Since our house in Istria went on the market in March 2024, after we completed the new garden to the rear of the house and did much internal refurbishment, our minds have been focused on finding our new home. We knew that our Istrian adventure had come to an end. For us, personally, we felt that our location was no longer quite right for us. Having to drive literally everywhere had started to take its toll and the lack of amenities in our immediate area, was really starting to do our heads in. When we had people staying with us, this was all fine and very doable, simply because we had other people staying. But when it was just the two of us, we started to feel that we needed more. So, the discussions started about where we might live next – and pretty quickly, we realised it wasn’t going to be Istria. As much as we love Italy, it probably wasn’t going to be here either, because of property prices (often too high for our budget, often too low with no potential to really increase the value of properties due to location) and bureaucracy which made Croatia seem sane. We ruled out France, too, after our road trip there last year – stunning, affordable properties, but often in places which were too far from the next nearest place, therefore potentially giving us the Istrian issues all over again.
So, our focus returned again to Spain, for lots of reasons. We love Spain. We know lots of areas in Spain. We’re familiar with Spain. We’ve been a fair few times, so feel comfortable with the idea of Spain. And houses are plentiful. Some are obviously way out of our price range, but lots are affordable. Lots have real potential. Lots are renovated. But the main thing which focused is, is that there is choice. Choice in location, style, condition, price. And so the search was on…
But Spain is a BIG country! Where to begin? Well, our logic was to begin with places we knew well. Barcelona – gorgeous and potentially the dream, but unless we bought way out of the city, we couldn’t afford very much. Also, did we really want to be in a big city? Probably not. Alicante and Valenica were discounted for similar reasons. Coastal towns also discounted because of the property prices, property sizes and the summer influx of tourists would ultimately do my head in, if we made one of these places our full time home.I also watched “A Place in the Sun” a lot! Not so much to follow the stories of people hoping to buy, but to get up to speed with other areas we didn’t know a lot about. And this is how we made our first inroads into serious house-hunting. We saw a couple of episodes, one which focused on Archidona and one on Alhama de Granada, both inland, white washed towns, in Andalucia. And after investigating estate agents websites, we did find two houses were very interested in, one in each town. We couldn’t just hop on a plane and view – we were in the middle of selling our house and experience told us, we needed to be accessible and around to answer questions, send documentation, and all that selling a house entails. So, I made contact with the estate agents and made sure they knew of our circumstances and continued to research the towns.
One in particular really piqued our interest in Alhama de Granada. Fully renovated, to our style, and from the photographs, looking like we could almost move straight in, but with the added advantage of potentially being to add value as we could improve the roof terrace and renovate the lower rooms which hadn’t been touched…
We communicated with the estate agents a lot about this house – but ultimately, it wasn’t meant to be. It was taken off the market by the owners, and although we felt disappointed and a bit deflated, through continued research, we realised that the area, as beautiful as it is, wasn’t right for us, because it was just a bit too inland. Another house we looked at a lot, was located in Archidona – this one was also renovated to our taste, had a roof pool and was next door to a beautiful boutique hotel, run by a couple from Chorlton. Small world, but again, it wasn’t meant to be as this one was snapped up. We think, over the weeks we were looking, we saw every town house that was available in Andalucia, from Almeria in the east down to Cadiz in the west. And, then, completely out of the blue, Lady Luck struck.
We discovered the white washed town of Jimena de la Frontera and were very taken by what we saw and read online. The location was pretty much perfect – about 30 minutes from the coast, 45 minutes from Tarifa and a couple of hours from Malaga and Seville. One estate agent’s website, in particular, became our go-to site and we earmarked four or five properties we were interested in and began making contacts. One property was listed as “Sold” but of curiosity, I checked it out and it literally jumped off the page! It was gorgeous and just about everything we had been looking for, so I contacted the agent and asked that if anything similar came his way, to please let us know. And guess what? The owners had decided to sell and it would be going back on the market! We knew we couldn’t just pop off to Spain and view, as we were in the middle of selling our house and getting everything into storage, so we had to cross everything, that this Andalucian beauty would still be available when we got out there at the beginning of July…
Fast forward to mid July, and we had arrived in Jimena, with a list of five houses to view. Our favourite was first on the list – and let’s just say, after viewing it, we didn’t even bother with the others. We had found the one!
We had half-heartedly agreed that we didn’t really want to take on another renovation project, UNLESS we found something utterly irresistible. Well, we think we have. On the main street in the white washed town, this elegant, double fronted town house is less than a minute from the main square and the bars and restaurants. Exactly what we wanted after our isolated village in Istria. So, we’ve acted very quickly – with the help of the estate agent (again, small world – he used to work in the Steak & Kebab restaurant in Didsbury village in the late 80s!), we’ve secured a solicitor and had a builder who lives opposite the house, and has renovated one of the town houses on the street, come check out the house, and he’s given it the seal of approval, after we discussed with him our plans and vision. And so, earlier this week, we signed the pre-contract and paid the deposit on our what has become our dream house! It’s all happened very quickly, and although we are now in Spanish holiday season and both solicitors are on vacation, we know that come September, we’ll be a whole lot closer to organising the transportation of our belongings and furniture from Istria to Andalucia!