For the past 5 years I have been a small private property investor in the Costa del Sol, meaning: buying off-plan and reselling them later on
Concerning the buying of Spanish Properties I would like to give a few tips for all future buyers:
Do not believe what you see in magazines,ask for more information, go on the premises, look for yourself for views, infrastructure, surroundings and so on, unlimited sea or golf views will always keep their value, south-southwest orientation also counts.
Ask friends and relatives who live in the neighbourhood for their opinion, even a waiter of a local bar /restaurant can give you fantastic information.
Try to get the name of the constructor Cie, bank involved,... always ask.
Your Spanish bank , if these people are solvable and if their references are OK.
Go to a good lawyer (also ask your friends/ relatives for one) and ask him to check all details, bank guarantees and so on, this will cost you only arround 1% of the total value of the property
Be patient to search and verify all these things, dont sign an agreement too quickly.
Discuss the repayement methods, they are negociable. Most of the time I give a reservation deposit of around 3.000 Euros when signing the agreement, then when signing the Title Deed, most of the time within the month up to 15%.
One year to 18 months later again 10 to 15% max and the rest meaning 70 or 75% on completition
Untill now I never had problems with this system.
Wishing You all a happy home in lovely Spain
The Belgian guy, Danny