I moved to Spain for £10 3-course meals & £6 wine bottles – but no one warned me about hell of buying dream home abroad

The Irish Sun

14 hours ago

Journalist Emma Kemsley reveals to Sun Club readers what no one tells you before buying a 'dream' home in Spain
SUN, SEA & STRESS I moved to Spain for £10 3-course meals & £6 wine bottles – but no one warned me about hell of buying dream home abroad
SANGRIA by the pool, long siestas and balmy evenings eating mouthwatering paella – I had long dreamed of swapping grey British skies for the good life in Spain.
So in the summer of 2023, I decided to make my fantasy a reality along with my husband, James, 41, a businessman, and, after a year renting in San Sebastian, I finally bought a property on Spain's Costa Brava in July 2024.
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Emma Kemsley and her husband James at their Spanish home
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The pair moved in to find filthy, cobweb-covered textur­ed walls
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Emma says the pool was essentially a pond and the garden a mosquito-infested jungle
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While it seemed like a great idea at the time, I quickly discovered the process would be anything but simple.
For starters, the admin is utterly relentless and I soon became bogged down by residency paperwork – the nightmare of trying to open a Spanish bank account, confusion over healthcare and administrative appointments. For the first six months, it became a full-time job, but it was essential to begin my new life in Spain.
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Moving to Spain is not easy post-Brexit. Visas are required for full time living. Fortunately, James has an EU passport which allowed me to secure residency via the family reunification visa.
Despite the endless red tape, the perks of Spanish living are hard to ignore. Day-to-day costs in Spain are up to 50 per cent lower than in the UK.
A bottle of decent red wine is only £6, a three-course meal can be as little as £10, a cinema ticket is £5 and some gym memberships charge only £12 per month.
Every year, thousands of Brits leave the UK for Spain's sunny shores, lured by warmer weather, a slower pace of life and comparatively lower property prices. Currently, there are 275,000 UK nationals living there lawfully.
Although houses inland can still be bought for as little as €50,000, prices are set to increase by 7.3 per cent by the end 2025, followed by a 5.3 per cent rise in 2026.
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To afford the perfect location, I bought a three-bedroom renovation project for €320,000, located in a beautiful pine forest, a short distance from a picturesque village and the beach - complete with lurid 1970s bathroom, cracked tiles, cobweb-covered artex walls and a leaking roof.
The kitchen was too small for an oven and washing machine, the swimming pool was essentially a pond and the garden a mosquito-infested jungle.
My septic tank remains the great unsolved mystery of the house. It's not on any plans, no one knows where it is and at this point, I'm racing against time before it announces itself in a much messier way.
I quit my job and did a complete 180 moving to Spain - beer is just $3 a pint and my life is so much better
As if the renovation challenges weren't daunting enough, one of the biggest shocks was the buying process.
Timeframes and legalities in Spain are considerably different to the UK.
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A 10 per cent deposit is required, plus a 10 per cent transfer tax, essentially Spain's version of stamp duty. The tax is paid to the local government.
The purchase was set to complete in eight weeks, but the process was delayed due to missing paperwork and complex admin.
I got the keys in October, but didn't legally own the property until December. For two months, I lived rent and mortgage-free, feeling like a squatter with fancy candles in my own home.
I'm not alone in my buying experience. Irene Milsome, 70, a retired Brit from Milton Keynes, who moved to Alicante in 2020 with her husband for better weather, faced a distressing three-year ordeal to purchase her property.
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The depressingly drab bedroom
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The timewarp bathroom that met the couple
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She says: 'Our land and the house structure were impounded by the Spanish treasury department because a dishonest builder left the project incomplete.
'We then had to fight and pay for the land ourselves from the treasury and then finish the house build with a different builder and at a further cost.
'We were angry that this was allowed to happen, even with safeguards in place in the building contract. We felt helpless in a different country.'
No one knows where my septic tank is. It's not on any plans, and I'm racing against time before it messily announces itself.
Emma Kemsley
Irene advises people to buy a completed – or near-completion – new build from a reputable English-speaking estate agent only.
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Last October, as I pushed open the door to my new home, I was greeted with the previous owners' past life – piles of dusty, colourful furniture.
Despite the house only having three bedrooms, I removed 14 beds, 45 chairs, five dining tables, 30 pairs of curtains and a variety of creepy animal skeletons - rodents, geckos and a cat.
Quite often, Spanish houses are sold furnished. However, former civil servant, Janice Carter, 60, who moved to Alicante from London, got the surprise of her life when she walked into a decaying home.
'The house needed more work than we realised,' she says. 'The sellers gave us the impression they were living there, but they weren't.
'It was damp and the plaster just fell off the walls.'
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Janice had been sold by the beautiful, pristine swimming pool in the seller's listing.
'But the swimming pool was thick green algae and unusable,' she says.
'They'd sent us an old photo saying: 'You'll be swimming here this time next week'.
'We'd also purchased some items of furniture from them to see us through until our belongings arrived, but when we got there, nothing was left – only their cat.'
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Irene Milsome, 70, left Milton Keynes for Alicante's sunshine - but her dream home, above, took three stressful years to secure
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When renovating in Spain, everything moves in slow motion. My architect disappeared for so long, I feared he might be dead. The builder said he was popping to the Spanish equivalent of B&Q, only to return three days later.
After hiring my sixth architect in a year, I've learned to embrace Spain's slow pace. One quote was so overpriced, it would have been cheaper to become an architect myself.
Building materials and furnishings can cost almost double what they do in the UK, too.
While the wine and bottled water might be cheaper, don't expect the same bargain prices when it comes to housing supplies.
Those tiles? Twice the price. That tap? Might as well be gold-plated.
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Building quotes have no limits, either. It's not uncommon for builders to add a few extra zeros onto the price when they discover you're an expat. Surprisingly, it is mostly British or foreign builders working in Spain who are the culprits.
Most Spanish local authorities have strict building regulations. It's often a difficult and lengthy process to obtain permissions for builds and extensions.
For example, I have a strict exterior colour palette to choose from of bold pinks, yellows and oranges, in-keeping with the historic village, and my perimeter fence can't be higher than 1.2 metres and must include an element of transparency.
We'd also purchased furniture from them to see us through until our belongings arrived, but when we got there, nothing was left — only their cat.
Janice Carter, 60
Finally, don't skip insulation. As Brits, we tend to think of Spain as having year-round warmth, but temperatures can drop below freezing in winter, even in the south.
Spanish houses are built to stay cool, so in winter I could see my breath in the air as I snuggled on the sofa, under multiple layers and cuddling the dog for extra warmth – with a bucket collecting dripping rainwater next to me.
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Now, double glazing, efficient heating and insulation is top of my priority list.
While life under the Spanish sun brings undeniable joy, from long lunches to laid-back living, anyone considering moving should be aware that this slower pace seeps into other areas – including property purchases and renovations.
Learning to let go, slow down and trust the process (and the tradesmen) has become part of the adventure. Building in Spain may test your patience, and punish your bank balance, but the payoff is well worth it.