'friendly' rental property

Hi everyone! We are living in Grantham at the moment...came back from Catlunya 2 and a half years ago, having lived there for a year.  We loved it there but all the locals speak Catalan and we found it hard enough trying to learn Spanish without having to learn Catalan too! Thankfully, we sold out little Spanish town house there and have kept the cash ready to buy something else in an area where only castellano is spoken. Like others who were looking to buy a property in Spain, the recession has made us rethink.  We are going to wait for the property market to settle (hit the bottom!) before we buy again.  In the meantime, we can't wait any longer to get back to Spain...our idea being to live there during the coldest British months to begin with. In a couple of years or so we may get to living in Spain full time again.

So, we are looking for a very reasonably-priced rental property in which to spend the winter months...at least 3 of them. This could be on the Costa del Sol or it could be in the Benidorm area.  It depends what's available. We know both areas reasonably well. We only need to be somewhere where the winters are reasonably warm and the locals speak Castellano.  We are not interested in being on a half empty complex where there are no (or very few) full-time residents. We are happy to stay in a very Spanish community...this could be a village...not too far inland, though. We will want to watch Satellite TV! We will be driving out to stay in Spain.  We are really hoping there is someone out there who lives in Spain full-time and has a small place nearby to them that they rent out by way of a small income.  We are very keen to make friends in Spain...friends that we can visit every time we are out there.  We are not as young as we were....what you might call 'baby boomers' but we are both very fit and kept youthful by three sons aged 20, 29 and 34.  My husband, Tony, will be 61 at the end of January and I will be 57 in April....so not old...but not young, either!  I was a teacher until I gave it up four years ago to help my husband (a builder) to renovate property. We have renovated several here in the UK and our place in Catalunya was another project....not the time to take this up again at the moment!

Looking forward to a reply and, hopefully, making some (more) long-term friends in Spain....we are still in touch with the ones we made in Catalunya. We are looking to take our first rental period at the end of February/beginning of March..for a few weeks this time.

               Mags and Tony

Have been looking through the long-term lets on EOS, specifically at Costa Blanca, and it occurs to me that it would be an easier job if the Costa Blanca properties were divided between the South and the North.  There are hundreds of properties available in the South but, so far in my search, I haven't come across any in the North!  Of course, this could be because rental property is more expensive in the North...but  it would certainly help not to have to sift through so many pages just to get to properties around Benidorm.  Also, although we do want to try and get to know some Spanish residents whilst we are in Spain for the winter months, I hate to say it, we DO want to watch some British telly....and many  of the properties for rent don't have Sky TV.  I have spoken with friends who stay in Spain regularly and they say the same.  Yes, I know we're sad...but it does make a place feel more 'homely' when we can keep up with Corrie! Perhaps there are other methods of getting British TV besides Sky?  By the way, we are not against renting in the South as long as it's in an area that does have SOME Spanish residents. When we were there last, the area we were in seemed to be almost totally British.

May I suggest the ares around Almoradi/Callosa/Cox? Relatively small ex-pat communities but in essence mostly Spanish. In our community of ten families (in Almoradi) we are the only Brits - the rest are Spanish. Some British bars etc, but again mostly locals - without exception all very friendly and helpful. Close enough to Torre if you really MUST have 'ye olde Englishe roaste beefe' but that's what we wanted to get away from!

I did notice in the Coastrider last week (available on-line) I have never seen so many properties offered for rent, or if you wish, I can recommend a very good agent in town who has quite a number of rentals on his books - his partner is actually English, so language is no difficulty. PM me if you would like their details and I will pass the info on to you.

Good luck in your search.

Thanks Steve.  Actually, we had been thinking about Almoradi...but thought the area would have been totally built-up since we were last there. It was a few years ago, though...when we used to sell property for TM, a Spanish, family-run property business (you've probably seen them on the telly or advertised locally in Spain).  They were the first Company to start building 'inland' from the coast and we visited their first project of small villas on the outskirts of Almoradi...nearly 10 years ago!  I remember Almoradi as an attractive, Spanish town (only Spaniards there at that time) and we really wanted to buy one of those villas...but couldn't afford it at the time...starting prices were 250,000 pesetas (which was £100,000 then!)

Am I right in thinking the 'new' complexes have been built on the outskirts of the town...leaving the town itself 'Spanish' albeit with a few English bars?  How on earth did you get to be the only Brits within a small Spanish community? This sounds ideal to us! So many people that decide to buy in Spain say they want to integrate into the Spanish communities...but so few of them actually do, which is why so many complexes have been built (and sold at hugely inflated prices) just to accomodate the Brits!  We know this from when we used to sell property there. Property that the Spanish bought was never as expensive as the property built specifically for 'foreigners'.

We are now going to take a look again at the property for rent on EOS, looking at the areas you mention.  We'll also look at Coastrider and we'd be very grateful for the details of the agent you mention. Thank you for your help and insight. We're really hoping we can help someone out in a financial way...in return for the use of their property! 

Hi Meggie, just in case Georgia doesn't come across this thread, send him a pm about what your needs.  He's the EOS expert on the area!  Good luck.