House in Spain - can we afford it?

How developed is this idea? Are you at the I want to buy a house stage and have googled property prices, have you been regularly going to the same place in Spain and know you want to retire there, somewhere in between?

Assuming you have 10 years until retirement and with school age kids means you probably can only use the property 3-4 weeks a year. I don't think it makes much financial sense to buy a house now to use 3-4 weeks a year.

A rough example is assuming house prices grow 5% a year (as you reference house prices jumping substantially), in 10 years time that 70k house would cost 108.5k. However, assuming it costs 3k per year to run the house in that 10 year period you will spend an additional 30k. That means the house in 10 years time would effectively cost you 78.5k assuming you divert the 3k operating costs over 10 years to savings.

I suppose it is a bit like you wouldn't buy a new house in Ireland with a plan to move into it in 10 years time.

Thanks to the last few posters (DublinHead, Steven Barrett, Premos and huskerdu) - food for thought there.
The plan is pretty well developed- we know exactly where we want to buy. The comments about how much it would cost (to buy and then run) versus the use we'd get out of it plus those about opportunity cost are giving me pause for thought. Lots to think about - ultimately I think the timing is wrong, its probably too soon to buy and we should perhaps wait until closer to retirement