What is it like to live in alcaucin

Visiting a place and living there are different so suggest you rent or stay there and find out direct 

Hi there,  This is just a general comment so hopefully no one has a fit who lives there as I do not!

In Spain you will find locals ...of course...its Spain.  You will also generally find foreigners and of those foreigners you will find many holiday homes and some who live permanently.  If you are near the Costa del Sol or probably other coastal areas of Spain you will find a larger percentage of foreigners.  

Just from MY experience what is important is the actual area you live (Urbanization) along with the general area.  If you buy an apartment you should check on the composition of people who live there.  Often the problems ensue not from holiday owners but from holiday rentals of which you have no idea who is going to be your neighbour for some period of time.  Also Spanish people tend to be noisy, have alot of family over and may leave their dogs on the terrace to bark 24/7. So, although alot of people want to live in a more prominent Spanish area they must consider the noise level will be higher.  If you buy an apartment then these noises (also made by foreigners - I am not saying Spanish are the only noisy ones before someone gets in a snit about my comment!) will be difficult to predict.  So do as good of an assessment of the neighbourhood and neighbours as you can.  Talk to people around.  Visit there all times of the day, weeks and evenings.  Check the Website for the area you are interested.  Do they do anything at all for foreigners?

Everyone always says 'rent first' but many people, including myself like to feel a sense of home and if you do good research buying is a definitely viable option.  You could stay in a holiday rental for a month and get a sense of it and then find your home.  Yes, selling a home might lose you some cash but if you are the type of person that wants a sense of home then buy and do not listen to the people who always say 'rent first'.  

I think the important things to consider are 1) composition of neighbours 2) noise levels from barking (caged and otherwise) dogs 3) shopping options 4) language options if you don't speak Spanish already 5) activities that you wish to participate in (try and find a Facebook group for the area as you can see what kind of things people post and whether those people are aligned with you).

You do not say anything about yourself so I am making these general comments and I hope they are helpful to you in your decision making.

exactly-but my point about renting or staying there is that you should explore the area ,talk to people ,get the idea of what a place is like during the day, evenings , weekends  winter v summer etc 

Unfortunately a lot of people see the internet images but most the times these do no show the location ,the neighbouring area etc  Also exploring what the shops, banks,pharmacies exist or the nearest etc 

Your point about rentals is very true -when I lived in north Devon people visiting said they loved Croyde but in winter it was a ghost town and as the north atlantic winds came in and temperatures dropped then it was very different 

Hi st11s

Are you moving from another region of Spain?

If you are happy where you live at the moment, have you considered equity release?

Chris