Touted as the safest way to secure your long-term rights as a British homeowner in the EU, large numbers of Brits continue to snap up property in Europe and get themselves registered locally BEFORE Brexit happens in March. Meet one man who, relieved to have bought in Spain last year, is happy to let his property until he’s ready to use it…

A determination to stay one step ahead of Brexit combined with the dismal rates of return offered by UK banks helped Ilyas Foy decide that summer 2018 was the right time to realise his dream of investing in a Spanish home.

Ilyas, married with a family and from Blackburn, got the keys to his three-bedroom apartment in Estepona last July. He found and bought the property during a month-long visit to the Costa del Sol, agreeing a purchase price of €135,000, including all the furniture.

“I had savings in the bank in the UK doing nothing,” said Ilyas, who until recently worked in education in the Middle East. “And I really wanted to buy before Brexit, to get a foot under the table in Spain and be registered as a home-owner and tax-payer. The long-term plan is to sell our UK home and move over there. Realistically though, we can’t consider that until our youngest son has left home and I qualify for my pension, which will be in 2020.”

Meanwhile, Ilyas has had no trouble finding tenants for the apartment. He said: “Because we bought the place fully furnished and equipped with household items – the only things the vendors took were their personal items, it was ready to rent out from the get-go. It’s now bringing in €850 a month! The tenants have a year’s contract, after which we’ll assess what we want to do.”

Ilyas’s apartment is in a central location in the colourful resort of Estepona, a short walk from the beach, marina and old town. On the third floor of a small development called Ronda en el Mar, the property’s stunning views look across roof tops to the Mediterranean and rock of Gibraltar beyond. Being Muslims, Ilyas and his wife were also attracted by the property being a short stroll from the town’s mosque.

It was thanks to a switched-on estate agent that Ilyas even considered Estepona and subsequently found his apartment. Just before his property-hunting trip to Spain in 2018, he had visited the Your Overseas Home roadshow in Manchester, where he met the estate agency The Spanish Estate Agent.

“Soon after the Your Overseas Home, we went to Spain thinking we’d buy somewhere around La Cala, Calahonda or Fuengirola,” explained Ilyas. “In the first week we saw properties with other agents, but they didn’t really listen to our requirements or what our budget was, and we found the areas too touristy and built-up. So we extended our search to Nerja and even inland as far as Ronda, but still couldn’t find anything suitable. Disheartened, we decided to stop looking and planned to return in September with fresh eyes. When we called to explain this to The Spanish Estate Agent, they suggested we look in Estepona, where that same day they had listed an apartment they thought we should view. We felt that they really understood what we wanted, so we headed over there and sure enough we bought it!”

Another useful contact Ilyas made at Your Overseas Home was Smart Currency Exchange, who he used to transfer €145,000 to Spain to complete his purchase. “They were fantastic,” he enthused. “In fact, previously I had used a different currency firm while living in Saudi Arabia. But registering with Smart Currency Exchange enabled me to compare the two and as they were the better deal I opted for them.”