Barbara Thompson had been watching A Place in the Sun on ‘a daily basis’ and says she was looking to France or Montenegro with her initial budget of £165,000.
“Although I loved Mallorca I didn’t think I could afford to buy there,” says Barbara, who runs a business that creates pioneering braces and supports after she fell off a horse and broke her collarbone.
She and her daughter-in-law, Jodi, both from Lincolnshire, joined forces to look for a property and they did this by applying to go on A Place in the Sun. In May 2023, they flew out with Laura Hamilton and you might have seen their episode airing earlier this month.
The search did highlight that their money would go further inland and they ended up erring towards a renovation project (it doesn't seem that much fazes Barbara) and put in an offer of £150k on a three-bedroom townhouse located in the old part of Sa Pobla, a pretty village in the northeast of the island, that was on the market for £182,500.
“Like me, the film crew were blown away by the potential of the property. It hadn’t been lived in for three years and had been left to decline and was full of the previous owner’s dark-wood traditional furniture, and some rubbish,” she says.
“Looking back I realise that offer was so low it was rather insulting,” says Barbara. “But I had almost been brainwashed into making a ‘cheeky offer’ by watching too much A Place in the Sun!”
They ended up agreeing a sale at £173k after a counter offer, and Barbara says she was surprised at how much the legal costs are in Spain – in total they paid £199k for the property purchase.
In the Balearics there’s land transfer tax starting at 8%, then stamp duty at 1.5% and notary fees and other admin costs, plus making the total around 13-14% of the agreed price, but Barbara also paid for a survey as she was buying a ‘project’.
Yet the sales process was a seamless, she says. “It was a doddle compared to buying in the UK!” she adds. She is full of praise for the estate agent, Ca Teva Properties, who helped organise an AirBnB for her to stay during the conveyancing, and then with other paperwork.
Barbara spent a week or so clearing out the property. “It was stuffed full of pictures but we put them outside the house by the bins and they had gone by the next morning.” She upcycled some nice pieces of furniture and spent another week filling holes in the walls before painting everything. The €20k renovation budget had to go in paying Jodi back her contribution to the purchase as her circumstances changed and she needed the funds.
“I learnt that it might only cost €500 to register our names on the title deed, but it cost a lot more - €3,500 – to remove her name,” says Barbara, who advises buyers to make sure they get the ownership structure correct from the get-go. “Make a separate will for the property too,” she adds.
If you don’t make a will, when you pass your property goes into Spanish probate and it can take many months to sort out – not the sort of thing a grieving family back in the UK needs to deal with.
Barbara’s partner is handy with renovation skills and has been able to help her on the house – including improving the rather primitive electrics. “After a coat of paint the house looked amazing,” she says. She’s managed to only spend €10k on it so far. “The key is keeping the essence of the original house rather than changing too much. But it still looks tired on the outside – we need to have that done this summer.”
Other minor hiccups included getting Covid when her 92-year-old mother was flying out to stay – with Barbara’s 86-year-old aunt.
“I had to drive them both down from Scotland, and the car broke down but it all worked out and we had a fabulous time.” She has also shipped bikes out and hopes to live there for half of the year. “I can run our office in Harley Street remotely,” she says. ‘You don’t need broadband here – the 5G is amazing for videocalls and streaming UK channels on our mini cinema system.”
She realises she wouldn’t be able to afford to buy the property now – as prices in Mallorca have continued to increase every year. “I think it would cost €350k now to buy.”
She is also keen to see how Laura’s own townhouse renovation goes – and it won’t be far for her to travel from Pollensa 20 minutes north to film an episode of ‘What Happened Next’ should that be on the cards.
SEARCH FOR PROPERTY IN MALLORCA
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