TYPES OF PROPERTY

Generally, the properties in Spain fall into the following types.

Apartment

A similar build concept to that in the UK and Ireland, i.e., a suite of rooms forming one residence, typically in a building containing a number of similar residences. The layout is arranged on one floor within an apartment building with covered and/or open terraces (a two floor apartment is called a duplex).

An apartment is likely to be the cheapest property available in a finished state. They are usually on an urbanizacion or housing estate that will often include other types of property such as townhouses and villas.

These communities will include a pool and landscaped gardens. Some kind of security is often employed either in the shape of guards or CCTV cameras. These properties are owned privately but share the running costs of communal areas and facilities such a mentioned above. A community charge is payable to cover these facilities.

Villa

A detached, purpose built villa offers more privacy and seclusion but it will cost more than a comparative property within a community. It usually has its own garden and pool.
Villas are normally independent properties but more and more villas are being built within communities which include communal gardens, pools and parking.

Penthouse

An apartment, usually on the top floor of a building, often commanding superior views from a rooftop solarium and with higher specifications than other residences in the same block.

Town house (Adosado)

Typically, a 2-, 3- or 4-bedroom house on a suburban development. It’s normally a semi detached or terraced house with private front door and a private garden or ground-floor patio area. Townhouses are usually two or three storeys high, often with integral garages and basement areas.

Duplex

Either an apartment or townhouse with two levels of accommodation.

Triplex

Typically, a town house offering three floors of accommodation.
Rural properties (Fincas)

Finca has become the general description for a property located outside the urban built-up boundaries of Spanish towns and villages. A finca can be anything from a small, one bedroom bungalow with no roof or water supply to a luxury, six bedroom farmhouse with thousands of square meters of agricultural land. As such, it may be a tumbledown farmhouse or a just completed villa.

Often an estate or farm (or part of), a Finca can be presented to the market as ‘in need of restoration’.

Many fincas have a good deal of land and this may have fruit orchards or olive groves.