Gecko Towers
Update 09.04.24: An announcement has been made by the leader of the Socialist Government in Spain, that his government plans to amend or repeal the “Golden Visa” legislation. Currently no timetable for these changes has been suggested and there is opposition to any revision. That said, this discourse, that started in May 2023, may result in some material changes. We will endeavour to keep you up to date with these as we are made aware of them and their precise impact.
My birthday is in June. For the last weeks of May and the first few in June, the Jacaranda trees give the most beautiful display of an iridescent purple haze. They are everywhere on the Costa del Sol. They are particularly magnificent along Boulvar Hohenlohe in central Marbella and many of lined streets of, Marbella’s closest neighbour, San Pedro de Alcantara.
We have dogs and while deciding what trees should adorn our Costa de Sol garden my fervent suggestion was to have a Jacaranda tree and may be an equally abundant flowering bush, a plumbago, in white or blue.
Mrs W is highly knowledgeable about a lot but she is particularly informed about gardens. For a living, she assists several President’s of local communities to maintain the high quality of their Urbanization’s amenities and their stunning gardens are testament to the depth of her knowledge.
She tells me that Jacarandas, while beautiful in the Spring have a tendency to shed a kind of sticky glue that sits on car roofs and gets caught in animal fur, which is, of course, particularly unpleasant for dogs. Equally, the flowers of the pretty plumbago are also blessed with a sticky substance that ensures that their seeds can be carried to other destinations to germinate, root and propagate. Another triumph of Mother Nature but the residue of matted clumps of dog fur is less attractive.
I confess I didn’t know these issues relating to what in my eyes are simply beautiful trees and bushes but without Mrs W’s knowledge I’d have been none the wiser. So my lack of knowledge combined with concrete detail and proper intelligence solved the issue. Back to the drawing board perhaps deep purple bougainvillea and white hibiscuses!
The point that I am making, perhaps a little prosaically, is that we are not all the recipients of the same knowledge and as a result no matter how wide our investigations we must sometimes simply defer to someone with more detailed and proven knowledge.
There are very few experiences that you can read about that deliver the same detailed understanding that you can get by actually doing it. For me, this sums up the extensive online discussions that are posted by those with some knowledge that is then shared as expert testimony ready to be soaked up by those eager to be informed.
The risk is that the knowledge being demonstrated is simply inadequate or wrong. For example, from my work in the Marbella region amongst English-speaking property buyers there is a lot of discussion about two forms of Visa, the Golden Visa and the Non-Lucrative Visa, both of which I have commented on elsewhere in this blog.
A brief study of online resources shows a myriad of articles and videos that seek to deliver for their target market pieces that dissect the minutiae and deliver often a “one size fits all” approach. Regrettably, and I am no expert, but comparing article with article and video with video there are invariably inconsistencies between them. At best this is as a result of them being scant on real detail at worst they appear to be simply incomplete or wrong.
For those in the target market for such resources they are placed in an invidious position as they feel that the quality of their own research may be vastly superior to what they are being told in reality. This can make the job of their selected Abogado (Spanish qualified lawyer) a little more complicated that it perhaps needs to be. It can result in disagreements that are both unhelpful and unnecessary as they are based on incorrect or incomplete information received.
So, while I am not advocating an approach that you blunder into your property purchase in Marbella, oblivious to the potential hurdles, I am counseling a level of heathy skepticism that questions what you are seeing and hearing from your research. You will develop your own experience from the process you are embarking on. What you will go through will equip you to state categorically that in your case XYZ occurred confident in your own knowledge. This will also ensure that when you are entirely confident with the detailed advice received from your selected independent Abogado, you will become your own expert of your own purchase.
Let’s enjoy that journey!
Should you be interested in discussing the processes involved in buying a property in the Marbella region, we would be delighted to assist you. Our team of bi-lingual, highly experienced and wholly independent team of Abogados are ready to help you.
Please call me, Mark FR Wilkins, during usual business hours on +34 600 343 917 or, if you prefer, or e-mail me at mark@roslegal.es
Please note that our posts are for general interest. They is no substitute for proper legal advice tailored to your specific circumstances as provided by a qualified Abogado who is experienced in the application of the Spanish Law.
Nothing contained in this article should be seen or taken as the writer or the publisher providing legal or financial advice.
© Mark FR Wilkins 2021. All rights reserved.