This week we want to show you one of the projects we are working on right now. It is also a textbook case of buying a property to renovate, something we never stop talking about here. If you follow the blog, our hashtag #hacermemipropiacasa – “making my own home” – will already ring a bell.
It happens all the time: someone spots an opportunity on the market and calls us before signing anything. Usually it is an older property with plenty of refurbishment potential, but also plenty of scope for hidden defects (vicios ocultos, the Spanish legal term for latent faults) or for a planning restriction that limits what you are actually allowed to do with it. We weighed up buying something already built against building from scratch in this post. Worth knowing if you are coming from the UK: Spain has no standard homebuyer’s survey, so nobody hands you a report on the building unless you commission one. In these cases the buyer would rather have a specialist go through the property first and know exactly what they are taking on. Which is only sensible: would you buy a second-hand car without having your own mechanic look at it first? Probably not. A house is a considerably larger commitment. When someone asks us for help, our team works on three fronts:
- A site visit to inspect the property physically, looking for significant problems and signs of building pathology. We also measure it and draw up our own plans, to check that what is being sold matches what is actually there. Advertised floor areas and reality do not always agree.
- In parallel we go through the planning and legal side, because if the permitted floor area (edificabilidad), the setbacks from the boundaries or some local ordinance are not being complied with, getting permission for a refurbishment can become difficult – particularly if it counts as major works (obra mayor), the category that needs full planning permission rather than a simple notification to the town hall. A cheap property you are not allowed to alter may not be much of a deal after all. That said, experience and a decent grasp of the legislation usually leave room to manoeuvre, and sometimes you have to be inventive: small distinctions can turn something apparently not allowed into something perfectly lawful.
- We often propose a possible layout as well. It is nowhere near a final design, but it shows what the property could realistically become once refurbished.
With those three pieces of work and our conclusions, the buyer has solid grounds either to walk away or to go ahead with rather more confidence.
If the decision is to buy, the next step is the commission itself:
From there we are into the design work proper, taking the brief we have been given and finding spatial and design solutions that give the project shape. Our programme always includes regular meetings with the client, so we get feedback and adapt the home to the person who is going to live in it. In the project we are showing you today, one of the most significant constraints was adapting the house for someone with reduced mobility.
Once everyone is happy with the layout, we move on to defining the spaces. We have an interior design specialist in the studio, and with 3D visualisations we work through the organisation of each room, the finishes and the lighting. The images below show the level of detail you can reach before a single wall is touched.
From that point on it is a matter of getting on site, and we can advise you on finding a builder and take on the site supervision ourselves. Work on this house starts shortly, and we are looking forward to showing you the process and the finished result.
If you have found an opportunity and you are thinking about buying a property to renovate, you can reach us through the contact form on our website. Checking a property properly before you sign is almost always cheaper than finding out afterwards.
