End of 2020 I experienced a big change in my life and was thinking how to go on with life. So I booked holidays in Spain also to get another point of view to my current life.
I always wanted to retire one day in the Mediterranean, in France, Italy or Spain. As I already lived more than four years in Barcelona, I do speak Spanish and I came up with the idea to open a touristic business in Spain. After some thoughts I decided to stay some weeks in Peñiscola, because I enjoyed the old town of Peñiscola the last time when I was there and I also found out that prices for houses in the old town (Casco Antiguo) are quite reasonable.
So the idea was and still is to buy a house where I can live and also run a small touristic enterprise like a hostel or some Airbnb flats. I could even think about a small café. To find out I booked a small flat in Peñiscola and stayed there while checking out the market and having first contacts with real estate agents. I saw the old bakery, which is now deserted and on the market and also the old butcher also on the market, I visited some houses that have to be reconstructed from scratch and some houses that were ready to move in.
I visited several houses in the old town and had one strong contender on my list, a house of about 200 square meters size with four floors and an incredible roof terrace. I was thinking about renovating it, taking the top floor as my new home and create two holiday apartments on floor one and two. The idea was to do it step by step, I am not in a hurry. I wanted first to check out the life in Peñiscola before I put all of my money in it.
And as I do speak Spanish but never bought a house there I needed some allies. A good friend of mine recommended to hire an architect to do an evaluation (tasación) of the house. In Spain if you want to get a mortgage on a house you always have to hire a company to do such a tasación. I searched and found an architect in the close by town Benicarlo and we organized a second appointment at the house to let the architect measure the house and check the substance.
The result of that evaluation was that first of all I need to build a lightwell (patio in Spanish) through the house if I want to rent out the apartments as the existing windows are not giving enough light and air to the back rooms and also that the price according to the architect’s evaluation was too high.
So I made an offer on that house roughly 20 % below the asking price. Unfortunately the owner frankly denied it and was so displeased with my offer that she refused any other negotiation. OK, I still have time on my side and some other interesting houses, so no need to hurry here.
Stay tuned. Next up is a post about why Peñiscola is so great.