cities in Spain have found brisk sales for years, the rural areas in the country have also been experiencing an upswing in the property market in recent times also. Many people, including foreign nationals, are finding the ownership of homes in rural environments to be pleasing, appealing and cost effective. Generally, these people are buying in smaller communities in order to escape the hustle and bustle of the Spanish urban scene.

Residential Real Estate in Spain – Apartments

In large cities, such as the Spanish capital of Madrid and the coastal resort towns, the apartment market has been booming for the past fifteen to twenty years. A significant number of people have turned to apartment ownership when it comes to the buying of property and real estate in Spain.

Overseas buyers have expanded into the apartment ownership market with a vengeance over the past decade. Some industry experts in Spain estimate that as many as twenty percent of all apartment purchases in Spain during this time period have involved foreign nationals buying apartments in Spain.

Foreign nationals tend to be making the purchase of apartments in Spain for three primary reasons. First, these foreign citizens are buying apartments for retirement. Many people have been flocking to Spain from different European countries (and from some other nations around the world) for retirement because of its milder climate.

Second, with the creation of the European Union, and with Spain being a leading economic region in the EU, many people are finding it imperative for them to present themselves in Spain for a part of each year. As a result, these men and women are buying apartments to serve as second residences in Spain.

Finally, people are snatching up apartments in Spain in record numbers to provide them with a second home to be utilized for holiday or vacation purposes. Apartment ownership is proving to be a convenient, practical and economic means through which a person or a family can own a second residence that can be used for a holiday retreat and for similar situations not only today but well into the future.

Holiday Property in Spain

As referenced, many people are buying property in Spain for vacation and holiday purposes. (This includes both apartments and single family residences in different parts of the country.)

In many instances, foreign nationals are buying real estate in Spain that they can utilize for their own travel and holiday purposes during part of the year and which they can rent to other individuals seeking a vacation spot at other times during the course of a given year. Thus, these men and women are buying property in Spain for a dual purpose: holiday travel and income generation.

The tax and related laws in Spain make this kind of dual property ownership a profitable enterprise for most overseas buyers. Indeed, it is expected that more and more foreign nationals will invest in vacation real estate for this dual purpose well into the coming decade. They suggest that the growth of the European Union will spur on this type of real estate investment in Spain and in some other countries that comprise the EU at this time.

Specific steps to buying real estate property in Spain

At the present time, there are no significant restrictions to a foreign national purchasing and owning real estate in Spain. Indeed, foreign nationals are able to purchase and invest in nearly any type of property to be found for sale within that country — commercial, residential or other types of investment real estate.

When it comes to making the purchase of property in Spain, many experts maintain that a person is well served is he or she takes the time (and spends the money) to hire a lawyer to assist in managing and overseeing the legal affairs associated with the successful purchase of real estate in Spain.

Once a person identifies a piece of real estate that he or she is interested in purchasing, the first step in the purchase process (after an oral offer to purchase has been made by the buyer and accepted by the seller) is the creation of a preliminary or initial contract for sale. In Spain, it is highly recommended that a person makes absolutely certain that the ownership of the property and any encumbrances on the property are clearly identified before this agreement is signed.

In most instances, a preliminary contract is a fairly substantial and a firm legal agreement. Along with the agreement itself, a buyer will need to put down a deposit of at least 10% of the total purchase price. Under the real estate laws of Spain, the buyer has a more significant burden than is found in some other countries to ensure that the title to the real estate has a title that can be conveyed to the buyer at the conclusion of the sale (clean title). Thus, there are instances in which a title proves to be imperfect, in which the ultimate transfer of ownership cannot occur, and in which the buyer may lose out on the deposit he or she paid because they simply did not carry out the correct checks at the outset.

Many people who have experience in dealing with the buying and selling of property in Spain suggest that foreign nationals should retain the assistance of a capable lawyer at this juncture. While Spanish real estate laws are not particular confusing or difficult to understand, a person seeking to buy a property in Spain bears a greater due diligence responsibility early on in the real estate buying and selling process than do buyers in some other nations.

During the period following the signing of the preliminary or initial contract, the buyer has the opportunity to obtain financing and a mortgage loan to consummate the sale and actually purchase the real estate.

Again, as referenced earlier, the buyer of real estate in Spain has a bit of a stiffer burden to make certain that the title to real estate in Spain is clear before he or she makes a purchase. Additionally, a buyer bears a greater burden than buyers do in other countries when it comes to making certain that there are no mortgages or liens from other lenders on a particular piece of property. While in most other countries the world over, the burden for “clearing title” generally rests nearly exclusively with the seller, such is not the absolute case in Spain.

Unlike in some other countries the world over, the laws governing the buying and selling real estate in Spain generally are uniform across the country. There really are no regional or local differences. (There are some local differences when it comes to matters relating to municipal taxes.)

The final task in the sales process is the payment by the buyer of the amount due and owing under the terms of the initial contract and the conveyance of the deed and possession of the property from the buyer to the seller. Property Abroad always recommends using a Solicitor or Lawyer.