Our decision to move to rural Spain was taken when our two children told us of their intention to emigrate to Australia some 3 years ago. This had been a life time's dream of my husband who had read Spanish in his youth at Leeds University. From our home in the UK we researched the various regions in Spain for some years, using the Internet. Last summer my husband Dave came across a website advertising the type of country village properties in which we were interested. The owner of the website claimed that he only advertises properties which are fully registered, which we found intriguing, as friends of ours told us about the many problems they had come up against, when faced with the insufficient registry of Spanish rural properties.
During various months of correspondence by email with Hendrik Berends, the owner of www.extremadura-country-homes.com (the first ever site making Extremadura known to the outside world, easily checked on www.typicallyspanish.com which shows his website having been uploaded on that portal on February 15th, 2004), Dave received a lot of valuable information about Extremadura from Hendrik. It turned out that Hendrik had worked as an export adviser in Extremadura since 1998 and knew the region backwards and forwards.
For himself he had chosen to live in the northern part of Extremadura: The huge province of Cáceres, best described as one nature park with fabulous flora and fauna, where the pace of life still is at it was back home fifty years ago, but now with all modern conveniences.
Dave corresponded by email with Hendrik until last autumn, regularly receiving detailed information about a number of interesting properties within our budget. However we went over to Australia to celebrate our son’s wedding there. On return to England in January 2006 we settled what affairs we could after selling up and came to Extremadura to look for property in the region.
On Hendrik’s website we found a B&B in Villamesías run by a young English couple, Lynnette and Roger Hemsley, who had bought through him about a year ago. They gave us the benefit of their experiences and happened to mention that they were also helped through the labyrinthine Spanish bureaucracy by ‘Enrique’ (locally we call Hendrik by the Spanish equivalent of his name: Enrique).
However as Dave spoke fluent Spanish we thought we would be OK and the following day we ventured into Cáceres (90,000 inhabitants and a UNESCO World Heritage site with a totally intact medieval centre, beautifully restored) to open a bank account and start the procedure for obtaining a NIE residency number. BAD MOVE! We couldn’t even find the car park!!!
We returned to the B&B utterly defeated, but our kind hosts took pity on us and the following day lead us into the city and showed us where the financial heart of Cáceres was, wished us luck, and departed.
It was a nightmare. Every bank, every official, every one we approached had a different version of the order in which one acquired a bank account, a NIE European Residency number and all the other bits of paper you need to buy a house and a car in Spain.
On Friday we decided to approach a few local Spanish Estate Agents but their set up is so very different from those in England, they have no lists of house details you can mull over at your leisure, you have to have a particular property in mind or a specific area and then they will arrange to accompany you to visit them.
On return to Villamesías our hosts again came to the rescue and offered to ring up Hendrik/Enrique who invited us to his home + office the next morning. And the clouds parted and a blinding light began to shine. Enrique explained that he was not an Estate Agent but more of a Lifestyle Consultant. He further explained that huge Extremadura is made up of a number of distinct areas, which are at times far apart, each area with very different landscapes and available amenities. So we explained our ideal surroundings to Enrique in detail. Our new home should not be too far from a city, it should be in a rural setting in an area which would retain its rural atmosphere in years to come.
He told us that, if we were to retain his services, he would thread his way through the official paper trail, show us the different living areas and find us the house of our dreams. Along the way he promised to introduce us to people and businesses that would enhance our introduction into Spanish society. We retained him.
After explaining to him at length what our dream house should look like, we were taken immediately to three properties within our budget.
I still thank Enrique for leaving us at ease to ourselves in each property, as we were given all the time and necessary privacy to quietly explore the properties ourselves. To be able to discuss privately what we saw, without anyone hovering about within earshot, helped us a lot to make up our minds.
While we were looking around the different living areas of Cáceres province with Enrique, he also assisted us with opening up a non-resident bank account. We were surprised to be immediately received by a young + efficient bank director, Alfonso Rodriguez at the CAJA MADRID in central Cáceres (Avda. Virgen de Guadalupe, 11), who in short order provided us, in passable English, with all our banking needs.
After having decided on our favourite area, we fell for the second property we had seen: A large two-story village house (see ECH-033 on Enrique’s WebPages) with enormously thick walls, beautiful domed ceilings everywhere to keep the house cool in summer, a recently improved roof and huge open-plan first floor with one separate large room, for storage or expansion into further living space.
Then my dream: A lovely patio in back with fountain, palm tree, bougainvillea, rosemary, space for my new jacaranda tree, yet another tiled patio on the side of the house with access from our living room and kitchen, with a mature grapevine for shade and its own separate entrance door to the village street. In back of the property there is a two-door steel gate, opening up into an ample court-yard with covered car park space as part of the stables, with a sizeable supply of wood left by the owners. To top it all off there is also a separate space for a chicken coop.
The back yard and stables are separated from the main patio by an open-plan building with a high ceiling, former stables + hayloft. We may turn this into a separate unit for our friends visiting us in future. To have a separate entrance to our guest accommodation, ensuring privacy in our main house even with staying guests, has always been my dream.
So, this property 'ticked all the boxes' as far as we were concerned. We decided immediately and made an offer that same day. Two days later we were told our offer had been accepted and then began our marathon to get our funds across to Spain and into the hands of our vendor asap.
Enrique meanwhile also busied himself with finding us a young second-hand car. It took him a couple of days, and after he introduced us to the Manager of the Mitsubishi/Mercedes Dealers in Cáceres, and also to a capable gestor (Administrative Office specializing in official applications for all kinds of documents) who took care of all the paperwork, we are now already driving our spiffy Citroen C5 estate. Next, we were taken to an excellent insurance agent who immediately made all the preparations for insuring our car.
Enrique also found us an excellent English-speaking Lawyer in Cáceres, whom we would recommend without reservation. Our days were spent going hither and yon getting the various photos, passes, and all important stamps on every sheet of paper generated by the Spanish system. Three weeks to the day after our first arrival here we stood in front of the Notario and became the proud owners of a traditional Spanish finquíta in a lovely village with stunning countryside to the left and right of us, best described as a nature park with wonderful wildlife. Cáceres province is home to one quarter of the world’s entire bustard population and we are located right in the middle of some of their favourite breeding grounds.
Our tiny village (386 inhabitants, with now two additional extranjeros) lies an easy twenty minutes’ drive from Cáceres city. Our village boasts of 3 bars, an “hostal” (two star hotel – nicely appointed, with a friendly owner), a medical centre, small supermarket/baker, pharmacy, modern public swimming pool, bank, and the most helpful Clerk to the Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) this side of paradise. Everyone in the village has gone out of their way to make us feel welcome and offered help with any aspect of settling into the ways of a ‘New Country’.
But our greatest thanks have to go to Enrique, without whom we would still be trying to open a bank account!!!!!!!!!
Valerie and David Jackson
Happily settled in a lovely village in Cáceres province, Extremadura
March 10th, 2006