Retiring at 50

[Leper]

One could do better if they consider going to the Algarve for the winter months, apartments can be rented there for as little as €350 a month. It really wouldn't make financial sense to go to the bother of purchasing an apartment when you can rent there so cheaply.

I am not talking about buying an apartment I am talking renting a decent two bedroom apartment. Retired people might like to have their offspring and grandchildren visit where they can have a holiday for the price of an off-season flight. I know of places where you could rent for €350 per month too, but I would not be inclined to stay in such places.

Furthermore, for the €600 per month rental you can have 2 bedrooms in a central location in a good Spanish resort and enjoy good sunshine while the rest of us are nearly freezing to death (if we haven't been washed away by rain) in dear old Ireland.

 

[moneybox]

Furthermore, for the €600 per month rental you can have 2 bedrooms in a central location in a good Spanish resort and enjoy good sunshine while the rest of us are nearly freezing to death (if we haven't been washed away by rain) in dear old Ireland.

I was refering to the Algarve which would be my choice rather than Spain

 

[Bronte]

You can spend the winter/spring in southern Spain for around €600 per month for a 2 bedroom apartment in a good resort and in a decent central location. Where necessary you can be back in Ireland within 3 hours. You don't need a car although one would be handly. Grocery and alcohol prices are way below our price level too. Lots of retired Brits spend the off season in Spain, but what they do and what we do can be different.

I can drive to Spain, and if we were both retired we could leave a car there and fly back to Ireland or wherever as needed. If you did the full winter, say Oct to Feb that's 3K. My heating bill is horrendous is another way to look at this. I'd agree with a 2 bed and also a good resort and decent central location. Don't want to go away and be stuck in the middle of nowhere in a poky place. They also have decent health care in Spain. And going to the sun adds years to your life I'm sure. Especially when we see so many famous people dying in the last month which always happens in the winter.

I wouldn't mind Florida either but that's a lot more expensive and is so far away and also you'd have to have good health insurance.

 

[Slim]

Going to Spain or Portugal for 2-6 months of the winter months sounds delightful but how do you ensure your house at home is heated to avoid frost damage etc? Sell and downsize? Sell and become a nomad? How does health cover work if you're staying in Spain for 6 months if you have no home in Ireland?

 

[Cervelo]

Going to Spain or Portugal for 2-6 months of the winter months sounds delightful but how do you ensure your house at home is heated to avoid frost damage etc? Sell and downsize? Sell and become a nomad? How does health cover work if you're staying in Spain for 6 months if you have no home in Ireland?

Could you not have let us enjoy the pipe dream for a little bit longer

 

[Bronte]

Could you not have let us enjoy the pipe dream for a little bit longer

You think Slim is going to break my pipe dream on this cold wet dark February day. I don't intend to actually go for that long, might go for that long but break it up by coming back for xmas or when the kids holidays are in the future, like Halloween. The amount of heat I need compared to what a house needs to survive is a vastly different amount. We have a large house and flat roof and the bills are horrific. Downsizing is definitely an option. It's way too big currently but we absolutely love the location and the mortgage is not fully paid off yet.

Can go for three weeks, pop back for a week or so, holiday within a holiday.

As for healthcare, in Spain Europeans are entitled to the same as the Spanish which is quite good, any problems I pop back, in any case our healthcare covers us for Spain so that won't be an issue. America would though. Would need separate insurance for that. Flights are a cost, but really they are not a lot when you can pick the dates to suit your pocket.

What would be interesting is to know exactly how much it costs, one is eating for less, a saving, ditto the heating, the accommodation is a cost. Only those who have done it can know that. Flights are a cost, but you easily can book those cheaply when you are retired and have flexibility on dates.

 

[Branz]

Bronte, just some observations, nothing more, based on 14 years experience down there
: the small print on the health ins may have a max duration, max annual cumulative off shore days numbers for the irish policy to work.
internet access in Spain is not cheap or seamless. also if u want full access to english TV check before you rent as the 2014 astra satellite killed the free to air footprint in Spain and the authorities made every one remove sat dishes and made them take tv and BBand over the phone line which was not cheap either.
If you need a car it adds a lot to the cost, good public transport from airport to your resort should be a must: any distance by taxi can easily be €100 each way.
Then ease of access to shops for food and especially water if u decide to go bottled. [ lugging booted water up some steep hill is no joke.]
Same for beer and wine.
Its this issue that normally makes people eat out which is not cheap unless u want to eat poorly and badly.
My car-less model down there was to walk down the hill to the shops and load up in lidl and the other shops and get a taxi back up.
With planning, it was a weekly event, small stuff I could carry when out and about.

When in doubt, remember its
their language
their legal system
your money
so if you need to "rage against the machine" down there, it can be very difficult as they don't give a monkeys.

 

[Steven Barrett]

It really wouldn't make financial sense to go to the bother of purchasing an apartment when you can rent there so cheaply.

Agree 100%. Why spend €200,000 + on an apartment when you can just rent one? if you bought, you'd feel obligated to go back to the same place every time to get value out of it. Renting, you can go to different places all the time. Plus, you haven't tied up a large chunk of cash into an asset that may be very difficult to sell.

For those hoping to leave Ireland for the winter, make sure you check your house insurance too. Under most policies, you cannot leave the house vacant for more than 30 days, so if you are gone for over that and it burns down/ gets robbed, you are not covered.


Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)

 

[Slim]

Could you not have let us enjoy the pipe dream for a little bit longer

Haha, and you thought I was raining on your dream! I share the dream too!

 

[Fella]

You could control your heating with a thermostat app like the Nest system from Spain , maybe an hour or two a day would keep your house ok while your away .

 

[Bronte]

Brantz my dream is a long way off but I'm no intention of getting involved in the system of becoming a resident etc. My health cover will cover me for any lenght of time in Europe. I'm not in Ireland, I've already done the whole abroard thing and we travel regularly, will in fact be going to Spain this year and one of our children will be going there for Spanish.

Well aware about free to air, we have it, satellite and all, but technology is moving by leaps and bounds. Have Netflix etc. My OH even subscribed to RTE in january, I'm thinking we're in too many things and one of the areas of cost I'm going to look into this year, a regular on AAM should be doing these things ! My kids are dab hands at getting into movies for free, even had a guy tell me how to do it today.


And I get you about the hills and water. I have a wheelie bag, like you see little old ladies in Dublin with, great when I go to the market to buy flowers or we go on the metro to a shopping centre and can put the coats into it and then load it up as we go alone. Not a fan of bottled water, reckon the stuff in the tap is fine in most places unless advised otherwise. I'm sure if I was buying vast quantities that they have home deliveries in Spain?

Before we left Ireland we had no car and I'd do that taxi back trick when necessary. I'd actually like to get back to a more healthy car less existence. As it is my car stays in the garage at the weekends for the most part (supermarket which is less than 5 minutes drive) . And we have the best of public transport which we use then too.

 

[Bronte]

You could control your heating with a thermostat app like the Nest system from Spain , maybe an hour or two a day would keep your house ok while your away .

We were in Ireland for xmas for a few days, I just use my thermostat, an hour in the morning and evening. Apps and me are not going to work. Is this a thing you can use remotely, like be in New York and look at the snow storm in Ireland and put up the heating via your computer. I know someone has that, they could zone into all the rooms of their house too and see what was happening.

 

[Fella]

Yes it's just a remote thermostat , you can control from any computer or phone (app or website ) just log in , you can preset it before you go or you can see weather is cold and set it when you wish.
You can have as many as you want in your home or just one in one room which would suffice for a vacant house.

 

[Cervelo]

You could control your heating with a thermostat app like the Nest system from Spain , maybe an hour or two a day would keep your house ok while your away .

Nest has an away setting that if you are away and the temperature in you house drops below a certain level it will turn your heating on

 

[Leper]

There was a time when somebody with property in Spain could bring their second car and leave it in Spain for use during holidays etc. If you have an Irish registered car in Spain at the moment after 30 days you must have it registered in Spain and cough up €800 to have it done properly. Of course, you are under their radar then and will have the Spanish equivalent of the NCT on your plate too.

Your ehic card will cover medical emergencies for 90 days from the date of your arrival in Spain. You can extend most Irish health care insurance to cover several months residence in Spain.

Like I said earlier, the Brits take to Spain like a duck to water. Relatively few Irish follow suit. I lived in Spain on and off up to a couple of years ago (from when I first retired). For the record the next time I retire, it will be for the 3rd time -so anybody could do it.

Think about renting out your house in Ireland and suddenly you can make a few bob by living in Spain for a few months. I know there are pitfalls of renting out your main residence, but it might be a good option. Rent your place here for a minimum of €1000 per month and rent in Spain for €600. A gain of around €100 per week is not a bad investment.

 

[Cervelo]

Agree 100%. Why spend €200,000 + on an apartment when you can just rent one? if you bought, you'd feel obligated to go back to the same place every time to get value out of it. Renting, you can go to different places all the time. Plus, you haven't tied up a large chunk of cash into an asset that may be very difficult to sell.

While I do agree with you on this I also feel that purchasing a property that can be rented during the "holiday season", would provide you with a return on your 200k and a place to enjoy during the Irish winter. I know its not as simple as that but it is another option to look at.

I can drive to Spain

I am so jealous, its the one thing I dislike about Ireland is that it is an island, don't get me wrong I love Ireland but the idea of living on mainland Europe and getting up one day hoping in the car and visiting another country and then driving back home has always appealed to my sense of adventure.

 

[Steven Barrett]

While I do agree with you on this I also feel that purchasing a property that can be rented during the "holiday season", would provide you with a return on your 200k and a place to enjoy during the Irish winter. I know its not as simple as that but it is another option to look at.

Tough market though. Hundreds of thousands of holiday apartments were built during the last boom, with lots of them now for rent. High turnover of renters means high maintenance costs, you need to pay someone on the ground to clean the place every 1/2 weeks. Then there's the high probability of the place getting thrashed by drunk people on holidays.

I haven't met anyone who has made a success out of renting a foreign holiday home that they also use.


Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)

 

[Cervelo]

Tough market though. Hundreds of thousands of holiday apartments were built during the last boom, with lots of them now for rent. High turnover of renters means high maintenance costs, you need to pay someone on the ground to clean the place every 1/2 weeks. Then there's the high probability of the place getting thrashed by drunk people on holidays.

I haven't met anyone who has made a success out of renting a foreign holiday home that they also use.


Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)

Agreed it is a tough market and one that would need in my mind a lot of research and careful consideration.
I presume like most things in life, if your disposition is more on the glass been half empty rather then half full, its not something you might consider.

 

[Bronte]

That's very

I haven't met anyone who has made a success out of renting a foreign holiday home that they also use.

That's very interesting Steven, it's hard enough being an Irish landlord, and an owner here without venturing into the pitfalls of the holiday market combined with two tax jurisdictions and trying to make it work being holiday home and investment. There was a great thread of all the ins and outs on her a few months ago and that was for a holiday home in Ireland, the consense was stay away. For myself I don't want the hassle, stress and being forced to go to one place because it exists.

My sister has a holiday home in Brittany and I can use that and have never been.

 

[Leper]

SBarrett is right. If you decide to pay €200,000 on a property in Spain (or any other sun destination) you are firing money into a cesspit and you will have little or no return. Have a look at my posts above, you can rent a 2 bedroom apartment in a good location and centrally located for around €600 per month in off season. You will get better earnings during June, July and August. But, you get comparatively little compared to your spend. Remember, you have to add in Spanish taxes, maintenance, cleaning, advertising, furniture repairs etc. If you are facing retirement don't even think of buying in any sun destination even at today's much reduced prices. If you do, you will never get back what you paid during your lifetime.