Buying Property Abroad...

voodoo

Hi there,

Just wondered if anyone has had experience buying property abroad and what issues they came across. I suppose that some of the things I would like to find out about include :-

- Use of Banks
- Issues if already a homeowner in Ireland
- Dealing with property dealers
- Anything else...

Thanks in advance for your help

Voodoo

Victor

It is usually a good idea to have any mortgage in the same currency as the property - over 20 years the changes could be substantial.

voodoo

well I am actually looking for somewhere in Spain or Greece, so the currency would be Euro.

Victor

Just found this:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2765-841838,00.html

Focus: Expats duped by land grab on Spanish villas
Clare Rewcastle and Jon Ungoed-Thomas

EXPATRIATE families are being sold picturesque coastal properties in Spain without being warned by estate agents that their grounds are to be bulldozed under strict compulsory purchase laws.
Thousands of buyers are being offered what appear to be perfect homes. The reality is that under draconian property laws — dubbed the Spanish acquisition — the land surrounding some of them is due to be seized by developers.

The estate agents selling the properties are aware of the “land grabs” but fail to warn their clients, who can even be charged a proportion of the cost of the new building schemes.

In one case uncovered by The Sunday Times, a couple were sold a €372,000 villa on the Costa Blanca only to find that a third of their land was being seized for a development and that they faced a €86,000 bill towards its cost.

In another case a woman bought her home, then found that a road was to be built through the back of her garden.

The victims of such schemes are frightened to be identified because they fear they will never be able to sell their blighted homes.

Ocean Estates International, one of the leading companies in the market, is exhibiting this coming weekend at an overseas homes show in Dublin’s RDS. At an exhibition at the Dorchester hotel in London recently, an undercover reporter was wrongly assured that none of the properties offered by the firm was in danger of “urb- anisation”. This is the term used by the Spanish authorities for the land grab under local planning laws known as Ley Reguladora de la Actividad Urbanistica.

The laws were intended to provide social housing but are now being ruthlessly exploited by Costa Blanca developers, who use them to obtain land under compulsory purchase orders. They can then force the homeowners to fund infrastructure for the development, such as roads, lighting and drainage systems.

To the unsuspecting buyer, a €450,000 villa being advertised on the internet last week by the British-owned Ocean Estates looks an idyllic retreat. It has three bedrooms, a private pool and terraces looking out to sea.

The attached description states that the villa in Alicante enjoys “superb” views and is situated in a “quiet and private location”. It fails to say that a developer intends to take a third of the land for a property complex and will charge any buyer almost €86,000 for his scheme.

The present occupants said they had bought the property from Ocean Estates in October last year. They used lawyers recommended by the firm to carry out standard checks but were not warned of the land grab. They were distraught when they discovered the truth and complained to Ocean Estates, which put the property back on the market.

One prospective purchaser said he nearly bought the same villa through Ocean Estates last July. He was given no information about the land grab.

“Ocean were keen for me to put in an offer there and then, but I demanded they check whether there were any problems with the land laws, especially as there was a green area near the house,” he said.

“The manager told me it was just people’s gardens, but I demanded he check. He got back to say a lawyer had checked and it was okay. I said, ‘What lawyer, because I have already made my own inquiries and it’s got big problems.’

He replied, ‘Well, I spoke to the owner and he’s a lawyer’.”

In another sale, Ocean Estates flew a businesswoman out to Spain who was hoping to buy a property. She used Ocean’s recommended lawyer, but was not told that a road- widening scheme was due to remove half her garden — and that she would have to pay some of the costs.

At last month’s exhibition at the Dorchester there were no warnings of the risks of homes being vulnerable to the land grab laws. One of the company’s legal advisers told the Sunday Times reporter that there was no risk because the homes on offer were all in urban areas.

Alasdair Macdonald, founder of Ocean Estates International, said: “We’ve been in business since 1985 and not one of our clients has ever had a serious problem.” He added that lawyers would conduct proper checks.

It is not just Ocean Estates that is selling homes under threat of a land grab without warning buyers. One estate agent admitted that he had six properties on his books that were due to have land taken away. Most of his expat customers, he said, “still don’t understand about the laws, thank God”.

Nigel and Susan Foster, who live in the Isle of Wight, bought a planned retirement home in Calpe from another agency before the laws were introduced. It is now to be demolished to make way for a holiday home development.

They have been offered just over €51,000 for their home, which is valued at least three times that amount. Nigel Foster said: “They’ve scuppered all our plans for our future.”

A spokesman for Ocean Estates said the company always advised buyers to get the advice of an independent lawyer. “We can’t be aware of problems if we are not told by the seller.”

He said “as far as the company was aware” it marketed no properties that were likely to be affected by compulsory purchase orders.

Also beware there is a law in Spain the cumpulsarily takes over (no compensation) all land within 100m of the coast over a 100 year period (starting in 2000 i think).

trap4

www.IrishInSpain.com is a useful forum for getting more information about Spain.

Gloomtastic!

Zombie threads get locked. Always, always get the best legal advice you can afford when buying property, at home or abroad.

The Gloomster!