New on the forum!

[spinkoo]

Hi!

I just found this forum and from what I can tell its quite busy! Just wanted to say hello and wish happy holidays! I'm a Swede, with a german girlfreind and we are thinking about making a move somewhere and as far as we know Gran Canaria should be a nice place. Thought I ask you guys if anybody knows, what the premiss on buying propery, starting buisnisses and living there could be like. A big concern is, that the island is just a place for drunk teens like a lot of charter destinations, or if it is a place where two people actually can start a life. We have lived not in Sweden nor Germany but in California the last couple of years and enyoy the surfing/warm, wearing flipflops-lifestyle and this is why we want to make a move. How are your experiences here?

I am planning of buying a restaurant, and have a budget for about 100k Euro. What do you guys think I'll be getting and how heavy is the taxes gonna be for me? 25% on my gross income, with rent and all expences deducteble? Or am I dreaming? =)

Ill stop now before this gets too long, greetings from both of us to you all and hopefully we'll see you on Gran Canaria :have-fun:

[vecino]

Well, you're right. Gran Canaria is a nice place, and from my own limited experience and the opinions of others I know who have moved here from there, it enjoys rather better weather than California.
As to what it's like, it's all of the things you mention. There is a great life here. If you want the surfer lifestyle, there are few better places to live in the world than somewhere like Pozo Izquierdo (winsdsurfing heaven), if you want European sophisticated big-city life (around 400K inhabitants) but in a laid-back style, choose Las Palmas. If you want to live in a place with a big Scandinavian population, choose somewhere like Arguineguin. Plus there are mountain villages, modern towns with everything you'd expect in terms of facilities, shops and services. There are charter planeloads of drunken teens, but you can easily avoid them.
That's the easy bit. This is a highly competitive place when it comes to restaurants and bars, and far too many people arrive here dreaming of opening a bar or eatery only to lose the lot in a few months. You probably need to live and work here for a good six months before making any decisions about what or where to buy. Choose the wrong site in an area that's on its way down and you're throwing money away. And for your budget, you'll probably not be looking at prime real estate. This isn't a cheap place.
As far as tax goes, there's only 5% VAT(sales) tax, and your 25% level isn't far off the mark. But you need to take some further advice about the financial side of running a business here (which is easy to get).
Having said that, there are big Scandinavian and German populations here, both as tourists and residents. So between you, you already know quite a lot about some target markets and will find networking quite easy; restaurants and bars targeted at the Scandinavian community often seem to do quite well. You can get away without much Spanish in the south, but if you're planning to run a business, Spanish language skills are a very big help.
There's lots of useful practical information on this site to browse through, and on others like http://www.grancanarianow.com and I'm sure others will join the conversation.

[spinkoo]

Thank you very much for the replay! Very helpful!

As I cant wait to get down there and roll up my sleeves to start working, I totally understand your point of view when it comes to live/work on the island for some months ahead of buying property. In California I already started up two totally seperated buisnisses one of witch was catering/private chef. Not so much a huge companie, just me working for myself. I also run a very succesful massage-buissnies, once again just working for myself. The big concern is if I am back to very zero and have to run on the beach promoting bars and such. I really really want something more "real" that can pay the rent!

Do you live on the island yourself Vencino or just a favorite holidayplace?

Thanks again!

[vecino]

I live in GC .




Do you live on the island yourself Vencino or just a favorite holidayplace?

Thanks again!