Looking to buy a property

Due to some brilliant information from Marcliff, the experiences of some of you guys on here, and some research online on my part, I've almost had a complete turnaround from my original plan. I'm now going to rent for a year (possibly two) before committing to buy a home in Spain (or deciding it is not for me and returning to the UK).

It also seems likely that to get the most from my Spanish experience, I'm going to have to sell my house first, as opposed to renting it out three months at a time while I have the upheaval of a move to-and-fro from a rental in Spain to avoid the tax sting.

My thinking is keep the money from my house sale and just rent in Spain and become a tax paying citizen (after my house sale money is free from Spanish tax) and I have an EU passport to work if my company pension is not sufficient to get by on.

If anyone has experience to share, please do. I just want to avoid costly mistakes!

Thanks,

Mac

Hmmm, not sure selling your house in UK is the right way to go if you are unsure whether Spain will become your Ever Ever Land.

The way house prices are going up in UK would make it very difficult to purchase the same type 2 or 5 years down the line. Prices in UK seem to go up in 10s of thousands every few years whereas in Spain the go up in 10s.

Here's an example. We sold our house in UK 2011 for 140,000 pounds. A similar house is now on sale for almost 300,000 pounds. In Spain we bought in 2008 for 190,000 euro. Similar houses now are going for 210,000 which is just about what we paid taking into account taxes and fees. So basically nothing.

It would take all my savings to be able to buy a house similar to the one I sold all those years ago in UK if I ever changed my mind and moved back. We did sell our house in UK but we had been coming to this area for over 6 years before deciding we wanted to move here permanently. If we'd had doubts I may not have sold.

Maybe get some financial advice here and see which could be the biggest hit, CGT or house prices.