My Life In Spain - Costa del Sol Guide

Well, unfortunately this post is a bit of a sad one and hopefully is not the shape of things to come for me and the family here in Spain.

At the early hours of this morning I was woken by what I thought was my daughter who stirs quite a lot at night and normally ends up in our bed at some point.

Well this morning it wasn’t her, it was three guys attempting to break into our apartment. Luckily enough I heard the patio door slide across so went into the living room. They saw me and done a runner without me even saying or doing anything, I shouted out for good measure anyway.

Sadly this is an everyday occurence here on the coast. So if you have an apartment or villa let this be a warning to you. Make sure your windows and doors are fully secured. Oh and… get yourself a baseball bat!!

Thought I would mention a new site that has started up recently dealing with online auctions in Spain. Sellitonthecoast.com is kind of like Ebay but focus’s more on specific countries which has many advantages such as low delivery fee’s if any and also faster delivery. Or why not collect it yourself if you live close to the seller?

The whole idea is that if you need to sell something that you no longer need, whether old or new, you can list it on the auction site and people can then bid for the item. There is normally a buy it now price and also a minimum sell price. The seller is also able to choose the length of the auction.

SellItOnTheCoast are also looking to expand into other countries so that they will also have Online auctions in Tenerife and Ibiza.

All in all I think the whole concept of online auctions in Spain is a great one and think that the site will catch on. So what are you waiting for? Start listing your items today!

With myself and my family living here on the Costa del Sol in Spain, its enabled me to get a good feel of how things have been going recently within the property market.

Spain has become a mecca for real estate investors in recent years with people being lured to the country due to some 320 days of sunshine a year, mild winters and the strong british expat communities that have been established over the last 30 years or so.

I have friends and clients within the real estate sector and also friends and family who have properties for sale on the costa del sol and they have all come to the same conclusion. Although sales and interest has fallen over the last year or two, there are still some great properties to be snapped up and there is still sufficient enough interest from investors and also from emigrators in property for sale in Spain.

Spain’s Costa del Sol will always be a popular holiday destination with the British and other european’s due to the climate, proximity, warm and friendly natives and fine food and wine and this why it will remain in the next few years and one of the top tourist destinations and property investment regions.

There are many property hotspots sprouting up around the world including Morocco, Brazil, Turkey and Bulgaria but all are relatively new on the scene and do not have the infrastucture in place unlike Spain.

Looking ahead to this year, I think property prices on the Costa del Sol will need to be reduced in order to help attract more investors, as at the moment they are extremely high and I think this is definetely causing a lot of investors to seek better investment opportunities elsewhere.

That said, I still think that Spain’s Costa del Sol is still one of the best places to live and will remain so for a few years yet.

I just wanted to wish all of my friends,family and website visitors a happy, healthy and prosperous new year for 2008. Lets hope that the world can come together and somehow make this little ball that we live on a better place for all of us to inhabit.

Happy New Year!!

Discovered a great site recently that I saw advertised in the SUR in english which is our local rag here on the costa del sol for those that don’t know.

Its a dating website aimed more at uk dating but also dealing with international online dating.

From what I can tell there are many people registered from all corners of the globe. I have registered for a friend(no really, im married) as he is fed up with being single and cant wait to find a new girlfriend.

The site is called Single Friends. Its really easy to register and takes a few minutes. Its also only about 5GBP for lifetime membership which is pretty damn cheap. Can’t be bad.

Had a terrible crash in my S Type Jaguar in the mountains near Alhaurin el Grande recently which was very nasty. The car was a complete right off and the road was closed for a couple of hours causing terrible tail backs.

Even though I knew the road very well, this did not make any difference at all. The back of the car came away from me and as I span the car and tried to correct it coming round the corner was a dirty great 20 ton truck (just my luck) which I smashed into pretty much head on.

It all happened so quickly and after the initial impact there was smoke/dust in the car and a spooky silence. I then tried to get out of the car and realised that the door wouldn’t open which was worrying. I then decided to get out of the window as I have watched too many movies where the cars set fire!

Luckily nobody was hurt and felt that the guardia civil handled everything very well by controlling the traffic and getting the scene cleared up as quickly as possible.

Im gutted really as I loved that car. Oh well, I need to find another one now. So once the insurance company decides to pay me, I can set about finding a replacement.

On a final note, please everyone be careful when driving here, especially on old roads that become like skid pans when wet. I knew that road pretty well but it made no difference.

Thanks for visting and welcome to my new blog. As you can guess my the url of the blog, the site focuses mainly on my life in spain, news on the costa del sol and spain in general.

Myself and my family moved to the Costa del Sol in Spain around 3 years ago and have had many ups and downs during this time. The Costa del Sol is a wonderful place to live and has thousands of UK expats living here which is great as you do not feel so alienated when you arrive.

I will be adding posts on a regular basis and will also be adding a lot of pages and categories such as website reviews, costa del sol news, important information, contact numbers and important links etc.

 Hopefully I can make this blog an important source of information for those living on the Costa del Sol, those contemplating moving here.