On a recent trip through Sevilla province I stopped to meet a colleague at a roadside restaurant near Marchena. I ordered a bottle of water while I was waiting. The waiter asked what tapas I wanted with the water. I opted for chipirones (baby squids). The dish arrived with a  potato and red pepper salad. Delicious. When I came to pay I could b

According to research by the Pew Research Institute a significant proportion of Spaniards who grew up as Catholics have lost their faith in adulthood. The drop in adherents in Spain is one of the most pronounced in Western Europe. Only Belgium and Norway have seen a greater drop. Of the respondents to their survey undertaken between April and Augus

Granada is the city of the pomegranate…or is it? It is pomegranate season in the northern hemisphere and, if you have spent any time in Granada, you will soon realise that this slightly grumpy-looking fruit is very much part of the city’s heritage. Look at some of the beautiful painted pottery, and you will see a pomegranate is the main motif; look

One of the greatest draws of Andalucia is its geographical position. Apart from the obvious attractions of the heat and the sunshine, it also offers access to mountains (the Sierra Nevada) and the Mediterranean. And, if you want to find a property that is well situated to make the most of both of those, then it might be worth considering the Lecrin

If you are from northern Europe and move south, whether to France, Italy or Spain, you will quickly become aware that there are a lot more holidays, or holy days, than in your own country. Sometimes they are connected to Catholicism, sometimes they are national holidays but they will all, without fail be celebrated in style. This week’s holiday, on

Summer may be nearly over but we look back with fondness on exciting times last month. Unlike in countries in the North of the continent, here in Spain as in France and many other Catholic countries, the 15th August is a public holiday, a day on which no business will get done. For anyone used to a 24-hour culture of work, this can be ext

Back in 2008 if you wanted your name written elegantly in Arabic it used to cost €3. With the arrival of the crisis the street calligraphers dropped their prices. By 2011 you could get the same thing for €1. Today, for the first time in at least five years, the price has doubled to €2. A sign of things to come.....?

According to the June statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas (INE) there were 36.856 property transactions in the month, which is the highest figure since January 2013. Even more important from our point of view is that the overall figure masks a fall in new builds. Excluding these, which make up less than 18% of total transact

When clients of ours buy or sell a property in Andalucia, we do all we can to make the process as simple, enjoyable, transparent and cost-free as we can. Unfortunately, sometimes we are let down by other players in the chain, as happened recently. A vendor client of ours had returned to Germany to live and no longer had a Spanish bank account. 

An evening in Spain, in any part of the country and nearly all year round, begins with el paseo, a leisurely stroll through the streets, meeting and greeting friends and family. It is the dividing line between the working day and the evening, signalling a slowing down of tempo, a shift from activity to leisure. In summer, this glorious tradition is

Last week we wrote about how the resale market and house prices were definitely improving. But now, it seems, even the new-build market is finally recovering. On Spanish Property Insight Mark Stücklin notes that since 2008 the building of new houses has dropped by 97%. And, once the recovery began, a lack of new housing meant there was nothing

Wherever you are in Spain, but particularly in Andalucia, you are likely to know the name of a small town in Las Alpujarras, even if you have never been there. Order a bottle of water in a bar, or buy one in a shop and the name you will mostly likely see emblazoned across it is Lanjarón, a place that is famous for water, in more ways than one. This

  According to Spain's Institute of National Statistics (INE) the year on year price increase in the first quarter of 2016 is the highest since 2007. See graph above. The average price of a resale property was 6.4% higher than the same period in 2015. And the rate of increase is accelerating. Also on the up are property sales. See graph above.

The cities of Andalucia are exceptionally beautiful but, if you are more interested in living in the countryside, in a finca or a cortijo, the Alpujarras is a wonderful area to consider, especially if you like walking. Sandwiched between the Sierra Nevada to the north and the Mediterranean to the south, this is a hilly region, full of stu

In Britain, where I come from, breakfast is the meal that is most likely to be eaten at home. Head south, across France and to Spain and, the further south you get, the more outdoors eating and drinking takes place in the morning. And, once you have bought a property in Andalucia, one of the best ways to discover your neighbourhood, and meet your n

Four years ago my husband and I led a 'city life', he was a successful commercial photographer and I was the Director of the Netherlands Institute. But there was something unsatisfactory about our lives and we decided that we wanted to make a change. Not just a change of country but a bigger, all encompassing change of life and lifestyle. We wanted

On our patio in the Albayzin district of Granada we have a large olive tree. Like the lemon tree on the other side of the patio it is a force of nature. Every second year the crop of black olives is huge. In the past I have tried curing them to rid the bitterness. Without much success.  The tree grows at such a phenomenal rate that it invades

One of the first questions you might ask, whether buying a property at home or in Spain, is "Is the area safe?". In the challenging economic conditions of the last decade, which have hit southern Europe harder than most, it is easy to imagine that, given the significant increases in unemployment and poverty, crime figures would

What goes up must come down, so we’re told, but, in property, it is often the opposite. After a tough decade, the Spanish housing market is recovering, and Andalucía, in particular, is benefitting. Foreigners constitute a significant proportion of Spanish property buyers, as Spanish Property Insight notes. In the first quarter of 2016, 99.427

One of the first things that might have struck you when you first visited Spain was how empty the restaurants were at 1pm, or 8pm, and how people seemed to think nothing of eating breakfast at 11am, or meeting for a drink past 10pm at night. I, for one, remember being laughed at for going for churros y chocolate at 4pm; churros are a classic breakf