How we moved to Castril in the Altiplano de Granada, Spain

We moved to Spain in March 2003.  We had decided to sell up at the end of 2002 and came over that New Year to decide if it was viable, upon our return and after a week of decorating we put our house on the market, it sold within days and 8 weeks later we were in Spain.  Initially we headed to the Costa Blanca to stay with family and although it was a good base we quickly realised that our limited budget would not get us very far in that area so we started looking further inland and also along the coast towards Almeria.

We contacted numerous Estate Agents and viewed lots of property.  At that point it was difficult not to get too despondent.  We have four young children and although we knew that whatever we found would need substantial work, we had basic requirements, we had to have water and electricity connected or within easy connection – basically we couldn’t afford to buy a property and rent while we reformed it.  So whatever we bought we would have to live in.  Most of the property we were shown were practically ruins and would need major work just to make them habitable.

We had touched on this area – the Altiplano de Granada, in the North East of briefly, spending a day looking at cave houses in the area of Los Corriones and Castijellar.  We were fascinated by the cave houses and the Estate agent who showed us around took us to cave houses that could be lived in although not recently reformed.  They were like warrens with rooms off rooms and I must admit I found it difficult to get my head around them.  In hindsight and having seen many caves being transformed from holes in the ground to stunning and unique properties, we may have considered buying one.  My other concern was that it was a couple of hours from my family and also the fear of the unknown. 

We then almost got swept away by that Spanish Dream!  A rural finca located in the province of Murcia.  It was part house, part cave, it had electricity and water was via a well (!)  It came with 60,000m2 of land planted mainly with almonds and was in the middle of nowhere.  All common sense went out of the window, the Estate Agent did the talk and we fell for it. We handed over our 10% deposit too quickly.  Doubts soon set in and upon showing the property to my family my mother spent a sleepless night with worry at its remoteness.  As I said earlier we have four young kids and the worry about schools, friends etc soon set in.  It was also at the top of our budget – so little money would be left to do any work on it.  I swear that Spanish sun turns your brain to mush and takes all common sense with it.  But we were lucky, the sellers were two brothers, one wanted to sell and the other didn’t - he won (thankfully) and as they hadn’t taken the deposit, we got it back quite quickly (although not double!).  The Estate agent upset at losing a sale tried desperately to show us other property.  But our limited budget would have meant major compromise – like living next to a chicken farm!

By chance we got some details from an Estate agent that was based on the coast but also had offices in the Ricote valley and also the area of Mula and Caravaca.  They sent us a list of all their properties – and on the last page with only 6 or 7 properties was the Altiplano de Granada, Huescar and Castril – at that point only a couple were within our budget, a cavehouse in Huescar and a Cortijo in Castril.  Our first stop was the Ricote valley – very pretty and we were almost tempted.  Here our budget would stretch to a townhouse but my dream was still to have a little bit of land – I didn’t want another postage stamp for a garden.

We arranged viewings in the Altiplano de Granada for the Friday.  We arrived to rain, met with the Estate agents and were than given a tour of Huescar.  The cave house in our price range had sold so that left only the Cortijo in Castril.  They also had cave houses that were being reformed by a specialist developer.  We were shown some sample properties and were amazed at the transformations.  This was the first time we had seen a cave house properly reformed and they were fantastic, the developer had one that could be made into a 4 bed house but again no land and only a patio.   Again very tempting but I really hankered after some land and I also wanted a house I could put my mark on.  Huescar has a lot to offer, being a reasonably sized town with plenty of shops, an outdoor pool (with fish!), schools nearby and restaurants and bars in abundance.

We were than taken 20 km’s towards Castril.  Our first stop was Fatima and a recently built townhouse, with four bedrooms, all very nice and at this point after seeing so much property that needed work doing, the thought of a new build was very appealing! 

We were then taken 5 minutes up the road to a group of three old Cortijos.   We walked up the slope towards the houses and onto the land of the final property – it was over grown and full of wild flowers, red poppies and camomile – beautiful.  At this point the rain had stopped but it felt like we were sitting in a cloud as we were surrounded by mist, in the distance we saw a bird of prey diving, its backdrop the mountains of the Sierra de Castril and we were sold!  And we hadn’t even seen inside the house!  The house needed a lot of work doing to it but it had a bathroom!  Outside access only but a bathroom nevertheless!  Water and electricity were connected and it even had an enclosed patio garden to keep the younger two kids safe.  Again our brains turned to mush and we instantly said yes, we would buy it.  We still had the deposit from the last house on us and against everything we knew was wrong we handed over our deposit (make sure you sign a contract first!).   Four weeks later we were the proud owners of our own little bit of Spain!

When I tell people our story I realise how lucky we were not to get ripped off and how knowingly stupid we were!  We didn’t use a solicitor (abogado) and we let the estate agent do everything for us.  We hadn’t even seen Castril – but there we did land on our feet.

Castril is a beautiful village with lots of charm and character.  We have the Sierra de Castril on our door step and as the kids get older they can appreciate it more.  Walking and swimming in the Rio de Castril, canoeing in the nearby lakes etc.

They go to school in Castril (from 3 years old to 14 years) catching the bus in the mornings at the end of our track and have school dinners 4 days a week (Castril is 1 of 59 schools in Andalusia that is organic).  Although there have been ups and downs, they are all reasonably settled, learning a second language and culture.  They were all a good age when we moved here.  The youngest was 5 months and the oldest was 7 years old.  If my oldest had been a few years older I think the decision to move would have been much more difficult as the culture is very different here and learning a second language certainly gets more difficult as you get older (I am speaking from experience here!)

I wouldn’t say the last few years have been easy and if you don’t have an income be it a pension or rent from a property it can be very difficult to make a living.  We spent a year living off our savings – definitely holiday mode for the first year, but be warned you can only read so many books and spend so much time in the local bars – sounds great but boredom can set in  quickly if you don’t have something to do like a hobby or a job.  We soon realised that although the standard of living is much cheaper than the UK we needed to earn an income.  So needs must and all that, I started looking for a job.  I managed to get work labouring on a building site, the renovation of an old cortijo, I was pretty much the dog’s body but I learnt a lot – mainly what not to do but it gave me the confidence to do work on my own property.  After six months I moved jobs to work on a new build – a different experience but again great for me as I can now lay bricks (haphazardly in a Spanish kind of way!).   Towards the end of this job I was approached by the Estate Agent I had bought from, they were going into business with a local Spanish developer (Pepe) and wanted to know if I wanted a job in their office, legal and above board.  Obviously I jumped at the chance and here I am almost 2 years later. 

The partnership soon ended and I found myself the only English speaker in the office and my Spanish has come on in leaps and bounds.  Having gone through the whole process, admittedly, in a way not necessarily recommended.  I can appreciate the process of looking and buying a property in rural Spain – misleading descriptions, photos that do or don’t do property justice, tracks that need a 4 x 4 but the details say - access good!  I know how difficult it is to reform a property, unexpected expenses etc. but equally how satisfying it is to buy a wreck and transform it into something special (one day!).  For many people it is their life savings and they have a lot to lose if things don’t turn out the way they want.

All I can say is the Altiplano de Granada, Castril, Huescar and the surrounding villages offers a fantastic place to live.  The people are friendly, the beer is cheap and the tapas is free!  It is a completely different way of living, offering a much slower pace of life.  Sometimes it feels like we have stepped back 50 years.  But then I switch on the TV see the UK news and I’m glad I’ve taken a step out of that life.