31. Buying property in Spain - Sunshine Is Free; Mistakes Are Expensive

Dreaming of a home in Spain but unsure what’s real and what’s just sunshine? We pull back the curtain on the Costa Blanca North market and walk you through the parts most foreigners never see: why many listings start overpriced, how verbal offers actually work, and the legal power of a well-written arras contract. With luxury broker Darcy Maxim as our guide, we map the stretch from Denia to Alicante, show how different nearby towns feel in daily life, and explain why a great agent becomes your researcher, negotiator, and project manager in a system that isn’t built like the US or UK.

We get practical fast. Inspections aren’t standard in Spain, so we break down how to commission your own and what to test, from electrics and HVAC to humidity and roofs. We talk furniture inventories, because deals often wobble over “personal items,” and we outline a clear sequence from shortlisting and viewings to negotiation, deposit, and the notary. Expect a formal closing: assigned seats, a full deed reading, identity checks, and verified funds. It’s slower, yes, but designed to keep the transaction clean.

If you’re investing, we cover where returns still make sense and how to match budget to strategy. With around €500k, consider off-plan new builds with 10–20 percent uplift at delivery or a sea-view refurb with bright, Mediterranean finishes. At €1.5m, scarcity, views, and walkability lead, with rentals strong if you follow evolving local rules. We also share hard-won lessons from rental horror stories and why platform protection matters. Love Spain for the lifestyle, but buy with discipline: test towns at night, question the price, and never sign blind.

Enjoyed the conversation? Follow, rate, and share the show, and tell us your target budget and biggest question about buying in Spain so we can help in a future episode.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:06

This episode of the Made in Spain podcast is powered by Goco Energy. Clean natural energy for life at the speed of Go.

Framing The Spanish Property Reality

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Welcome to Made in Spain. I am your co-host, Nalini Sharma, along with Laura Senior Garcia. We're very excited to be here today. We're going to introduce you to a very special guest. Today's episode is buying property in Spain and what foreign buyers don't see. So let's just set the stage for a minute. Um, there's a little bit of context to this conversation, Laura. Many of our listeners, especially in the US, UK, Canada, they are dreaming about moving to Spain. And uh there's a lot that comes with that. They're scrolling late at night, they're saving photos, and they're imagining, you know, my life out in the sunshine. But what we've noticed is that most of the information out there is either it's just overly simple, or people are being sold maybe a dream that may not necessarily exist. And we have a special guest today.

Meet Darcy Maxim

SPEAKER_03 1:09

So very soon we're gonna be introducing our guests here, but we really wanted to kind of discuss, you know, why are we doing this episode? We know that buying a home, we've both been through this experience, is not something that's just a transaction, it's very emotional. It hits your identity, who you are as a person, your lifestyle. And today is not about selling the Spanish dream, it's about grounding our audience and our listeners in reality. And we obviously, as we always say, are not experts, but but we have an expert. That we wanted to bring in. And kind of I would say to frame it, Spain is incredible, but it does work very differently. Yes. And understanding that difference is everything ever thinking about buying a property here.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

So Okay, so we're introducing you to Darcy Maxim. Darcy, welcome to the show. Welcome to Made in Spain. Thank you for being here today. Um, first, tell us who you are, who you represent, your background, and what gives you this window into the property market in the Costa Blanca region.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

Got it. Well, first thing, thank you very much for having me here. Um, I'll present myself first. So my name's Darcy Maxim. I was actually born in Belgium, but raised in Spain. Okay. English mom, that's why the English is uh going around there. Um my dad's been over 25 years in real estate. So I actually started with him. I was bought up, I was went in when I was a little kid, going to all of the buildings. And then at 20 years old, I actually got into the business with him. I was there for two years, but he was always selling things roughly maximum to 800,000. And that used to be the market from 300 to 800,000. And I said, Dad, I want to sell like the big luxury things, I want to sell the higher things. Like, no, that's not possible. They only do that in the US, they only do that in big markets. I said, No, but I want to do it. I was watching million-dollar listing, and at the end, I had to stop working with him because I had bigger dreams. Right. So I stopped and uh we transitioned to opening a new company. And then I went to Altea with my business partner, Bruno, and we opened a company up Costa Blanca Investments. It long story started with like a rental business, and then we were gonna manage it, but then we couldn't manage the rentals because it was you need a big company to manage that if you want to do it properly. And from there on, we just started selling. We sold our first house, like the first sale of the company was like a 1.4 million euro house here in um Coblanca, actually. Wow, and from there we just started doing it.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

That was your first sale.

SPEAKER_04 3:34

That was the first sale. First sale.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

And just for our listeners, can you put some context into the neighborhoods that you're talking about? I mean, we know where Altea is, but people in maybe Canada or the US don't understand where Altea is.

SPEAKER_04 3:48

So, how I try and explain it is we are the closest town to Ibiza because a lot of people have Ibiza. And I say we are in the middle of Spain, all the way on the right, you know, and we are in the middle of Barcelona and Marbella. People already click when they understand that. So we are right in the middle.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_04 4:03

Now, what is the market that we touch? We touch all the way, let's say, from Denya to Alicante. That is all of our area. They call it Costa Blanca North, is actually where we are managing.

SPEAKER_03 4:12

That's a really good way to describe it. Closest to Ibiza, because if you do kind of, you know, we're a straight ferry short from very short from uh Ibiza. Yeah, but most people I don't think realize that when they look at this area.

SPEAKER_04 4:24

No, we are the closest town to Ibiza. It's insane. Denya is the closest, but like we here are literally with uh a normal boat, it's around two hours.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Wow, that's actually I didn't know that. No, me neither.

SPEAKER_04 4:36

Very close, but it's crazy if you think about it. Everybody's speaking about Ibiza, and we have Ibiza two hours away. You can be at a beach club and just having a cocktail there from just your house, and in the morning you're already there. Yeah. It's insane if you think about it.

Track Record And Market Tier

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Um, Darcy, tell us about the amount of real estate that you've sold because that is a really impressive number.

SPEAKER_04 4:53

Yeah, yeah. So in the company, we've roughly been three years and a half. Um, most of my sales have been here because when I was in my dad's company, I'm not counting them sales. We've done over 65 million of sales, hundreds of sales right now. Um, our average price right now, we're coming into one 1.5 million, so it's raising the standard here in the area. We're realizing that there is a lot of wealthy people coming here, and this is the place to go to a lot of people.

Biggest Assumption: No Inspections

SPEAKER_03 5:18

Excellent. Well, that's great to hear, and I think it sets really good context for what kind of property to think about when it comes to your expertise. So we are very, very excited to pick your brain a little bit and to give people some insight. Uh, because we do know, uh, because of having traveled a lot and obviously Nalini being from Canada, that things are a little different. So we wanted to ask you from what you see, what is the most common assumption that foreign buyers are bringing with them that may not be real?

SPEAKER_04 5:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 5:54

So you mean like doubts that they have doubts, or just like let's say this is something that normally happens when I buy in the US or in another European country, and they think it's gonna be the same in Spain, and then maybe they may be shocked. Like, what are some of the assumptions that they're coming from?

SPEAKER_04 6:11

I think the the number one would be inspection. It's not typical that they do inspections in houses here in Spain. Right. Um, a few months ago we actually hired I hired someone in the company just to do inspections so that when the clients come, we inspect all the house for them. Everything that is to do with fireplace, lights, electronics, and all of that. Right. Because most people are just buying house and then the structure is not good, and then this is not good, and then the lights are not working, and the air conditioning needs to be changed, or there is humidity, or there is a leakage in the roof. And I think in America they take it more seriously. Everything that has to do with doing a full inspection of the house that is actually a wood. I think in every sale you inspect a house there.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Yes, I think there's a step. Yeah, no, I'll I'll tell you how just how it works. If you buy a house in I'm from Toronto, so if when you buy a house there and you put an offer in, typically the offer, especially in a cool real estate market, you can put conditions on the offer. So the condition will be upon financing and home inspection. Okay. So that always comes with that. But if it's a really hot market, you waive the inspection and you waive the financing and the offer is firm. But that's always something, and it's it sometimes works as a cooling off period because you can always turn around and say, Oh, my financing wasn't in place, or and then they give you a number of days. So it might be five days for the financing and the home inspection.

SPEAKER_04 7:28

Yeah, it's very different. They don't they don't do that here. Maximum, what they do, they bring their friend Paco with them, and they're like, so come and check the house, and then he looks, knocks on the window, looks there, knocks on the wall, and like it's okay, you know. So different.

How Buying Works In Spain

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Now, can you okay? So walk us through the home buying spirit experience here for the foreign buyer.

SPEAKER_04 7:49

Yeah. Okay, so first step that I recommend is uh getting in contact with a brokerage. Okay. It doesn't have to be mine, of course, but there is a lot of brokerage here in the area. And find someone who you can have like a close relationship with.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 8:01

After that, you search, um, uh you you give all of the details to what they're searching for. Normally the brokerage or the real estate agent should ask you all the questions. Um, do you have a family? What locations would you like? Do you want more sun? Do you mind if there's shade? Do you mind stairs? Do you need a lift? All of these questions. From there, the real estate agent should scan all of the market and then tell you which location to be in. I always recommend, especially people that are foreigners come in, that they rent out an Airbnb or hotel or a house in a in a different type of location.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Oh, okay. Yeah, we were talking about that.

SPEAKER_04 8:32

I always recommend that if they're doing big purchases, I always recommend go to Denya, get something there, and stay there for a few nights. Then go to Aldea or go to Javia and then go to Benedom. And then there they already get the feeling because they come to the streets and they're like, okay, this is not my location.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Right.

SPEAKER_04 8:46

And I think we all three know that it's completely different. Benedom has nothing to do with Javia. Javia has nothing to do with Aldea. They are just completely different locations.

SPEAKER_03 8:55

And they're very close to each other, but they're very, very different. The vibe, the food, the energy, where the tourism is from. Yeah. Because you know, you can go to one place and most of the people there are from the UK. You go to another, and most people are from Germany. So you really do have to, and it's not, you know, anything wrong with it, but you have to just feel like where do you feel most comfortable? Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 9:19

Yeah, yeah. After we can go to nationalities of towns, I can tell you each town what nationality. Oh, really? Okay, interesting.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Okay, so once your agent, now the one thing here is I think maybe different than let's say a um, you know, a North American market. Do buyers sign an agreement with the brokerage?

SPEAKER_04 9:38

Okay. Um, it's not typical to do it. We've actually started to do it because what happens, let's say a foreigner comes, looks online, and contacts all different types of agencies. So what happens is that their name starts getting registered with everybody. So let's say, for example, I my clients, they normally stay with us because we go and pick them up from the airport. We give like the best services possible.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:58

Um, and I say, okay, we want to view this house. And they say, no, they're already in the database. And we're not allowed to view it because their name, just their name and nationality, has been registered. The system here is not like in the US. Like it's still very old school, how everything is.

SPEAKER_03 10:12

Like how they own the clients. Because normally, if that would happen in the US, you would just share the listing.

Agency Chaos And Buyer Agreements

SPEAKER_04 10:18

Correct. Yeah. Here they would say no. Um, he actually came in through, let's say, Ida Lista and fill in my name, even if they're not in contact. Right. He's in my database. So then they would contact the client and say, You need to view this house with me and that. And I would have to tell the client, hey, you need to share with the agency that you want to work with us, that you want us to take care of it.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

And so usually if you uh when you work with a the difference with um a North American market is that you typically sign with a brokerage.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

So if you're looking for as a even a buyer or seller, so you would sign with a brokerage and you have them for let's say 90 days.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

So because they obviously they're working on commission, you know, so you can't just go to this brokerage, that brokerage, and you're with that agent. So you have to make sure you work well with that agent.

SPEAKER_04 11:01

I agree. And if we would do that here, there would be a lot more order. There wouldn't be so much chaos. But Spain, Spain is still like that. You know, you go to the Ayuntamiento, it's the government place for like documents. In other countries, it's all digital. Here, the guy with the motorbike, if you need an escritura, needs to go to the warehouse, yeah, take the document out and bring it to you. So it takes literally like two or three months to get a document. Meanwhile, in other countries, you just click. What do you need? Um, the document of the house. Click, here you go, send it. Here in Spain, you need to call Paco. He goes on the bike, he goes with it. It's quick as if you take it. It's a very busy guy. He's everywhere. He's everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

He's everywhere, Paco.

SPEAKER_04 11:36

Electrician, building, everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Okay, so you you're now shown a property, you like the property, and you now you make an offer. How what does that look like for the foreign buyer?

SPEAKER_04 11:47

Correct. So the real estate agent should know the negotiation that should be happening. Okay. Okay, because there are a lot of houses in Spain that are just overpriced. Right. And it just happens with sellers. That's why I recommend going with a real estate agent so that he can tell you, look, this is not the price. We need to get it to this price, is the market price.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Right.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

So from there, you just bring out an offer. Sometimes it's just verbally. Like sometimes you can do it per written, but 90% of the time it's just like, hey, I do an offer of 700,000.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Really?

SPEAKER_04 12:14

Yeah. Yeah. It's insane.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Is that binding? Binding as in me, meaning that it's legal.

SPEAKER_04 12:21

There is no law. No. There is no law, literally. It just uh do an offer. And the thing is at the end of the day, we're just here to try and get to an agreement, is to make sure that the seller comes down and they need pushing because every single house that is on the market, they're all overpriced. There is not one that I know that is not on a higher price.

SPEAKER_03 12:38

Right. So that's a really big watch point to our audience and our listeners, is you have to come in ready to negotiate. Right. Even if it's a hot market right now, and even if you know there are uh there is more demand uh than offer right now, you have to be ready to negotiate because I know that is different. Like, say for example, a listing may come out in the US and it is like only in the market for like a couple of days. Right.

SPEAKER_04 13:04

That's insane.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

Like Darcy was described here, it's not like that. It takes a while. You know, you have to check things, etc. And in that process, even if they have an offer because it's not a binding offer, you know, you may be able to go a little bit higher. So come in ready to negotiate. It or if you want to pay over price, be aware that you are paying over price.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Right. So once the uh the seller agrees on the offer, what's the next step?

SPEAKER_04 13:37

Um uh from there, then we come to the office, okay. Um, and we do a contrato de reserva or contrato de arras. So a reservation contract is like 5,000 euros. Okay. It's not legal legal, I wouldn't say uh like it's bad.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Right.

SPEAKER_04 13:50

But the arras, if you pay it, you can't step out.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Okay.

Arras Vs Reservation Explained

SPEAKER_04 13:54

So it means let's say a foreigner comes, buys a house, 500,000, needs to put 10% down. Okay, put 50,000 euros down. If the buyer steps out, he loses the 50,000. Okay. If the seller steps out, he needs to give the 50,000 euros back plus another 50,000 euros.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yeah. Oh, okay. That's a good protection then.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

It is, that's and it happens. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:15

It happens a lot. Really? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:17

Because they get a higher over because it's such a negotiated market. Oh, but that's why it's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 14:22

Well, that's why I always recommend to not do reservation. That's why reservation is not as strong because some people prefer to lose 5,000 euros. But to lose 50, it hurts a little bit more. So I always say if you are really interested and you want to go ahead, sign the contrato de arras.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Okay. So that's like the firm step that you're moving forward and that the seller now cannot back out of the deal. And if they do, they're penalized substantially.

SPEAKER_04 14:46

Their offer has to be then double than uh what they're losing.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:50

So and that very rarely that happens. Okay. Very rarely.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

So once that's finished, then what what for the foreign buyer? You go arrange your financing. I mean, it's it's different if obviously you're paying cash, but I'm assuming that many buyers need financing.

SPEAKER_04 15:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Most of the buyers, if I have to say, they are cash buyers who come here, but lately now more people because they are we're um Spain is giving mortgages to foreigners.

SPEAKER_03 15:11

So we're getting a which it didn't used to be.

SPEAKER_04 15:13

They didn't use to. So we're giving up to a 70% of foreigners. I've had sometimes that they got to up to an 80%. Right. With a 3% interest. That is very good here in Spain. Um, so from there, what then you would do, you would do a negotiation of for terms of furniture. Okay. So for example, we need to choose, okay, is the table, is the sofa, is everything included. Right. Every single operation I've had, there's always problems with the furniture. Really? Every single one. Yeah, because they say the the the sellers, they say, okay, I'm taking my personal things. All right. Okay, what is personal? And then what is personal, you know? And then and then what happens that they take the sofa, the bed, and they say, Yeah, but the sofa was from my brother and from this and from that. And then the buyer's like, and then there's always a discussion. We've lost deals just because of the furniture.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

Which is crazy because if you think about the percentage amount of a sale of that size, but that's where people I think sometimes they get in their own way.

Mortgages, Furniture, And Inventory

SPEAKER_04 16:03

Yeah, yeah. So I always recommend when we agree with the arras, in the arras, the reservation contracts, we do an inventario. So an inventario is like I take a picture of all of the furniture that is staying or what is going. Okay. Yeah. Right. The inventory. Yeah. So I just add all of that in the contract and then we sign what is staying, and that's it. And then we don't have any problems.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Wow. So the real estate agent really has to work for their commission here. There's a lot of work. It's a lot of work.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

I mean, I'm not saying it's not as, and sometimes also by Spanish buyers, maybe not so much by foreign buyers, but they're always like debating, you know, the commission amount and all that kind of stuff. Even if it's, you know, tremendously hard work and you know, you're not just paying for that transaction, you're paying for the experience, you're paying for the professionalism and all that, but it's still debated.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

As a buyer, are you paying commission?

SPEAKER_04 16:54

No.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

It's just a seller. It's a seller.

SPEAKER_04 16:56

There are some buyers uh now there are companies that are coming out that they're paying like a fee of like 500 euros or a thousand euros to work exclusively with them. And I think it's a very good idea. Okay. I I might bring this out in the future because imagine we have hundreds of clients coming in every single month. Right. But imagine if from the hundred, only five of them pay. Yeah. You're gonna prioritize them five because they're the only ones that have shown you interest. Right. Like the times that I've done viewings in houses of like five million, four million, and then after the buyer just disappears. Right.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

And just as they won't even answer.

SPEAKER_04 17:26

And you pick them up on the airport, you go and take them out to eat, you pay for them, you know, because hey, you want to give a nice service, you want to give a good impression, and then they just disappear.

SPEAKER_03 17:33

But and I will say what you're describing though is way over and above what other brokerages do here. From my own personal experience. I mean, the fact that you're picking them up at the airport, and you know, they just that's not no part of the deal here normally. Okay, so very, very interesting in terms of the surprise. So sorry, we were going back through the process, the steps. Okay. So you just describe the steps, and then we're going to the next step, which would be the signing, right?

SPEAKER_04 18:01

Correct. So let's do a recap. So you come in, um, the agent um goes through all of the houses and chooses the best ones for you. Okay. Okay. From after you choose the location. Right. After that, you do viewings. Okay. Then you do negotiation, you get to an agreement, you agree with the furniture, and then after that, you set a date of the notary. Okay. So the notary, I don't know if you say this in America, this word.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

It is a it doesn't exist in real estate. It's for notaries exist, but not in the real estate process at all.

SPEAKER_04 18:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

You have a real estate lawyer.

SPEAKER_04 18:36

Yeah. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

That's it. And I mean, you don't even have to see, you don't even see the lawyer. Okay. You you don't have to. There's the paperwork. It's purely a money transaction. Yeah, the paperwork just gets signed, and the lawyer or the brokerage will hold the deposit until the funds are transferred on the day of the sale. So on this is what happens on the day of the so your closing day or day of possession. The only thing as the uh buyer you are doing and the seller, you are waiting for the funds to be released electronically.

SPEAKER_04 19:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

To give them the key. Pay the house, sorry, to pay the house, to do this, and you just wait for the call. Your agent holds the key.

SPEAKER_04 19:15

Pretty easy.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

And until your agent says, house is yours, funds are transferred. You then drive, you get the key, and the house is yours. Like it's just done with a click on the computer that there's no shuffling with the paperwork and filing. And as the seller, you're waiting for the funds.

SPEAKER_04 19:32

And that's it.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

And that's it. And then they're like, you need to be out of the house. Like you have two hours to get all your stuff out. And sometimes your buyer is sitting on the driveway. And legally, the house is now theirs. Yeah. Like you need to get out.

SPEAKER_04 19:42

Well, here's different. So here we we set the date. Um, we go to the notary, the seller and the buyer. The notary always lasts from an hour to four to sometimes three, sometimes four. Yes. Because they do the paperwork there in the moment, and I still don't understand why they why they do that. They're preparing in the moment, still going over a few things. Um, they make sure that the money they get sent over, you sign with the guy from the notary, yeah, and done. And there you get the keys over and everything's yours.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Yeah, but they it's very formal. It's very formal. And I mean, I can say as a foreigner, when you uh when I we bought this house, that was my first home buying experience here. But I was uh on my own, my husband was away when we actually took possession of the house, and I thought, okay, we're going to the notary, and we went in. And I I've been to the notary a few times. This is always the same situation. It's a room with the long kind of table. The notary sits at the top of the table, like they're in charge. And then they tell you where you have to sit. You sit here, you sit here, you sit here. I saw you said it's very full, but it is. So you sit down and then you have maybe a translator next to you. Uh, and then the And usually someone comes in and announces now the notary. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Always, always, always, you know, Buenos Dias. And then they start, they're reading and they read from the top, and they start reading the whole contract.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

And then they do have legal responsibility, though.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Yeah, but the whole time you're just sitting there, mm-hmm, and they're like, Do you understand? I'm like, mm-hmm. I I don't. I'm like, please just make this work. But can't leave now. It's ours. And then they get to a part where the I guess the the check is handed over to the uh the seller, and then they leave. And then you're stuck now with the notary with the rest of the contract, and you just sit there for the next 45 minutes while they read.

SPEAKER_04 21:30

Welcome to Spain. Yes. We have certain we have a lot of things, but we're still building up the system. It's what I say, you know, it takes time. Um, and I do believe that in the next coming 10 years, everything's gonna change in terms of systems, in terms of process, and it is changing.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

Yes, it's just very it's very different as a foreign buyer. I mean, it's it's just a process that you have to go through, and it's worth it in the end, because you're buying this house that you want, you want to live this lifestyle, but it's vastly different than a lot of other markets.

SPEAKER_03 21:57

So, from an investment perspective, not That we've described the process, what is the market like now here? I mean, you're in it, so what what is the market like? Because I I understand, first of all, yes, prices definitely seem to be going up, yeah, 100%, and especially in the luxury market, and it's not easy to find something that really meets the needs of you know high demand buyers. So I'm I'm curious, like what how what's your perception of the way the market is right now?

SPEAKER_04 22:29

My point of view, before it was a lot of flipping happening. So a lot of people were buying cheap and then they were selling for they were refurbishing, like painting, cleaning it up. A lot of Dutch people are doing this and they were selling for a very good price, and they're making like two, three hundred thousand euros in like four or five years.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 22:44

In a moment, and like just flipping it. Um now, 2026, I believe we're coming into a healthy market. Okay. Because since 2008, since we've had the crash, we've just been rising like crazy. And just every year, people have just been earning more and more. I've sold properties for half a million euros that now I'm selling for a million euros, and this is literally in three years. Right. So everything is just multiplying. There needs to come a moment where it needs to stop. Yeah, right. So I believe 2026, it's not gonna lower, it's not gonna stay straight, it's just gonna go slowly up and it's gonna be more of a healthy market. So all of the overpriced houses, most surely, they're all gonna come off the market. Um, the negotiation is gonna be a lot more easier, it won't be so dramatic like before.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Right.

SPEAKER_04 23:24

So, yeah, going back to your question, in terms of investment, here we have between a seven and a 10% that I think is very good for Spain. And there are locations that are better for investments than others.

Where To Invest At 500k And 1.5m

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Where would you say is the in your opinion, right now, uh, or at least in 2026, a great investment area?

SPEAKER_04 23:45

First, I would say it depends on budget. So tell me budget-wise. Okay. Which budget would be?

SPEAKER_03 23:50

Let's say I have 500,000 euros to invest. Let's just start there and we'll do 500,000 and 1.5. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:59

So for 500,000, I think I would focus on all two things. I would buy new build, for example, something in Benedome or um the new apartment buildings that they're building, because they literally, when they're finished, you've already earned nearly from 10 to 20% more. Like literally when it finishes.

SPEAKER_03 24:14

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_04 24:15

Um, or then I would buy, for example, a secondhand house.

SPEAKER_03 24:18

So sorry, just to qualify when you say new build, because some people may not have the experience. A lot of times here, uh properties are sold while they are being constructed. Correct. And it may be two years out. So you are buying the dream at the end, but it will eventually happen. It's it's off plan.

SPEAKER_04 24:35

Yeah. It's off plan. Right. Okay. So I'm in the world, so like my words are like I say them every day, and I expect everybody to know them. Um, so yeah, new build is off plan. So literally, you just get shown a plan, and like this is gonna be built here in the next coming three years, four years sometimes. And uh, most of the time when you buy, when it finishes, you already earn from a 10 to 20 percent. So the margins are very good, okay, especially in this area.

SPEAKER_03 25:01

Okay, plus they're easy to rent as well.

SPEAKER_04 25:04

Very easy to rent. Rental is insane here, like insane. The prices are going up like crazy.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Yeah, and what about the government restrictions on the rent or property rental market? Do investors have to worry about that?

SPEAKER_04 25:15

It's getting harder each time. Yeah, I have to say.

Rentals, Regulations, And Refurbs

SPEAKER_03 25:17

So that's things that but if you do things right, that's the thing. You have to worry if you're not going to do things right. Right. But if you do things right and you're going through a company and you're doing you know, correct then Then you need to get your rights accountants and get everything set up in place.

SPEAKER_04 25:33

Yes. But going back to your question, like best investment, I would say a new build like apartment or like a bungalow or an independent villa, right? Polope or Benedome, they have very good investments there. Um, or I would buy like a secondhand house with C views and some bedrooms, um, and refurbish it. And do like any visa style uh um refurbishment and put some like nice furniture in, paint it, clean it up, put some new air conditioning in, and that's it. Okay that's already gonna bring the price up insanely.

SPEAKER_03 26:00

Excellent. Awesome. All right, great. So any last bits of advice that you wanna give our listeners if they're thinking about buying here.

SPEAKER_04 26:11

I've always got advice. Okay. Um number one advice I would say interview a few different types of brokerage. Okay, you know, like sit down with a few people and go with whoever you feel the most connected with. You know, they don't have to always be the best. You just need someone that's gonna be there for you, that understands the market, and that has also some negotiation skills because in this market you need to negotiate. I've negotiated houses that were on the market for a million and I've sold for 800,000.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Right.

SPEAKER_04 26:39

So there are like crazy, crazy negotiation skills that you need to push them down. Right. And if you just come in and say, okay, well, I bring down 20,000 because in a lot of markets it's like that. Yeah, but here it's not. Here sometimes it's dramatically. Don't get me wrong, there are some times that our goal as a real estate agent to set it at the right price.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 26:56

When we set it at the right price, the house, immediately in weeks, we're getting viewings. Immediately. Okay. Yeah. But most of the times, them type of houses are or inheritance or divorces, or someone's died, or something, something's happened in the in the family and they need to sell, you know, and the kids want the money and that. That's when the houses get set to the right price.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Right. I see. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 27:18

Because most of the time people say, Yeah, I take my time. If I get the price, I get the price. And if not, then I'm waiting because I'm happy, I got the sun, I got the beat, and I got good food. What else I need? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

Or I'm renting it for a lot of money. So that's the other thing. All right, Darcy, thank you so much for joining us today. Before we uh go to our slice of life, um, can you just give us your where people can find you, your information, socials, what's up. Yeah, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 27:42

Yes. So they can search me on Instagram, um, Darcy Maxim, D-A-R-C-Y, M-A-X-I-M. So it'd be past. Um and then Costa Blanca Investments is the company. There they can they can go and see it. I'm on Instagram, YouTube, everywhere. If they go on the YouTube, they'll see loads of videos from house stores. Houses from like 600,000 all the way to 12 million. So they can check all of it. And that's all houses, all on the Costa Blanca North.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

All right, thank you very much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_04 28:08

Thank you, guys.

Darcy’s Links And Sign Off

SPEAKER_03 28:08

Onto our slice of life. So before we dive into our slice of life, quick shout out to our amazing partner, Goco Energy. You have to try this.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

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SPEAKER_03 28:41

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Sponsor Shout And Slice Setup

SPEAKER_01 28:50

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SPEAKER_03 29:11

So hydrating, refreshing, and honestly, it just makes everything flow better.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Cheers, slice of life. Cheers. Today, Laura, we're having um mimosas, which typically is made with orange juice and a little bit of sparkling wine, champagne. Hey! This is uh juice from the mandarins in my garden.

SPEAKER_03 29:40

I actually was going to so it's a mandarin, right? It's a mandarin. I like it. I like it. It's got a bit of a kind of a twist, you know, it's really nice.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

The twist would have been seeing me at nine nine o'clock in my pajamas with the tree fighting with the mandarins. So these are no plastic mandarins. No, they're real.

SPEAKER_03 29:57

They're actually real from Nolan's tree. So for our slice of life, we really hope you enjoyed uh Darcy. I think he's very talented. Uh super interesting. Yeah, super interesting to find out just how different things are here. So on theme for Slice of Life, we wanted to bring you a perspective on, you know, horror stories that we have experienced uh buying, renting, etc., in this market. So, Nalini, as someone who has purchased in other countries and come here, do you want to share kind of a horror story of your own with our listeners and some people?

Rental Horror Stories And Lessons

SPEAKER_01 30:35

I mean, I would say this is more of a cautionary tale than anything else, because it it's like what Darcy was saying. It's very easy to come here and fall in love with the whole, you know, the scenery, the Mediterranean, the sunshine, and everything seems, especially as a foreigner and I lived in a cold country for most of my life. The fact that lemons grow on trees here, just in somebody's garden, is amazing to me because our fruit and vegetables come from the grocery store. They don't grow on trees where I come from. So it's very easy to get impressed by all these things. So my cautionary tale is that you have to be very careful with the person that you trust. It might seem really great and they're super friendly, but you might end up being burned in the end. We rented a place online, which again, that's not normal. Normal people don't do that, but that is what we did. Well, now they do with like Airbnb and all that stuff. I mean before, no. No. So we rented long term. After we lived in Mallorca for a couple of years, we decided that I said, okay, we're gonna move back, but I need I can't live on in Mallorca. It's it's too party scene for me. I need a normal life. So we chose this area, rented a house online, everything was great. We knew we would stay there a year or less. Turns out that when we it came time to give back the key, etc., the landlord tried to stick us with this huge bill for the utilities, which I'm not a part of the agreement. Not only that, I didn't understand the bill. I mean, it was almost 900 euros in gas. Like I don't even understand that. And it got to the point where he said if we didn't pay it, he would shut the heating off, which he did. Wow. So he shut the heat off in January. Wow. And the worst Isn't that illegal? I think this is the other thing. You need to know what your rights are. Yeah. So we found out from our lawyer that we were in uh full legal rights to break our lease early, which we didn't know. But he threatened us with legal action because he said we were breaking our lease early. And our lawyer's like, no, the law says that you are allowed to give X number of weeks' notice and there's no penalty. So we got out of that, and then the day it came to give back the key, he said he wanted all the furniture in the house, which was really nice furniture. Right. And we'd furnished the whole place, it came empty. And the day to give the key back, he came to do an inspection with his uh person, his man. I called him the money man because he always wore like this bag here, very close to his chest. And he said, Oh, we don't want the furniture. You need to move it. What? And I was by myself with the two kids. Yeah, he said, The day that you were moving out, the day we're moving. He said, We don't want the furniture. And he said, if you keep it here um and you're not out by like the next two days, now there's gonna be a penalty to you. They're gonna keep charging, they would keep charging us to stay there. That's tremendous increase. I did actually, I mean, I was so determined, I gave away every single thing in that house in eight hours. Wow. All the neighbors, everything went down to the hangers. I got rid of. But I trusted them. They were very nice, they were very welcoming. And you gotta do your homework.

SPEAKER_03 33:58

And even when you do your homework, yeah, you have to know your rights. Yeah. So, in that same line, another rental horror story. A few years ago, uh, I was actually going to go to Ibiza, and this was before Airbnb, etc. And we rented a high-end property all online, and it turned out that the property didn't exist.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

Oh.

Phrase Of The Day: Comprar A Ciegas

SPEAKER_03 34:23

And it took actually showing up there to realize that there is no this house on this street, and you know, 8,000 euros uh later, it was a terrible experience. So, what I would say is make sure that when you're renting, especially short-term rentals, go through the big platforms. Go, and we're not sponsored by Airbnb, but go through Airbnb, go through one of those booking, whatever it is, make sure that the ones that you use do uh protect you. Because if not, you could find yourself in a sticky situation. I chose to go to the police, and another lesson learned was the police told me, believe it or not, a lot of people that have that happen to them, that you have had happen to you, they don't report it, do not report it because they're embarrassed that you know they've been conned, you know, so or scammed or whatever you call it. So just something to think about is make sure you protect yourself and you go through the right platforms. And you lost the money. Oh, yeah, yeah. He's the I I don't know if he's still in jail. They eventually it came to trial and blah blah blah. He had done this to so many people, it was very messed up. Yeah. So, and it kind of ruined summer, which is the most important thing for me. But okay, so lesson learned. Lesson learned. So let's go to our sentence of the day.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

Oh, no, oh, I thought we were done.

unknown 35:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 35:43

No, I actually got it not.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

I'm being honest, I blocked it out. Okay, okay, I'm ready. Ready? Yeah. Something with shopping, buying, comparar, mm-hmm, a ciegas. Like make sure what you're what what you're buying is what you see.

Closing Thanks And CTA

SPEAKER_03 36:06

So it translates to buying blindly. Okay, I was close. I was close. Almost, yeah. But today we really wanted to bring that one in because sometimes, you know, you want to make sure you know what you're buying and don't go in blind. So I have to say, and not because we're promoting brokerages or anything like that. It is a good idea to go in with someone that knows what they're doing. Of course. So you don't buy blindly or you don't rent blindly. So that's a little bit of our cautionary tale. We absolutely thank you for being on this journey with us. Remember to like, subscribe, comment, all the things. We love our audience and we look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Yeah. Bye for now. Bye.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

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