Fraud Notice:

How / why did you get into your line of work in the financial services sector?

I’ll hold my hands up and say I was something of an… unlikely candidate for a brokerage at face value, with a diverse back-catalogue of PR clients from sparkling wine and mobile payment apps, to granola and bingo – plus, something of a cavalier attitude towards my pension, for which even the most benevolent financial adviser would send me to the naughty step.

If you are serious about receiving the best financial advice in Spain, chances are any adviser you choose will recommend that, in the absence of a committed property investment strategy, you do not invest too heavily in Spanish real estate.

However, for the enthusiastic expat who has recently fallen in love with the country and the idea of owning a small piece, or perhaps a larger chunk, of its picturesque and romantic charms, it can be hard to resist.

But the truth is that there is often a reason why a property might be going at a bargain basement rate. For example, investment in whole abandoned villages in isolated locations such as Aragón and Galicia has recently become something of a phenomenon, when the reality is that the outlay, which can be under €100,000, will buy you little more than a dilapidated shell without water, gas, electricity, telephone or internet services. So, making your bargain purchase habitable in these circumstances is likely to cost at least ten times as much the initial purchase price.