Campo/Pueblo/Urbanisation?

What are they?  I have been toying with the notion of buying a small place in Spain for a long time.  I haven't actually settled on an area or even a type of property, although my budget will only stretch to something small.  Maybe I'm what someone on another thread referred to as a time waster because I waver between enthusiasm and reluctance to part with my money in these uncertain times.

Reading threads on various forums, I see references to the Campo, the Peublo, Urbanisations and probably other terms that don't immediately spring to mind.  Can anyone tell me, please, what do these names refer to and what are their advantages and disadvantages.

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Campo = countryside

Pueblo= normally a small hamlet/village but used by Spaniards can refer to any town. My neighbour uses it for Lorca; a town of100k people !

Urbanisation = an area containing houses constructed by a developer & hopefully with all services. Can be found on outskirts of most towns & eventually will be incorporated but can also be found in the middle of the campo !!

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But more than that, they are different styles of living. Campo would generally mean you live in a cortijo or finca (traditional old Spanish rural property), perhaps quite isolated, probably up a 2 or 3 kilometre track from the nearest surfaced road, or that you live in a newish villa out in the country, probably with amazing views and a pool, but probably with high gates for safety. Very quiet.

Pueblo, as Gus says, is of variable size - somewhere between a village and a town! My pueblo has 6 bakeries, 18 bars, a good DIY shop, 2 banks, a post office, and a reasonably efficient town hall, all in friendly walking distance. Estate agents will often describe properties as "village houses", and they will be mostly traditional Spanish houses in a terraced street, and you are likely to be surrounded by Spanish neighbours, kids, late-night chatter in the summer, and some dog & motorbike noise.

Urbanisation - a whole way of life! I'm no expert on this, but you might want to look in the "Communities" section of Eye on Spain to read about the way different communities / urbanisations organise themselves. Different to anything in the UK, they have a President and levy quite high annual charges (obviously you get services for this, such as shared pool, gardening, etc). There seem to me to be lots of threads on the forum about problems with Presidents and community fees, and there is a whole chunk of Spanish law relating to this. Your neighbours are more likely to be other expats.

So what you choose depends on many things - how much Spanish you speak, whether you are bringing kids, whether you want to hang out with other Brits, whether you want the convenience of a shared pool etc, whether you want the quiet of the countryside, the bustle of a village, whatever.

Apart from my blog, which is about my recent purchase in a village and how that's going, I would also suggest you look at Eggcup's blog as a warning about some of the pitfalls of making a wrong choice, and at Gerald's blog as he is still in the house-hunting stage. Between the three of us we pretty much cover lots of information!

Best of luck - I do think you have hit the nail on the head with your first question. I think TYPE of living is the first choice, area can follow afterwards.

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Thank you very much Guslopez.  

How are local services organised?  I take it that urbanisations are run by management committees who set service fees for maintenance of public areas.  Do those fees cover domestic waste collection?  If not, are there annual fees set by the local authority?  What about houses in the campo or pueblo that are not in urbanisations - do they make their own arrangements with the local authority?

Something else I have noticed when researching properties is mention of heating being independent electric or water being independent.  I take it that means individual owners have a meter and are billed directly by the utility company.   If my assumption is correct, what happens where water and heating are not independent?

Thank you for your help.  

P.S.  Tamaressex:  I didn't see your reply until after I had typed this.  You and I must have been typing at the same time.  I will check out your blog and the others you referred to.  Thank you.

This message was last edited by PrimroseMar on 02/01/2013.

This message was last edited by PrimroseMar on 02/01/2013.

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Hi Primrose -

For water and rubbish collection in a pueblo, we are billed four times a year by the town hall (our town hall provides the water as well, but in many villages that is done by a water company such as Aqualia). Very cheap -- I pay about €20 for water and the same for rubbish, every three months. Water is metered though and some people report very high water bills. Electricity is another where people report high bills, though I pay about €20 a month is summer and maximum €30 a month in winter. I don't have a pool. Council tax is paid to the town hall (very cheap if you are used to UK council tax - I pay €89 a year! Somewhere in the archive is a very useful thread about Living in Spain for €800 a month (or something).

Urbanisations - try looking in the community sections.

Cheers,
Tamara

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 Thanks Tamara.  I have started reading Eggcup's blog because it was the first one I found in the Blogs sectio.  I see now that you have a link to yours in your post, so I'll follow with that and then Gerald's if I can find it.  I had a quick look at the Communities section but there are so many of them it would take me forever to read them all.  That section could prove to be very useful should I find a suitable property in one of those urbanisations.   I'll have a look for the living costs thread you referred to.  No point even looking for a property if I can't afford to maintain it.

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