Looking for housing in Spain was a long, drawn out ordeal with lots of ups and downs. At one point we were resigned to living in a one bedroom apartment with four kids for three months. Seriously. Read on to find out how our housing journey ended.
- Don’t assume that the prices you see listed for long-term rentals will apply to you.
My initial plan was to get a long-term rental, but after contacting multiple rental agencies I heard the same thing every time: you have to be here at least a year.
They also said they required proof of a job, which was impossible since our tourist visa doesn’t allow work. Even when I offered to pay upfront, it didn’t seem to make much difference. The very nice director of my kids’ school in Spain even went to the rental agencies herself and was told the same thing, and she didn’t know of anyone renting either.
It also seemed like it might be impossible to set up utilities without a national identification number which I didn’t have with a short-term visa. And I hadn’t taken into account other parts of housing costs like utilities and internet access when budgeting for housing in Spain.
Realizing that a long-term rental probably wouldn’t be an option for us was painful, since the 500 euro/month housing cost was one of the main pieces that seemed to make the whole sabbatical possible.
So I moved on to contacting short-term rentals.
- Don’t assume there will be a huge selection of short-term rentals.
Our sabbatical town in Spain is small enough that there was only one short-term rental listing on either Airbnb or VRBO with three or more bedrooms. That one listing had terrible reviews and none that were recent, looked pretty dumpy, was over a mile from the kids’ school, and had spotty internet access. It was a place we could make do with, sure, but not something I was excited about.
I contacted the owner through AirBnB messaging and he asked $2000/month instead of his listed nightly rate of $173. This was a discount, but still seemed expensive for the quality.
Then I expanded my search for short-term rentals with fewer bedrooms and found one that was still over a mile to my kids’ school but looked nice, and the owner answered very quickly. Unfortunately it was a one-bedroom with one queen bed and a pull-out couch. The owner said we could put some cots in the living room. I sure love my kids but I can’t say that having them and all their stuff spread out all over the main living area was super appealing.
Living in a one-bedroom apartment with six people became our plan for several weeks.
During this time my husband and I revisited whether we should scrap the idea of being in this small town at all, or even if we should scrap the idea of being in Spain, and just travel around the world instead.
Ultimately we decided we liked our plan, were really focused on the anchor of the kids learning Spanish, and liked the idea of them being in a school rather than taking lessons the whole time. We settled on booking the one-bedroom apartment for at least a week or two. Does this sound terrible? Yes. But we figured “something would work out”. That we would get there and find some kind of option with a little legwork, or that someone’s uncle would have a place for rent. Worst case scenario, we could stay at the one-bedroom for three months. With the cots in the living room and the stuff and kids strewn about. (insert photo of huge mess)
A few weeks after we made this decision, I received a message from the woman whose one-bedroom apartment we were planning to rent. She said, “You know, my place is pretty small for six people, but there’s a woman in town who runs a hotel and I think she rents out an apartment also”
I tracked down the hotel contact information and a few hours later was having a lovely conversation in Spanish about a 4 bedroom apartment on the main square 0.5 miles from my kids’ school with all utilities and internet access, and even an outdoor patio.
Then she said it would cost $175/night, even for a longer term rental. Over $5000/month – more than 10 times what I initially thought we’d be paying – was not at all feasible.
I asked if she would consider half of that since we are responsible renters (people generally trust doctors not to demolish a house), and told her we would be willing to move out of the house during the 4 days she had already booked during that time.
She emailed the next day and asked for 70 euros per night, which was even less than what I’d requested. That would even include weekly maid and linen service, which is especially valuable in a country where very few people own dryers (I can’t explain why this is – if you know, please tell me).
So in the end everything worked out, but not without feeling like the whole thing might come crashing to a halt multiple times.