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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

Interactive Map of Best Private Schools for Expat Kids in Madrid

November 21st, 2011 | Posted by Pierre in Household | Logistics | Pierre - (0 Comments)
Interactive map of the Best Schools for Expats Kids in Madrid

Interactive map of the Best Schools for Expats Kids in Madrid

Interactive map of the Best Schools for Expats Kids in Madrid

Today, I wanted to share an interactive map I did with the Best Private Schools for Expat Children in Madrid.

I wast trying to help an american family to choose the best school and realized how hard it was to get a global picture. So I worked on simplifying the decision process for the first criteria: location. After doing some good research, this map lists all the good schools, and really helps to understand to realize that, for instance, private expat schools are mainly in north-west madrid and the suburbs. Oh, and if you wondered about prices: from 4,000 to 20,000 €  a year.

As for other details or if you want more advice on how to choose the best school, head to my detailed how-to blog for moving to madrid tips: head to this specific “how to choose the best private school for expat kids” post on Moving2Madrid.

Of course, as always, if you need any help or advice for choosing a school and/or moving to madrid, do not hesitate to email me !

Madridly yours,
Pierre Waters – Moving2Madrid
+Pierre-Alban Waters

Map of the best neighbourhoods to move with your family to Madrid

November 7th, 2011 | Posted by Pierre in House Hunting | Logistics | Pierre - (0 Comments)
Just for you, my interactive map of the best family-friendly neighbourhoods in Madrid !

Recently, I have been getting questions from people moving to Madrid with their families. And the questions of parents organizing a move to Madrid are quite different to the questions of expats moving alone or as as couple. To make their search easier and give them a simple and visual guide to decide which neighbourhood would be the best for them, I created this interactive map of family-friendly neighbourhoods:

Just for you, my interactive map of the best family-friendly neighbourhoods in Madrid !

Just for you, my interactive map of the best family-friendly neighbourhoods in Madrid !

 

The best family-friendly neighbourhoods in Madrid have been indicated, with a short description, with also rental prices for those in the center of Madrid where prices are quite uniform.

I advise you do the following:

  1. Take a look at the map, first to get used to how Madrid is distributed and what are the options.
  2. Then try and calculate thanks to google how long would it take to go to work and to the very center of Madrid, Puerta del Sol.
  3. Check if the rental prices comply with your criteria
  4. Check detailed posts of these neighbourhoods: Salamanca, Retiro, Chamberi. As for the suburbian neighbourhoods, as they are so diverse, do a search on google images and do some google street view to get an idea of how it is to live there.

Of course, “your mileage may vary” and this selection is a reduction of reality : it is intended to simplify your search and give you useful tools and insights to feel safer and more confident about your move to Madrid. I know many happy families in other neighbourhoods and if you have any question, do not hesitate to email me or tweet me @pierrewaters.

Madridly yours,
Pierre Waters – Moving2Madrid

My google+
 

Introducing a new Guiri, Pierre-Alban Waters

June 13th, 2011 | Posted by Pierre in Pierre - (3 Comments)

How did I end up in Madrid?

Three years ago, I decided I wanted to speak fluently a third language, English and French being the first two. So I thought about learning Chinese or Arabic, but Spanish would be quicker to learn and has a more global reach, and I enjoy speaking it a lot, compared to my short experiences babbling mandarin or arabic. So my mind was set on Spanish, but still I did not know where I was going to learn it.

My plan was to use the last semester I had to complete to obtain my Master’s degree and do it in a Spanish speaking country. I had the possibility to study pretty much anywhere in Latin America and Spain. My criteria was: “Where will I have more opportunities to land a job with less than 6 months speaking Spanish?”
Madrid and Barcelona were then the obvious choices, as many South American contacts told me that for a graduate it would have been very hard to find a good job if you do not have any contacts beforehand.

So Madrid or Barcelona ? It was a tough choice. In the end, what decided me was the fact that Madrid had a larger job market than Barcelona and that I had the opportunity to study in a university in Madrid – ICADE – which brand would help me a lot to land a job here.

That’s why I ended up in Madrid. I now love Madrid for many other reasons, the first of them being that I fell in love with a fantastic French girl and that we both love living in Madrid.

I have been living for nearly 3 years now in Madrid, working as freelance management consultant and entrepreneur. I am looking forward to blog and share with other fellow guiris to help them settle in Madrid with specific advice on learning spanish in a few months, finding a job here, finding a flat, explaining every neighbourhood and which one is for you, and why not, talk a bit about the stuff Spanish talk about all the time: the crisis and politics

Do not hesitate to comment and/or send me an e-mail if you have any kind of question.

Here was my post for GuiriGuide. For complete “how-to” guides to make your move to Madrid easy, have a look at my blog Moving2Madrid.com !

Madridly yours,
+Pierre-Alban Waters – Moving2Madrid.com – Google+ – Twitter – Linkedin – Newsletter!

 

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Why Madrid?

May 31st, 2011 | Posted by Courtney in Pierre | What's Happening Madrid - (3 Comments)

Pierre is a French and British world citizen, as he has lived in Paris, London, Barcelona, Beijing, Toronto, but still, he prefers Madrid. He loves discovering new things, tapas and wine, writing, reading and rugby. Pierre has been living and working here since 2008, and now helps expats to find a place to rent and to settle down in Madrid via his company FlatAway.

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Why Madrid?

I’ve been living in Madrid for nearly 3 years now. And as in relationships, three years is the key moment to look back and think about why I love to live in Madrid. Of course, every guiri in Madrid has his own reasons, but I hope my “why  I love Madrid” post will give you some keys to understand if Madrid is the city for you.

To start with, Madrid is a capital city but it still feels personal and human-sized. Having lived in London, Paris, Beijing and Toronto (the economic capital city of Canada), I can tell you other developed country capital cities do not feel the same. They are gigantic worlds where you seldom get a personal connection for your everyday chores. In Madrid, I already had the first year my favorite places where people recognise me, and this is true for my local supermarket, favorite bar, favorite tapas place, favorite restaurant and sports activity. There’s always some Spanish happy to make you feel you belong to the place.

Then, Madrid is still authentically Spanish and Castilian, but international at the same time. Barcelona, for instance, in which I lived 4 months, is more international, to the point it was impossible to find a restaurant with “typical catalonian food” in the city centre. The best calçots, typical catalonian recipe, had to be found out of the city. Madrid has a good old taverna with cocido madrileno in every neighbourhood. And at the same time, it has all the international food you want: Lavapies is there with its great Indian restaurants, and I tasted Russian, Ethiopian, Colombian, Ecuatorian and authentic Mexican food (not tex-mex) for the first time in Madrid.

All in all, Madrid is small and has everything you need at the same time. I live near the city centre, near Bilbao, and I can say I usually walk to all places I go too, apart from work. The centre as such is quite small, and has an impressive number of tapas place, international restaurants, theatres, operas, pubs, shops, universities… Of course, the suburban sprawl and the spanish real estate craze means most of the 3 million people living around Madrid live more and more outside the #6 metro line. But still, if you live in the city centre, you still feel like sometimes as if you were in a town or a village. Go to my favorite square, Plaza Olavide, and feel the village side of Madrid.

As a conclusion, I believe you have more opportunities as a foreigner in general to find a job in Madrid than in any other city in Spain. Madrid has been growing faster than Barcelona over the last 10 years, and my feeling is that the Madrid job market needs more international profiles than it has right now. Madrid until the 90s had few foreigners compared to other capital cities. So it’s catching up, and it is still the richest region in Spain! For instance, I landed a job in Madrid in the largest management consulting company, and guess what? I was the only employee who did not speak Spanish as its mother tongue. So I was then the guiri, and everyone knew in the company knew I was the French and British guy. And it was clearly a factor the recruiters took into account. But that’s another story: I’ll talk about how a foreigner can differenciate and land a job here even with a 20% unemployment rate in another post.

One last thing – In “Eat, Pray, Love”, Elizabeth Gisbert, the main character and author, has to define what is the word for her new city, Roma: “Sex” her Roman friend says. If you could read the mind of the people in a given city, then the single thought on a majority of people’s minds is this word you’re looking for. What is Madrid’s word in your opinion?

Wherever you are, already in Madrid, or just thinking about moving here, I hope this post will make you think and that we’ll exchange about why you chose or are going to chose Madrid! For other specific information on renting and relocating to Madrid, visit my website for Flats, Apartments and Rooms to Rent in Madrid with Free Relocation Support.

If you have any question, or if I can help you in any way, please leave a comment.

Madridly yours,

Pierre – pierre@flataway.com – www.flatawaymadrid.com

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