How To… finally make your mind up to buy in Spain

The UK: Rainy, cloudy and cold.

Deciding to buy a property in Spain is as much about your state of mind as it is about the state of your finances. You can browse, sure. Dream. Scour this very website for the house that ticks all of the boxes. Maybe even fire off the odd email enquiring about availability. Or arrange a meeting with your accountant to see how your finances are shaping up.

But you will never take the plunge if you insist on only dipping in various toes. You have to want to jump in. To face the realisation that buying a property in Spain is a big, often life-changing decision.

But whether you’re after a holiday home or plan on moving to Spain permanently, it helps to follow these three steps first…

Step One: Fall out of love with the UK

Face it, life in the UK gets you down. Look around you. Everything’s grey, hurried and overpriced. The weather forecast is damp, wet and blustery, and it probably won’t get any better until Easter at the earliest.

At work, the incessant X Factor chat whirs like an incessant photocopier, ceasing only for lunch when you rush out into the rain, queue at Tesco for a dry sandwich and eat it sullenly at your desk.

Weekends are washed away in a torrent of substandard beers and wines ‘enjoyed’ in some soulless, over-commercialised chain bar. Everyone around you seethes with selfishness and hedonism, your home is expensive and the roads and pavements are constantly packed.

Sure, there are things you love about Britain, but your tether is exhausted and your dreams of a better life in Spain recur again and again. Now is the time to act on them.

Step Two: Learn more about Spain

Love at first sight only happens in movies. The reality is closer to lust than love. You crave something, can’t tear your eyes from it, but you don’t love it. Not yet. As you come to find out more about ‘it’ – personality, idiosyncrasies, passions, ideology, compatibility – only then do you learn to love it.

It’s the same with Spain. Holidays to the Costa del Sol will certainly stir your passion for more, but true love for the country is inescapable once you start learning more about it.

So find out what life is like in Spain, pick up some of the lingo, explore the various cultures and cuisines and maybe even read up on the country’s history – it can only whet your appetite for more, thus ensuring cupid’s arrow arrives post-marked ‘España’.

Step Three: Realise how easy it is to move

Buying a property in Spain is not a complicated business. It requires research and diligence, yes, but the professionalism of those who work in the industry makes it extremely easy to follow procedure and buy the home of your dreams.

Getting a mortgage in Spain is an option for many, or there is the option to get a mortgage at home to free up funds in Spain. VIVA can recommend trusted lawyers, notaries and removal companies and, of course, has thousands of properties for you to choose from.

The best thing is, our staff are experts in the Spanish property market. We have seen and done it all, so whatever your worries, whatever your question and whatever your budget, we can give you the right advice, every time.

So there you have it. If you can identify with step one, heed the advice of step two and do your research on step three, then there really is nothing stopping you from making the dream move to Spain.