So, you’ve bought your very own patch of paradise on the Mediterranean coast. The weather is a balmy thirty two degrees, the sea is shimmering just beyond your front door and nearby olives are ripening on the vine. But, the house is as yet unliveable and in need of serious renovation work. So what next? How do you turn a dilapidated farmhouse into a dream villa?
So, you’ve bought your very own patch of paradise on the Mediterranean coast. The weather is a balmy thirty two degrees, the sea is shimmering just beyond your front door and nearby olives are ripening on the vine. But, the house is as yet unliveable and in need of serious renovation work. So what next? How do you turn a dilapidated farmhouse into a dream villa?
Renovating your property can seem like a daunting task when you are first setting out, but once you know precisely what needs doing and how you want it to look, everything becomes much simpler and can be broken down into manageable chunks.
The first step is to get a professional appraisal of the situation. By hiring an expert, such as an architect or a surveyor, you will discover exactly what needs to be done and how feasible any proposed alterations to the property are. Once you have this information you can obtain quotes from relevant contractors (builders, electricians etc), and then work out approximately how much it will cost to renovate your property in the Costa Blanca, and how long it is likely to take. After these factors have been considered realistically, you may find that you have to scale back your aspirations accordingly.
Before making any definitive plans for the renovation, you must also contact the local council, or Ayuntamiento, to determine what planning permissions can be granted on the land you have bought, and what limitations are in place. Certain rural areas have strict rules in force regarding the size of a building on a property. You may well have visions of an extra three guest bedrooms and a luxury swimming pool, but the local authority may have other ideas.
If you haven’t already done so, it is also essential to put your new home into the Spanish property register. To do so, you need to convert your private contract obtained from the seller (contrato de compraventa) into a public deed (escritura publica). This is particularly important as without it you will be unable to provide proof of ownership to third parties such as banks and utility companies, which of course presents all kinds of problems.
Securing the necessary finances to carry out the work before you start, through a mortgage or other means, is clearly vital. Foreign property purchases and developments are commonplace in Spain, so it may be possible to obtain a favourable mortgage locally.
Once everything is in place and you have a green light from the local authorities, its time to make some concrete plans of what work shall be carried out. If the renovation is to be extensive or you plan on making substantial improvements and extensions, you may wish to obtain the services of a professional architect. Particularly if you’re inexperienced, hiring an architect can help to ensure that the project comes together in the way you envision, and, if they’re efficient, can also save you a lot of money and time in the long run.
If you prefer to have the big ideas and then let others deal with the nitty gritty of putting those ideas into practical terms and seeing that the work is carried out, you may also consider hiring a project manager to oversee all aspects of the renovation. Under your guidance they will take the renovation project from its initial planning stages and hiring the relevant building contractors, to seeing that the work is completed in a timely manner. If you choose to take this route, be sure that the project manager you hire is properly licensed and comes with good references, and, most importantly,is someone you feel comfortable leaving the refit and design of your home to.
Alternatively, if you’re a little more confident and knowledgeable about the renovation process, you can oversee the whole project yourself, completing what work you can personally and hiring specialised contractors to perform any tasks you are unable to undertake yourself.
When renovating your home in the Costa Blanca, it is important that you keep in mind what your end goals are, and that these are achievable within your budget and within a reasonable time frame that you are comfortable with. It is all too easy to keep coming up with new ideas for your property as the process moves along, potentially turning your dream home into a never-ending building site draining money from your bank account at a tremendous rate.
