I have tried to buy 4 properties on the Isle of Man and each time either the offer has been rejected, or the property turned into a bidding war. The most recent turned into a “we want more money so put in a sealed bid with your highest offer” – this is a level of nuts! I get that the island has a shortage of housing but I don’t want to get into either bidding wars or sealed bids!
If I wanted to buy an apartment there is an abundance of these, but the service charges are significant compared to that of the UK! And being honest I don’t want to buy an apartment.
The plan is to buy on IoM and in another country, such that I can spend summer in IoM on a lovely island and in Winter when it gets crap I can go spend time somewhere warm – and the Digital Nomad visa lets me do this easily.
So I find myself in Spain for a week trying to look at property, after shortlisting a number of properties I wanted to see. It seems though if you cannot speak Spanish it is very difficult to work with the agents! Having emailed a number of them prior to coming out I have so far managed to see zero, not one! Well not on the inside anyway, I have seen a fair few on the outside.
The way it works in Spain is similar to the UK, you make an offer they accept but its not binding at that point you have to get legal support to push through the purchase and it take about 2 months. Which is way faster than IoM which takes on average 6 months due the advocates being really slow.
There is an abundance of nice property in Spain, in some lovely areas and I have seen a fair few I would like to buy (and have the available funds to purchase outright), but I am going to need some support from someone who speaks Spanish so may have to seek some assistance from one of may Spanish friends. Alternatively I could pop to Faro in a few weeks and look there, I have shortlisted a number of properties but there seems to be less properties available and the costs are higher, but the cost of living is lower! I just wish there was the folks from “a place in the sun” who could just sort this for me!