Names:
Martin and Christine Graydon
From: Devon
Age: Group: Early retirees
Budget: 280,000€
Wish List: 3 bedrooms, plenty of interior and exterior space, a home away from home for our family
Actual: “The perfect home at the right price”
Agent: Dave Healy – IRE International, c/ Nuestra Sra del Carmen 2 C.C. Los Timones, 35560 Corralejo, Fuerteventura. Tel: 0034 928 537 870, fax: 0034 928 536 175, e-mail:
info@ire-international.com
Martin and Christine’s love affair with the Canaries began 24 years ago. Their first holidays were spent in Lanzarote, but about 20 years ago they also began holidaying in Fuerteventura. They’ve seen many changes and watched the islands go from strength to strength during this time. Theirs is a situation many people find themselves in, both islands are fabulous for holidays but which one would you choose to invest in and live on?
By the time you read this article they will have been living in Fuerteventura on a full-time basis for around 2 months. When we talk they are still working with the builders putting the final touches to their wonderful property – Martin, a keen golfer, says that he doesn’t have time for his favourite hobby right now as turning their new property into a home is keeping them both busy. This leads us into a conversation about the price of golf club membership in Fuerteventura and Martin would definitely like this to be lower! Having said this he does also say that the main reason for their move to the Canaries was weather and he has absolutely no complaints there.
Five years ago the Graydons were in the fortunate position to be able to take early retirement at the same time. Both had been in stressful careers, Martin as an insurance sales manager and Christine as a manager for Southern Electricity. With the increase in free time they began spending more time in the Canaries. As Christine told us “We were spending about 2 months a year staying in a property for long term rental in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. Normally we spent December in Lanzarote and March in Fuerteventura. We looked at the costs and thought that it would be a good idea to buy a holiday home on one of the islands instead”. Their original plan was to downsize their 4-bedroom property in Wiltshire and purchase a smaller property in the UK and a holiday home in the Canaries, giving them approximately 6 months in each per year.
The first part of their plan was achieved when they sold their Wiltshire property and bought a 3-bedroom property in Devon. They enjoyed life in Devon, but 3 years of awful summers took its toll and their thoughts turned increasingly to the Canaries. On their next holiday to Fuerteventura they began seriously looking for a property and did get to the point where they found a new build property in Tindaya and shook hands with the builder. As negotiations progressed Martin, with his background in insurance, became uncomfortable with the “deal” the builder had put together. He stated, “I pay attention to detail and like things to be done correctly. Although, at that time, the property might have suited our requirements we felt unable to go ahead at that time”.
The real change to their original plan happened just before last Christmas. They were in Lanzarote on holiday as part of a double celebration - their 20th wedding anniversary and Martin’s 65th birthday - and Martin (once again!) popped a question “How about doing something different, let’s move to the Canaries?” Christine (once again!) said “yes” and they began seriously considering which of the two islands would become their home.
Whilst on holiday in Fuerteventura in March of this year Martin had gone to watch the rugby, giving Christine the chance to do a little shopping. By the time the rugby had finished Christine had seen a property she liked in the office of Island Real Estate International and was keen to get Martin to meet IRE Managing Director, Dave Healy. This was the start of yet another fruitful relationship…
After the initial meeting with Dave they then went to view the villa that Christine had spotted in IRE’s office. Despite it fulfilling all their requirements they still had one hurdle to leap, they needed to sell their UK property and didn’t know how long it would take. Dave negotiated with the builder and worked really hard to find a mid-term solution to get them through the potential months of overlap until their UK property was sold. Bearing in mind changes happening in the UK economy, they decided to err on the side of caution and wait until they had a buyer for their existing property. Although it hadn’t quite worked out as planned on this occasion what the Graydon’s did know was that IRE was the company that they trusted to eventually find the right property for them. When questioned about why this was the case, Martin and Christine agreed that the main reason was that IRE continually searched for and sourced only properties which suited their requirements (a true Property finder service) and Dave never tried to push listed properties on them that he knew were unsuitable. Having visited a number of other Agents where this had been a problem they knew Dave genuinely listened to them about their needs. He also kept in regular contact (phone and e-mail) with them on their return to Devon whilst they tried to sell their property.
The property in Devon sold within a month of returning to the UK (as did the property they had viewed with Dave) and this put them in the perfect position of being cash buyers in a buyers market. They were in no hurry to buy in Fuerteventura as they were quite prepared to rent a property until the right one came up, but they didn’t have long to wait. Dave called them immediately when a new property that was perfect for them had become available, he also knew that good offers had already been made. This meant they would have to act quickly so he asked if they could be in Fuerteventura by Wednesday of that week and were in a position to make an immediate offer if the property was the right one! Christine had commitments in the UK, but Martin hopped on a flight to see what Dave had found for them.
We finally plumped for a House for sale in Villaverde in the north of Fuerteventura with lovely views to the sea and surrounding mountainous landscape. The property had 4 large double bedrooms with the master bedroom including a walk through wardrobe and spacious en-suite facilities and 3 bathrooms in total with one W/C. The living area and kitchen were of an open plan design with large sliding glass doors leading out to the terrace and fabulous 10m x 4m swimming pool. The villa was spacious, bright and airy and features included wooden beamed ceilings and high quality German carpentry, fixtures and fittings throughout. Set in a spacious 1100m2 plot, the garden areas were prepared for development with an automatic irrigation system in place. Two very important factors meant that Dave had listened to them and had indeed found the perfect property. Firstly, Martin and Christine have a very close family of four grown children and two in-laws (and 5 grandsons) – Mark with wife Denise, Joanne, Tara with husband Les, and Kim – they had been very supportive of their plans to move country and Martin and Christine wanted their family to have a home from home in Fuerteventura. The size of this property (both the interior and the plot) with the additional bedroom and bathroom meant that there would always be plenty of space for the family when they wanted to come and stay. The second key point was that the property was within their budget – in fact after Dave had finished with the negotiations they could not believe what value for money they would get with it. When Martin called Christine back in the UK and described the property what else could she say but “yes”.
From this point onwards Dave, Alison and Pippa at IRE took over and supported the Graydons through the whole purchase process, with the signing taking place on the date as agreed in the contract. Together with the lawyer they organised water and electricity connections and introduced them to Solbank, where they took a small mortgage – at the best rate possible. This was achieved as IRE arranged for them to ‘subrogate’ the existing mortgage already on the property – in essence taking over a reduced mortgage already in place on the property and overseen by independent lawyer. Additionally Dave referred them to a currency transfer company who saved them a substantial amount of money when compared to their local banks rate.
IRE’s involvement didn’t just end with the signing of the contract and the financial affairs put into place, Martin mentioned they had:
1. Visited the property with Dave and the original builder on a number of occasions so they could get a good understanding of all utility connections and how the pool works –pumps, filtering etc.
2. Referred professional English speaking tradesmen to them to carry out any alterations, gardening work etc
3. Changed the locks on the property after signing for their security (Dave says this is standard for all their clients)
Martin and Christine have only been in their new villa for a few weeks so the IRE team are still helping them to get into the swing of life in Fuerteventura i.e. finding a certified person to take care of their paperwork, which is important when they don’t speak Spanish as yet.
IRE takes the role of looking after their clients very seriously. They are the only Real Estate Agents in Fuerteventura who are accredited members of the AIPP – The Association of International Property Professionals (visit www.aipp.org.uk or www.aipp.ie for more details) The badge of membership is a reminder to buyers and vendors, that IRE must follow professional standards, and act with honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability. This gives their clients security, confidence and peace of mind.
As they settle into their new home and life Martin is standing on their terrace looking across their beautiful 10 x 4m pool across to Playa Blanca in Lanzarote. He tells me “We could easily have made the decision to move to Lanzarote, we love the promenade walk from the lighthouse to the Papagayo end of Playa Blanca and recently we went on a shopping day trip there to IKEA. It is brilliant that the islands are so close and that we can get the best of both of them because of the regular ferry connections. I’m happy that we chose Fuerteventura as our base though, for us there is more space and less crowding on the beaches here and we feel the properties are still less expensive”. In mid conversation he pauses looks at the pool and then restarts “I can also see our grandchildren Matthew, Louis, Shaun, Oliver and Jack having a great time in this pool, we can’t wait for them to visit.”
Christine, who’s busy multi-tasking, finishes a conversation with the builders and adds “We have been absolutely delighted with Dave, Alison and Pippa at IRE. Nothing has ever seemed to be too much trouble for them and they have helped us to find much more than we were looking for in a house”
