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In Buying a property in Spain barrister, Charles Davey, covers the nitty-gritty of upping stakes, with a particular emphasis on the legal aspects of buys and lets in Spain. The whole system of buying, surveying, and legally checking out a property is completely different from the UK, and Davey discusses how to overcome these hurdles.
He also gives a useful overview of the different Spanish regions, with their pros and cons for a prospective British buyer. The Costa del Sol is still the overwhelming destination of choice, but other areas have hidden treasures, too.
Not only is Davey exceptionally thorough on the details of living abroad, from electricity bill direct debits to chickenpox vaccinations, he also writes in a remarkably calm, uncritical way, even about the dodgier property dealings.
When discussing the illegal practice of “declaring property at an undervalue” (where the buyer declares a low buying price and then pays the vendor extra under the table, reducing the amount of tax that buyer and seller have to pay) our barrister-author refrains from wagging a finger at the unscrupulous Brits saving cash in this way. He merely points out that while the practice was previously widespread in Spain, there are many pitfalls, so "the increasing tendency is to declare the correct sale price." Decide for yourself what to do, he implies.
Davey covers the social side of Spanish life too. If you wanted to know about which seaside resorts in Spain have English-speaking churches, or where you can watch films or read newspapers in English, it's all in the main text, or in one of the six appendices at the back.
All in all, this is an excellent starting point if you are considering moving to Spain - and if you think that a few weeks a year there is enough to start off with, you'll be relieved to find out that timeshare these days is far better regulated too. Charles Davey, Kogan Page, £9.99 ISBN 0-7494-4056-2
