Job Discussion Forums

[Dray]

Getting a mortgage and buying an apartment in Madrid on an EFL teacher's wage, is it possible?

[alexcase]

I know two teachers who did it together, but this is when property prices were considerably lower.

TEFLtastic blog- www.tefl.net/alexcase

[elamericano]

It's not realistic. Assuming you are able to find anything you can afford, think of the quality. Even the newspapers here are now reporting that such a place would likely be some piece of crap 'bajo' flat, which means you get to live on the ground floor in a former doorman's misshapen quarters next to the elevators where everyone else in the building walks by day and night. There is also a significant chance that your building will not have elevators at all.

Spanish mortgages require a sizeable down payment. That is tens of thousands of euros, in cash, at once. Many sellers will make *you* pay the fee to the real estate agency, if there is one involved.

This all happens before you get to be 'hipotecado por vida'. In Spanish, that means 'mortgaged for life'. You will also be responsible for all maintenance. Pay attention to your summer and winter break income, because payments are due monthly for decades.

Spain's real estate sector is, according to recent surveys published in the media here, the top generator of complaints among consumers. Regulation is a joke. There are multiple scandals going on throughout the country (including Madrid) in which local government officials are under investigation for corruption, taking payoffs and the like. Guess what kinds of businesses tend to be involved.

So, I wouldn't do it if I were you. Property is a money drain in the first place, and here it is especially bad. The only ways most Spaniards pull it off, when they do, is to have inherited the property or lived at home until their 30s and 40s while saving away like hopeful little packrats. Ridiculous!

[BELS]

What's the typical price for a typical three bedroomed flat in Madrid, I've seen lowest figures as high as �160,000 and houses at their lowest �200,000. Am I searching the right contacts, or is their something wrong there.

Can anyone give me a good web contact with many properties so I can get a ggod idea of the market in Madrid. At the moment it looks much higher than I anticipated, and I might as well go back to the UK.

[Caledonian Craig]

can all you out there in Madrid give me an idea of what the rent is like- either in shared or single accommodation. I've got a chance at a job there, and I'm getting a head start.