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5 Key Tips to Buy a Flat in Madrid

December 12th, 2012 | Posted by Pierre in House Hunting | Pierre - (1 Comments)
How can I find this perfect apartment to buy in Madrid ?

How can I find this perfect apartment to buy in Madrid ?

How can I find this perfect apartment to buy in Madrid ?

Real estate market trends for 2012 reveal that average home prices in Madrid will fall another 20 percent, at least between 2012 and 2014, after having already dropped by an average of 20 percent since 2007.

The market being full of risk and opportunities, I recommend you follow these 5 tips – a short summary of what I would recommend to clients and friends:

1)   Beware of the market variations in Madrid, and buy now only if you plan to hold the property for more than a minimum of five years.

2)   On top of the purchase price, you will have to spend 10 to 15% in taxes, commissions and fees.

3)   Real estate agents in Madrid usually charge commission to the seller: 6 percent is the average. This is different to other parts of Spain. However, some agencies, such as Red Pisos, charge 3 percent to each party, the seller and the buyer. Just be aware that, in most cases, you will not have to pay commission, but it may occur.

4)   Negotiate with patience and preparation. All real estate professionals know that average advertised prices are 20 to 30 percent higher than the final sale price. To negotiate well in Madrid, you need to be patient, have alternatives and be prepared.

5)   Get help, you will need support, and keep in mind that real estate agents payed by the seller are not your friends. It’s recommended that expats use the services of a flathunter: a professional who can help get the best property at the best price.

If you want more advice, do check my website Moving2Madrid with the detailed version of this post, all the interactive maps to choose the best neighborhoods and more advice.

If you have a specific questions, do not hesitate to send me an e-mail – I will come back to you within 48 hours.

Yours Madridly,
+Pierre-Alban Waters

Tapas Fair 2012

June 20th, 2012 | Posted by Shana in Food and Restaurants | Shana | What's Happening Madrid - (0 Comments)

After seven successful installations, the Tapas Fair has returned to Madrid. Starting tomorrow, Thursday June 21st, the Palacio de Deportes (metro: Goya) will convert itself into a giant bar of sorts where you can sample some of Madrid’s best tapas accompanied by a caña of Mahou.

Thirty-eight different bars and restaurants will participate in this year’s feria, each with their own small stand offering a few of their signature dishes from madrileño classics to inventive new plates.

Each tapa will cost €1,20 and each caña will also cost €1,20. There also non-alcoholic drinks available at the stands. In past years, these transactions have taken places using fichas - small commemorative coins that you must purchase in advance at the Palacio de Deportes ticket window or at special stands within the event, so keep that in mind as you rush in with an empty stomach!

This year’s Tapas Fair runs from Thursday, June 21st to Sunday, June 24th, with a split timetable of 1200-430pm and again at 8pm-midnight. Entrance to the event is free.

The way to Madrid’s heart…

June 14th, 2012 | Posted by Shana in Food and Restaurants | Shana | What's Happening Madrid - (0 Comments)

…is through your stomach.

Lauren, founder and tour guide. Photo by Cassandra Gambill

I would like to introduce you all, faithful guiris, to Lauren Aloise’s Madrid Food Tour. This tour provides a custom assortment of Madrid’s finest cuisine, hand-picked by one very passionate guiri.

Lauren is an expat from Massachusetts who has lived in Granada, Sevilla, Cádiz, and Madrid. Her already existing passion for food increased immensely after living in Spain, marrying her very own Spaniard, and meeting her suegra, Antonia. Thanks to time abroad and the lessons learned from her mother-in-law, Lauren has learned a great deal about Spanish cuisine and has found a way to share it with the world! In addition to running Madrid Food Tour, Lauren writes both Spanish Sabores (in English) and Recetas Americanas (in Spanish), two excellent resources for anyone interested in Spanish or American cuisine.

Madrid Food Tour’s “signature tour” includes samples of various Spanish treats widely available in Madrid at both popular and unique stops around the city. The tour typically takes from three to four hours during off-peak times so that those on the tour can see Madrid in a way that most tour groups don’t typically get to experience. Not only does the tour hit all the general flavor groups–sweet, savory, and everything in between–Lauren shares some history and information about every plate sampled. Want to know what’s in what you’re eating? Where it comes from? Just ask!

Does the signature tour not sound like what you’re looking for? Want to try something a bit more off-beat or specific to your tastes? Do you have the most discerning of palates? Again… just ask! The best part of these tours is that they are almost entirely customizable based on what you like, so if Andrew Zimmern’s bizarre tastes inspire you to try something completely new and different, let Lauren know!

The Madrid Food Tour website can be found here, and tours are available now! Tell them Guiri Guide sent you, and then let us know how much you loved it!

Weekend in: Palencia

June 9th, 2012 | Posted by Laura in Laura - (0 Comments)

            The first reaction when I mentioned my impending trip to Palencia (using my close-enough Spanish pronunciation) was invariably, “oh, you are going to Valencia! I love the beach there, it’ll be great weather, etc.”

Nope. As the shirts from Palencia say, “PALENCIA (CON P).” I was on my way to the small city north of Valladolid in Castilla y León. While smaller than the major cities I’ve visited in Spain, this little metropolis has a few nice treasures up its sleeves.

The most known landmark is definitely the Cristo del Otero, an enormous statue on top of a hill, showing a tranquil Christ holding up his hands, as if blessing the city below (the rumor has it that the statue was supposed to have his arms spread wide, but that problems with funding created his current posture instead). Visiting it makes for a good view of the city, whether you drive up or walk up the various switchbacks that lead you up the hill, and at the top is a small museum dedicated to the artist and the process of building the statue that comes in at more than 20m high.

Downtown, you will find various churches and the enormous Catedral de San Antolín. On select days, they open the crypt below the church, and tradition has it that the water in the well down there is blessed. This time of year, there are weddings quite often, so at the smaller churches or even in the cathedral you may catch glimpses of very formal fashion; search GuiriGuide to learn more about how unique weddings are in Spain.

Outside of town, you can visit various small towns, from Dueñas (famous for an old abandoned building that supposedly is where Ferdinand and Isabella got married in secret, and for the house of Pepe Botella, brother of Napoleon Bonaparte) to Baños (famous for having a Visigoth-era church still standing, very possibly the oldest in Spain).

If you stop for an afternoon drink in the plaza next to San Pablo or one of the neighborhood bars, you will be pleasantly surprised at the small-town prices, often one or two euros less than the norm in Madrid.

Overall, while in no way a tourist hotspot, Palencia is a nice place to take a break from the big city and see authentic Castilla y León; the lack of tourism actually adds to the charm.

Meet me on mitmi

May 25th, 2012 | Posted by Laura in Laura | What's Happening Madrid - (0 Comments)

Computer applications have become a business of seeing gaps in currently offered products and places where a new product would make people’s lives easier. That is the idea behind mitmi, a mobile application start-up in Madrid. The mitmi team of José Luis Fernández, Eduardo González, and Guillermo Zotes addressed a gap when they released their application in January: people need a way to organize via their mobile phones specifically about where, when, and how they are going to meet up in person. What about an application that combines instant chat, a listing of personal events and their locations, real-time maps/checking-in technology, and even the ability to make reservations at restaurants and clubs? The product, which is ever updating and growing with its growing consumer base, is mitmi.

The name comes from the English ‘meet me,’ but with the Spanish spelling of the phrase. From your phone, you can use this free application to connect to your Facebook and invite both Facebook friends and people who also have mitmi to do something with you, be it going for a hike in the mountains or meeting up for cañas or anything else. You can monitor who is planning on coming to the event and have a group chat discussion of times to meet, meeting spots, etc. Finally, as the moment approaches, if you arrive early you can click ‘ping pong’ and find out where your friends are at the moment using a map, which gives you a much more accurate read on when they will arrive than ‘c u soon!’ ever has given.

Coming from a small town, I was surprised when I arrived in Madrid and it became much more difficult to meet up with friends; selecting a time, location, and activity became something complicated, especially if I was involving lots of people or people who had never been to that part of the city before. This application makes an effort to reduce the complexity of that task, and offers other perks like connections to other people who like similar events to yours and the ability to make instant reservations with discounts at participating restaurants.

The application is based in Madrid, which means there is a high concentration of users here, but it is an internationally available application in Spanish and English, so you can use it if you are in the United States too. In the future, the application team plans on expanding and will continue adding features.

The application is currently available for iPhone and Android. Visit www.mitmiapp.com to learn more and download the free application to try it out yourself.