Ok, so you think it would be nice to have a property in Spain and you have made the wise choice of looking for it in Almeria... where do you start?  The natural thing to do is start looking at properties straight away, however you will save yourself a lot of effort and heartache if you follow the steps below.

Work out what you can afford

Firstly and most importantly, you need to get your finances in order so that you know what you can afford and/or would like to spend.  There are many ways of funding a property purchase in Spain, normally one or a mixture of the following:

• Proceeds from the sale of your house in the UK
• Equity release on a property in the UK
• Cash and liquid assets such as bonds, stocks and shares
• A Spanish mortgage

If all of your funds are coming from the sale of a property in the UK, then we recommend that you don’t go too far down the track of looking for your property in Spain until you have at least accepted an offer or, preferably, exchanged contracts in the UK as the buying process here is typically a lot faster and you will need to put money down sooner - see the section on the buying process.  Similarly, if you are raising equity on your property in the UK, then it is wise to get a mortgage offer first so that you have a clear idea of what you have available.

If you are intending to purchase using a Spanish mortgage, then you should read the section on Mortgages and ideally speak to a Spanish mortgage broker as soon as possible.

Once you have worked out how much Sterling you have available then you will also need to take into account the additional costs (see the section on additional costs) and how much this will equate to in Euros - see the section on transferring your money.

Decide what you are going to use the property for

This sounds obvious, but it is something that many people don’t do as a conscious exercise resulting in them looking for properties that aren’t going to suit either the lifestyle that they wish to achieve or their basic requirements.

People buy properties in Spain for lots of different reasons; a permanent home; a holiday home; a rental investment, a capital investment, or a mixture of any of these.  The type of property that you look for, and its location need to match these requirements.  For example, if you are looking for a holiday home that you will use for only two weeks a year and hope to rent out for the rest of the time, then a cortijo miles from anywhere is probably not going to be the most appropriate.  Similarly, if you intend to live here all year round then you will probably want to avoid areas that are flooded with tourists in the summer and dead in the winter.

It is worth considering:

• Distance from the airport
• Distance from amenities
• Distance from the beach
• Security and maintenance
• Facilities such as gardens and pools

It is worth reading the section on choosing the right home to get a better idea of what would best suit your requirements.

Work out your timescales

As mentioned above, the buying process in Spain is normally a lot faster than in the UK with completions on resale and key-ready properties in as little as 4 weeks.  With re-sales, this is often negotiable and we have had one deal go through where both parties agreed to a maximum completion of 18 months (an exception rather than the rule).  Similarly, there is some room to manoeuvre on key-ready properties although most developers would like to see it all wrapped up in two months.

If this is all a bit quick for you then you may wish to delay searching in earnest until you are in a position to go ahead or, if you are able to come up with a proportion of the price of the property now, you may want to consider off-plan properties.  This is where you purchase something which is either just an architects plan or in some stage of construction.  The risks are a little higher in that you can never be 100% certain of what you will end up with (although you should be financially secure if you use a lawyer), however you are likely to get more for your money as people will always pay more for things that they can already see and touch.  Off-plan can also have some other advantages. For example, with off-plan villas, you can pretty much design exactly what you want, choosing layout, positioning on the plot, orientation, roof tiles, floor tiles, bathroom tiles, paint colours, kitchen units etc etc.

Next, we recommend that you read anything in the ‘Things you need to know’ section that you haven’t already covered... and finally... it is time to start your property search.