So you want a home in Spain but don't know where to start, well here I will try to explain some of the basics that you should know. I guess everyone knows what an apartment is, it is a flat in the UK or a Condo (condominium) to our cousins from across the pond. These could be in a block or tower (they rarely go above 5 floors) or small buildings designed to look like single or double villas where they are either the upstairs or downstairs. Alternatively they could be split over two floors, a "duplex" or three floors a "triplex". We all know what a bungalow is don't we? Well to confuse the issue to the Spanish a bungalow is a home on one floor, not necessarily the ground floor either, so you could find yourself looking at a bungalow that looks suspiciously like an upstairs apartment! A quad house is a block of four villas, one on each corner. A townhouse is usually what I would call a terrace, that is a row of smaller duplex (2 storey) homes or villas all joined together. A detached chalet is (now this is an easy one) a detached villa. "Off plan" homes are new properties that haven't been built yet, effectively you view a show house, they point you to a patch of mud where yours will be built and you purchase it on an agreed time scale of anything up to 2 years, but you get it at a discounted price. The disadvantage is they could still be building on site for years to come, so find out before you sign anything. Resale properties are pre-owned homes, mainly dearer than off plan, but you can buy them and move in very quickly, sometimes in days if you have the money in place. The advantage is that you can see the finished article and surroundings, so if there is an empty plot across the road you can assume it will be built on sooner or later. Are you with me so far?

Many homes built today are part of a "community", that is, you all share the up keep of a swimming pool, maybe other facilities and the surrounding gardens. Each householder votes each year on how much to spend and what to spend it on, like a mini council. These can vary in size from twenty or thirty to hundreds of homes and they can even be involved in painting the outside of all the properties, so ask how much per year the fees are expected to be and what it is spent on.

The most important advice I can give, is to get a good bilingual solicitor and sign nothing until he says so!