Is buying a property in the Marbella/Puerto Banus region, Costa del Sol Spain a minefield?

Your Dad is partly correct in what he says. The property laws in Spain are in many cases a minefield, however, if you are looking at buying an established and legalised property in an already developed area, then your chances of anything 'going wrong' are greatly reduced. The 2 largest problems with properties bought by unsuspecting expats are as follows : - LRAU (the Valencian land grab law) - see a more detailed explanation of the issue here - http://www.tumbit.com/how-to-guides/articles/41-lrau-the-valencian-land-grab-law-explained.html - The Coastal Property Law - see a more detailed explanation here - http://www.tumbit.com/how-to-guides/articles/87-the-coastal-property-law.html - Bank Guarantees (IE not being honoured in the event of a developer folding) - see more details here - http://www.tumbit.com/how-to-guides/articles/151-bank-guarantees-when-things-go-wrong.html Read the above, and if you are at least aware of the above issues, it greatly reduces the chances of anything untowards happening. However, there are still thousands of 'issues' happening every year to expats, where they have bought a Spanish property whilst leaving their common sense at home. Abide by the same general rules as you would buying a property at home, without taking any short cuts and you won't go far wrong. The AIPP (Association of International Property Professionals) have a 'Top 10 of of what NOT to do when buying a property in Spain, which I have attached here - http://www.tumbit.com/how-to-guides/articles/147-the-aipps-top-10-of-what-not-to-do-when-buying-a-property-in-spain.html

Your father is right and listen to him because unemployment is very high in spain and the main holiday resorts are full of asians, africans and moroccan workers. Buying property in spain has lots of risks because you may own the property but you never own the land it is built on so if they government decide to build a road right through your property there is nothing you can do about it. When you have owned your property for several years and you want to sell it you also have to pay all those years of equivalent to council tax to the government if you are a non spanish resident. As you are a contractor worker it basically means you are not in constant employment and wont get a mortgage and will not be able to get work in spain because of the unemployment and bankrupt businesses. I went to spain 2 years ago and saw several unfinished building sites and this year they looked exactly the same and the spanish holiday resorts were a lot quieter than usual because of the credit crunch. Good Luck

Had villa in Spain. Your Dad is right and wrong. The problem is you don't know and can't find out which are legitimate sites/houses/developments and illegals! The fact that a place has been there 20 years is not even a good sign/guarantee. Local councils have a nice scam going of knocking down "old" illegals - so they can sell the land to a new developer! Why not rent? Property prices aren't going to rise in Spain for many years as it is likely Spain is going to follow Portugal/Ireland/Greece into bankrupcy and have huge austerity measures. New builds are definitely a no-no as so many have gone bust or are going so that you may not get completion, and then your property is worthless! Having "been there done that" owning a place in Spain I wouldn't do it again now!