A first-hand account of building a villa in Spain
“Our decision to build our own home in Spain came from the realisation that what we were looking for in a property did not exist. We started looking for a modern, multi-generational home for my parents, my husband and I and our teenage son to live in at the end of 2022.
It needed to be in Sotogrande, with a total of six bedrooms, with a separate kitchen, living and dining room for my parents and good accessibility to future proof against potential mobility issues. We also need a home office, good outdoor space and enough hangout spaces for a teen and two families to be able to retreat to, so we weren’t always living on top of each other. We also didn’t want it to cost a fortune to run, so were looking for something with decent windows, insulation and ideally solar panels for electricity generation and without crazy community fees. Once we started looking, it was clear that this property did not exist and certainly not within our budget, so with some trepidation, we started to explore the option of building ourselves.
Building a Villa – a dream or a nightmare?
My husband has always dreamed of building a house and set out on an exhaustive research exercise to find a good building method, which would be quick, efficient and eco-friendly. He found a team who offered a system which seemed to fit the bill and were very keen to get involved. They recommended an architect, who drew an initial concept and we thought we were sorted.
However, when we had our finances in place, the situation was rather more complicated than we thought. The partners of the building company had parted ways, with claims of fraudulent dealings being banded around on both sides and concerns over whether the system was working the way it should. The architect’s concept was shown to be way above the budget that we had available and not suitable for our plot. We were shaken and worried and so started to explore other options and people with better track records that could guide us through the process.