Total yearly cost

marcliff wrote:Community fees vary greatly. Some as low as 120 euro a year and others as high as 1000 euro a year plus. Depends on the facilities, swimming pools, lifts in apartment blocks, amount of area etc. You would really need to do your homework on this.

Council tax or IBI depends on the rateable value of your property but is not something to worry about. On a 3 bed property of 105 sq m I pay 242 euro a year.

Standing charges for electricity and water. You pay these regardless of if you use the property or not. No electric or water being used and you will pay (depending on how much you are contracted for) about 25 to 30 euro a month for electricity and the same per quarter for water. Our water bill is around 50 euro a quarter and our electric varies from 60 to 90 (depending on aircon and heating use) euro a month. The rubbish collection tax is around 80 euro a year. If you are going to be a non resident then you have imputed income tax (benefit on owning property) which is again dependent on rateable value but 80 euro a year per owner (2 owners total 160 so 80 each) per year.

House insurance and car insurance about the same as you'd pay in UK (could be more now with the pound being so low). Annual road tax between 40 and 45 euro a year but higher for big gas guzzlers.

Altogether, as a permanent resident with a car, my bills come to around €2,000 to €2500 a year.

When looking at property, ask what the community fees are for that particular property. Even within a community the rates will vary depending on the size. Within our community they range from €340 a year to €1100 a year (2 bed top floor flat with no lift up to 4 bed semi-detached with large garden).