Where to start in terms areas to look to live ?

Bear in mind inheritance tax laws vary widely from region to regIon from nil to thousands

I'd suggest you make  yourself aware of the law before you buy.

Thanks @Johncar - it's something we're looking into and we'd definitely rent before making any decision to buy; we have family with property in some areas so we're part aware but doing the research per region as you mention.

@chriswoolfenden Seems you have a good plan, Rent before you buy. When my wife and I  first came to Spain we did everything  wrong and after 21 years still paying for the mistakes we made. We wanted to run a Holiday lets business, so we looked 30 miles outside Malaga. We found a great place and bought it. That's  when our troubles started. We discovered the place we bought was illegal and the house was not on the title deeds. All that was listed was a Workshed! So what did we do wrong? We made the mistake  of trusting an English woman  who pretended to be an Estate Agent, but was only a Broker...there's  a BIG difference. She introduced us to two young Lawyers who did all the legal work. They never told us the house was built without permission. When we tried to get Insurance  on the house we found out the truth. It cost us 16000 euros in fines and legal fees. We then found out the water supply came from a Well. The broker told us it was Town water, but she lied. The Well relies on a electric pump which is locked in a pump room that is outside the boundary  of the 26 house Community. Their are only two Residents  that have keys to the pump room, The President  has banned Residents  access to the pump room so this means the two key holders  control the water supply. They are not Officials of the Community,  but just Residents,  this means they cannot be held legally  accountable if they give excuses why they cannot switch the pump on. The President  has the legal right to bann access to residents, so you'll  never know what tricks they are playing in the pump room to fool residents.  So what tricks are they pulling?   the Community is divided  into seperate  days when it receives  water. So the keyholders make sure their days always  get more  water than the other half. The Keyholders have big swimming pools,  lush lawns and fruit orchards, but the other half have barren lawns dead fruit trees and empty house tanks. So NEVER  buy property supplied only with Well water.  The keyholders are common thieves.!!! Also NEVER  live in a Community  controlled  by a President  and Secretary  who bann residents  from accessing  the water pump. They will make your house very difficult  to sell and in worse cases,.. worthless. Hope this is informative.

Hello everyone,

welcome @Chris and Roger !

Please note that I have created this new thread from your posts on the Spain forum so that you may better discuss the topic.

All the best

Bhavna

@chriswoolfenden

You've probably already realized that having an Irish passport makes it very easy to relocate to Spain. So that's one less thing to worry about! (EU Citizen Registration for you, then Family Reunification for your wife.)

There are lots of great cities and towns in Spain, and the (many) Costas have thousands of km of beautiful beaches. The Costa del Sol, Costa Brava, and Costa Blanca are especially popular. You are spoiled for choice really.

You're young, so if you want "proper" jobs that suggests only the biggest cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia) would be worth considering. If you want tourism-related jobs (or to start your own business), then beachy hotspots (Marbella, Ibiza, Benidorm, etc.) might be more appropriate. If you can do remote work (or you're independently wealthy) that gives you the most flexibility.

You'll also find there's a huge range of prices, based on your taste and preferred location. Madrid, Barcelona (and its upscale neighbours such as Sitges), Marbella, and Ibiza are tip-top... but very expensive. A smaller, more traditional (rather than touristic) city (or larger town) will definitely allow your budget to go much further, especially if you also don't insist on being right on the beach. Idealista (dot com) is a very large property site with lots of listings (rentals/sales) all over Spain, so it's a great place to start for a bit of research.

For example, we ended up in Elche (UNESCO-listed for its palm groves), which is a small city just outside Alicante (we fly from Alicante-Elche airport, 20 minutes away). This is a great town with all amenities, and we have a very nice apartment close to the riverside walk, within easy reach of downtown. We drive to several lovely Costa Blanca beaches, maybe 10-15 minutes away. Playa San Juan, as a comparison, is an upscale beachfront district of Alicante city where we could walk to the beach and the castle instead. And, potentially, we could have a view of the Mediterranean instead of a palm grove. But a similar apartment there might have cost us 5X-10X more.

@rogerroberts22 thank you for the reply, it is very helpful, and sorry to hear about the issues that you've had for such a long period of time. It is common in Spain that properties have been built illegally/without permission and unless you have relations to someone in Government or an official capacity it's very difficult (impossible) get round the issues that this brings.

I am in a lucky position that we have Spanish contacts from a legal and accounting perspective (they will try and charge higher rates though still) and my wife speaks and reads Spanish at a good level. We've heard a number of stories similar to yourselves (not the water from the Well bit part though) that have caused us to have a more cautious approach to things like property, permissions, planning & licensing  etc. Perhaps a little over cautious to the extent delays to an impending move are likely.

I think for us initially it's deciding on actually where we want to live and it may be that we explore different places over time - as I mentioned in my OP we have familiarity with the areas between Malaga and Marbella so that would be a preference but very happy to look at areas outside of what we already know.

@gwynj thanks for the reply, this is really helpful information. Yes the Irish citizenship has certainly made life a lot easier for us since Brexit (less spoken about that, the better!).

In terms of work, remote working is a possibility and something we are talking about with our respective current employers, I'm not set on staying within a more corporate world and looking at options in starting my own business as is my wife perhaps doing consultancy work to be able to offer the flexibility you mention.

Regions surrounding Alicante has actually been something we've started to look at so I appreciate the recommendations.