Ariana bought a newbuild

MiMove have spoken with Ariana whose dream of a newbuild of her own in Spain recently came true. But she is not moving just yet:

Keeping an open mind

We have spoken about wanting to move to Spain for some time. Although I have roots in Brazil and I speak Portuguese, Portugal was never an option for us. We prefer Spain because of the culture and the weather. Portugal is just not hot enough for us.

My husband used to live in Malaga a few years back and we thought we would buy something there. We knew the area and really liked it. We were even there, last weekend celebrating our wedding anniversary. But, a few years ago we decided to go and have a look at the Alicante area as well. We rented a car and drove around exploring. When we reached Playa de San Juan we stepped out of the car and just thought “This is it, this is where we want to live”. We were caught by surprise as we had already decided on Malaga, but we just had to rethink. Immediately, we were really smitten but we were not ready to buy yet.

Property fair in Stockholm

Come last autumn and we booked another flight to Alicante with departure in December. In October we went to the property fair in Stockholm to have a look around and to get some inspiration. There we met a real estate agent who we connected with. Both my husband and agent are avid golf player and instantly had lots to talk about. Apart from driving around and doing research on the ground in Spain and visit the fair we also spent a lot of time trawling the internet. Early on we used to visit Idealista a lot but were often felt let down by the lack of information, and agents who did not get back to us or getting the information that the property was already sold. It was difficult to get a good overview.

Great resources online

But then we came across MiMove.com and really liked the vast amount of information we found there. I particularly liked the calculators that gave me a good idea of what it would cost to buy in Spain. It is easy to sit at home and dream about all the beautiful properties and not think about what the total cost will be when actually buying. You do need to educate yourself before buying. The more you know, the better questions you can ask when viewing a property on the ground in Spain. . It is like MiMove.com is the starting point when buying in Spain, you start there, learn a lot and then you feel safe to go ahead and start doing inquiries on objects to get contact from estate agents and arrange for viewings.

New trip to Alicante

In December we went to Alicante and among others, we met up with the agent we knew from the fair. He really listened to us and showed us around. But then he said that he wanted to show us another place: San Pedro del Pinatar and as we did say we would keep an open mind we agreed. And weren’t we lucky? By agreeing we found our little piece of paradise! It was love at first sight, both with the area and a newbuild, a detached property, the agent showed us. We were completely taken by surprise, it was everything we dreamt of. The area is authentic Spanish and is a living town all year around. There are plenty of things to do, the surroundings are beautiful, and its location is near the sea.

Newbuild essential

We were not ready to buy yet but we thought this is our chance, why wait? We got on the plane back to Stockholm and put our house in northern Stockholm on the market. I think we had hoped for it to sell a little quicker, but the market is slower in Sweden at the moment. But two months later we had sold our house and bought a flat instead. At that point, we phoned the agent on Costa Blanca and told him that we were ready to buy our dream home. But then it had already sold! It was such a blow but after a few tears, we bounced back. By then we had decided that we definitely wanted a newbuild and since we trusted the agent and the builder of the project where the house we fell in love with first was located we looked in that area again. We decided to buy a house which was going to be built in the next phase. Since it was not built yet we had the opportunity to add some extras to really make it our home, like some changes to the interior design and heated pool etc.

Want to move

Our long-term ambition is to move to our house in Spain, but it will not be for a few years yet. The house needs to be completed, which it will be this coming summer, and we also need to figure out what to work with when in Spain. The area is lovely and there are some great schools, both Spanish and international not far away and there is plenty to do. Our house is just 600 metres from the waterfront, walking distance but not right by the sea. Right now, we are so looking forward to moving in and then to be able to just hop on a plane and go down without too much planning. When we go with the kids we always plan ahead of time to work around their school work etc. I so look forward to just going down with my girlfriends, take long walks in the sun and stop for a drink at the little beach bar.

We found our paradise

We are very happy with our purchase and my advice is to keep an open mind regarding where to buy. Spain is a large country and there are so many cool places. We were down in Malaga recently and concluded that we had made the right choice in buying in San Pedro del Pinatar. We love Malaga, but it is not the right place for us any longer. Try and keep an open mind and go around and look at different places before you decide. And do use the internet for research. The combination of online resources and meetings with people in real life is the best. The internet is unbeatable when it comes to doing research, finding information, looking for properties and so on but after that, you have to find people on the ground. You need to connect and trust them and also know for certain that there is an after sales department.

Brilliant service

That is one of the positive aspects of buying a newbuild. The contacts we have had with the aftersales people have been brilliant, we have got all the help and service we ever needed. We are counting down the days until our house is ready and we get to move in. Life can really change quickly for the better!