There is no doubt that you can find a bargain if you are house hunting in Tenerife right now. This time last year there is no way you would have found a 3 bedroom town house in central Granadilla for €200,000. Prices are falling and if you are in the market for a new casa, you can get a good overall picture of house prices both for sale by owner and via a wide range of agents by tracking listings on Segunda Mano and Gratum.
A keen eye may even note the same property sold at significantly different prices by two different agencies. For example there has been a finca on sale in Charco del Pino for the last several months. I have seen it for sale on the same day at €259,000 and €269,000.
So shop around and take your time. I definitely recommend using an experienced and reputable estate agent when buying your dream property in Tenerife. Their involvement will ensure the smooth exchange of ownership and their assistance with the necessary documentation will save you a lot of stress. It may help you decide which estate agent to use by comparing the quality of their listings in these two combination websites.
However, where the estate agents are invaluable at sourcing the right property and walking you through the paperwork to ensure a smooth exchange of ownership they may not always give the best advice when it comes to the best mortgage for you.
Unfortunately, there is very little in the way of regulation when it comes to Tenerife mortgages and the stories of bad advice and unhelpful banks are endless. The real problems arose when estate agents here realised they could earn an extra commission by introducing their buyers to the local banks. But, given that there are over 30 mortgage lenders and more than 100 mortgage products available in Spain, it was rare that an agent would ever introduce a client to the RIGHT bank.
Read more about Tenerife Mortgages on eTenerife
A treat for jazz and saxophone lovers with Berkley born Joshua Redman taking to the stage in the Espacio Cultural CajaCanarias on November 6th. Redman took first prize at the Thelonius Monk International Jazz Competition in 1991 and has toured with the likes of Pat Metheny and Chick Corea.
Venue: Espacio Cultural Cajacanarias, Plaza Patriotismo 1, S.C. de Tenerife
Costs: All seating costs €5
Book: Carretera General
Getting Tito was never in our plans. I had wanted my next dog to be a beautiful German Shepherd bought from a breeder and I have been waiting for the last few years for the kids to be big enough that they could enjoy growing up with him.
As often happens, the heart rules the head and my husband plucked Tito on impulse from the patio of a neighbouring backyard breeder. He of course had to pay for this pup but later said he just could not have left him there. So Tito, landed like a big needy chick in the middle of our house and has been squawking for attention ever since.
One of the things that I most love about him is his obvious sense of humour. Really, he revels in playing naughty pranks for the hell of it and if he is not sleeping he is plotting his next spot of devilment (like the toilet roll caper). Kind of like my son, actually.
Sadly, I have received some bad news about Tito’s brother which may very well affect Tito in the years to come. At seven months, the pup has been diagnosed with Hip Dysplasia. It is not a 100% certainty that Tito will develop the disease but the thought that he might distresses me greatly.
Our boxer Skye has HD. She mostly gets about on three legs and we give her Previcox for pain and Cosequin to support her joints. Part of the reason for me being so intent on buying my GSD from a good breeder was in the belief that he would have done the necessary genetic testing to minimise the risk of his pups contracting HD which is also rife amongst the GSD breed. I did not want to see another dog of mine go through this suffering.
If you were to ask me if I now regret getting Tito, knowing what may lie in his future, I would have to say … no. I can’t imagine our house without him now and I can only hope for the best.
My sweet seven year old daughter and her four year old brother do not always see eye to eye. (Tooth to tooth, yes, but eye to eye, not a lot.) Last night wanting to get him into trouble my daughter pulled me aside and pointed at a red mark on the top of her foot.
‘Look what he did to me with his elbow!’ she said, playing the innocent victim to perfection.
‘With his elbow?’, said I, ‘How did he manage that?’
‘Don’t know,’ said Miss Behaviour sullenly, ‘…but it happened when I kicked him’
Carrying on from the first installment of the great Tenerife Textbook Fiasco, my dearly beloved took half the morning off work to come back from Los Cristianos and queue up for the charged card with which we were going to receive my daughter’s subsidised schoolbooks.
At the same time he was handed the card he was also given a list of books to buy. There are seven in total. 4 are to be bought by the family and 3 are subsidised by the government.
Okay, all down hill from here, we thought, skipping to the nearest bookshop. Just a week or so ago the lady in the shop had relieved me of €133 for the papers, crayons, pencils and what not listed by the school for both children and had promised to have Sami’s books ready. (He is still in infantil so we pay for all his books). When asked about his books she shook her head sadly and muttered something which clearly blamed her deadbeat husband for forgetting my boy’s schoolboooks on his last foray to Santa Cruz.
Okay, okay, so can we just get the books on the tarjeta so my husband can get back to work? He gamely presented the card and she recoiled as if electrocuted. Quite clearly she wanted nothing to do with this tomfoolery and by now, I heartily agree with her.
We were directed to another local shop where the shop assistant told us she only had the Mathmatica book and if we wanted to get the whole set, we’d be better to go to yet another shop. (I am not talking about a huge town here by the way. The village that I live in is about the size of an average Sainsburys’ carpark.)
By the time we arrived at the third bookshop, there was quite a queue ahead of us. Everyone in it had obviously been on the same wild goose chase and tempers were fraying fast. There were three women behind the counter and each customer they served sooner or later threw a hissy fit. Oh oh, I thought, this doesn’t look good.
Sure enough, at our turn we were told that the books were not available. Not in her shop, not in the South and not in Santa Cruz. Of the seven books we are supposed to buy (in cash or by charged card) only two were in stock and the rest had to be reserved and we can go back later in the week… which as the school administrator refused to give me the card means more time off work for my husband.
What I don’t understand is why one bean-counter in the education department didn’t sit down with one bean counter in the respective publishing companies and said we have x number of children in the first year of primary, x number in the second year of primary, etc. For primary one each child needs book a, book b and book c, for primary two they will need book d, book e and book f, etc.
The whole lot could have been packed up and dispatched to Tenerife where it could have been divided up by the schools and the books handed to the kids in their first week back at school.
We are now in the third week of school and the saga continues.
Yippee. At last. After all the false starts Siam Park, with its world class water rides, is open to the public. It looks to be an absolutely brilliant day out and you can find out more about it on several places online.
The main Siam Park webpage is very colourful and beautifully designed but (at least today) it does seem to be experiencing problems with accepting online bookings. I am sure they will get that sorted right quick although in the meantime you should know that tickets are available at the gate.
You can expect to pay: €28 adult, children (3 to 11) €18. There is a resident discount of €3 for adults and €2 per child so remember your residents cards if you have them.
A Twin ticket will also be available with which you get Loro Parque thrown in. Unfortuantely I can’t give more details on that as on clickthrough the info page was down.
Just to whet your appetite for this glittering addition to Tenerife’s tourist repertoire enjoy this exciting account from a Times reporter who seems to have found the Siam Park experience totally invigorating and concludes his story with the words, ‘it’s quite simply the most fun you can have with your clothes off.’ Ahhh, okay. If you say so, mate.
In every Tom and Jerry cartoon there comes a point when Tom realises he’s about to get a pasting. Often Tom is in full pursuit of Jerry until the little mouse dives behind Butch. Going at full tilt, Tom puts on the brakes in a panic but it is only after he has dug furrows up Butch’s back with his claws that he comes to a screeching halt with an audible, ‘…gulp!’.
This morning I had the dogs out early and we had our very own T & J moment.
On school mornings I need to get the dogs out and back before the kids shake the sleep out of their eyes so dawn had barely cracked and it was still dark. I didn’t even notice that Lili, my black cat, was sneaking after us until we’d gone all the way around the park and detoured to the roadside bin for me to offload the kakabags (shhhh). The dogs went stiff and I turned around. There in front of me, Lili stood back arched in an impressive imitation of a witch’s cat.
I’m the first to admit that I am quite scary at that time in the morning but it wasn’t me she was worried about. A little way in front of her was an enormous ginger tom. His back was arched too and he was practically crackling with spit and venom. Both dogs were on their toes but I got Skye to sit immediately. Tito, to my great surprise, did what he was told and sat too (thank you, Sharon) which was a huge relief because if he’d taken it into his head to give chase I would have not had the proverbial snowball’s chance of stopping him as he didn’t have his Halti on.
So there we were in a Mexican stand-off. The ginger tom had just pounced out of the bushes at my cat and I’ve no doubt he had been blissfully unaware of the rest of us hanging around.
It took a moment for Lili to realise that she had her very own gang for back-up but you could see her make the connection. She slowly relaxed and then strolled languidly up to Skye and wound herself round her. Ginger tom blinked in disbelief but it was when Lili wandered over and rubbed her head on Tito that you could sense his ‘gulp’ moment.
I had the dogs sit quietly until the tom relaxed his aggressive posture and then we turned our backs on him and headed home. As well as the gulp, I’m sure I would have made out a ‘Holy sh*t!’, from him if it were not for Lili sniggering and high fiving her doggy friends all the way home.
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