Can I make a reasonable return on a rental property in Mojacar

Depends what you call reasonable.  Take into account not just the cost of the apartment, but the cost of the licence to allow you to rent out as a holiday apartment - and any upgrades that may be nevcessary to obtain such licence.

@Matthew - could you offer some experienced guidance here?

The easy answer is No if:

1. You give the property to a rental agency which will take its 20% commission.

2. They will pay the local taxes from your rentals.

3. You will pay utilities (electricity, water, refuse)

4. You need decent Wi-Fi all year even when the property is vacant(the monthly holiday Wi-Fi is not good).

5. Charges for Maintenance, breakages, wear-and-tear mount up.

All you can hope is that when you do your profit/loss calculations  at the end of the year is that you are not too far behind. 

You have a chance making a few bob if:-

A. You rent the place out without using a rental agent.

B, You need a trustworthy person to clean and look after the property.

C. Maintenance, Breakages etc will cost you.

D. You need good Wi-Fi and you need to monitor electricity use and pay refuse and water charges.

E. The Ayuntamiento will take 24% on your rentals. Best of luck in offsetting some charges against these.

F. You do your own marketing and my advice is to concentrate on repeat customers.

Numbered and lettered points above are contingent on what you paid for the property and where it is located. 

My Honest Advice:- Don’t buy property for to rent out - Likely you’ll be licking your wounds and after you pay Wi-Fi, electricity, water, refuse, local taxes, insurance, etc you’ll be met with maintenance and breakages. One non caring tenant can bring your investment crashing down. 

All of above is honest info from me and is a summary only of the big picture, Not many property owners who rent out their places are as honest as me. They are trying to stay ahead and you are the competition in an over competitive situation - I kid you not.

After reading my post you may be asking yourself why do so many people rent out their properties? The obvious answers are:-

1. To help pay community fees.

2. To help with other costs.

These are truthful answers. But can you make the situation pay?

Rent out privately, do the cleans, do the meets-and-greets, do the maintenance yourself.

If you are an absentee landlord you always feel like the prisoner facing the firing squad. "Profits" are always under pressure. You are in the firing line to be scammed (I'm not going to elaborate how, but Spain has more than it's fair share of scammers). 

Just to hammer the point home (if you are absentee):- The repeat customers are your lifeline - Mind them, cherish them, love them and treat them decently - nobody else will inform you of this.

holiday rental is higher amount than long term but for both you have to factor in the expenses of a licence, up keep by cleaning/caretaker company if not here to do it yourself.  Insurance cover is needed as well and tax to be paid.

Unless you intend to use it for your own holidays I personally would keep my money in an investment as the on going expenses of a flat could easily eat up any money earned from rental fees and you will always have to pay for the maintenance costs.

I'm a full time landlord here in the UK with a number of properties. It did seem a logical extension to buy property to let in Spain when we bought our holiday home.

However, after looking into it a bit further and taking advice off the more knowledgable members like Matthew, I decided it just wasn't going to be worth the grief as we would have to pay for all the upkeep, community charges, cleaning between changeovers etc etc.

Maybe if you're living out in Spain and you could do a lot of the work yourself, it would work, but otherwise I'd leave it well alone.

The only way I'd reconsider buying property to let is to qualify for a Golden Visa, but I have heard that there is a question mark over how long these will be available.

Good for you Matthew

All the things they don't tell you on A Place in the Sun (Spain) and I think you just made the top ten hit list for real estate agents in Spain

We bought a villa in Mojacar Playa as a long term investment and to earn some money as a holiday let. We live in the UK and use a local Spanish agent to look after it. We list on Vrbo where the holiday maker pays the fees and most of our bookings come from this. Our agent charges 15% for bookings they find and 10% to look after Vrbo guests.

We have spent fortunes, pool refurb, replace air con, rendering and painting the outside, as well as a significant amount of purchases at the beginning to make it rentable.

The final insult is the fact no expenses, such as cleaning, agents fees etc, can be taken into account for tax, simply 24% on whatever income you receive.

However, we are making a profit and holiday in the villa for 10 weeks a year completely funded by the profit, whilst still managing to gradually increase our contingency funds. Lots of ups and downs along the way, and you do need to focus a lot of attention on the agents, they are not overly efficient, but overall we have had a good experience and have no regrets.

I hope this helps.

Delbus, can you give us a ballpark figure on your profits please say over a year? Note I'm not trying to nitpick, I'm just curious. Please deduct all utility bills including internet costs, taxes, property tax,sundries etc.

You may not wish to share the info and that's  OK if you wish.

Hi All. Many thanks for your views so far. I would be interested to here from any one else who has property in Mojacar.