I live in Seville (and have done so for 40 years) and I own a second home on the coast of Huelva.

In all this time I have only ever personally known of two homes with squatters. Both were abandonded, bank owned properties, and in both cases the squatters were Spanish families. I know there are more homes around with squatters, but this is my own personal experience.

As for robberies, we've never been robbed but we have neighbors who have been. They were all properties without an alarm system. Get an alarm and you're good to go. The burglars target unprotected homes. They couldn't care less if the owner is Spanish or an expat.

The lady you spoke to is blatantly racist.

 

I live in a large town in Andalucia, we have a population of just over 80,000 in the municipality of which just over 2,000 were born in Morocco according to the latest figures available. For 14 years we had a house in a barrio considered to be marginal and during that time a number of houses in the area were squatted and there were sporadic waves of burglaries. At that time the squatters targetted empty houses (not second homes which the owners visited regularly), particularly those which had been repossessed by banks, and they were without exception Spanish of gitano ethnicity. Our house was broken into twice, in both cases we knew who was responsible but could not prove it and the thieves were of the same ethnicity. Spanish owned houses were also burgled, the thieves were opportunistic and struck either when occupants were away or even just out shopping, as was the case in our second burglary. It was obvious they were local people who watched comings and goings, and one of the things they stole on the second occasion was a wrought iron wine rack with 14 bottles of wine in it. Now considering our street was inaccessible to vehicles and was dug up for streetworks at the time, it was impossible for something like that to be carried far. We had also seen and heard certain people living nearby carting stuff back to their homes in the early hours of the morning, some wearing head torches. On one occasion the morning after we'd observed that, involving a load of acro props being pushed up the street on a wheelbarrow at 3am, it was reported that a public building nearby undergoing renovation was in danger of collapsing because thieves had stolen the supports. We did report that and one other instance to the police, but by the time they arrived there was no-one to be seen and other neighbours swore they'd not seen or heard anything. Incidences of squatting second homes increased during the pandemic when a lot of people could not fly in to visit their homes.

From what I have seen and experienced during my time here, what the woman you spoke to said has no basis in fact and appears to be racist. I would stress that we had plenty of gitano families for neighbours and most were nice people and very kind to us, it was only a small minority involved in crime.

 

kalohi, wherever I buy it'll be both an alarm plus a CCTV system in my peoperty. I first installed a CCTV system 20 years ago around my home in the UK, long before they had caught on.
Lynn, sorry to hear about your experience with your neighbours. That must be really upsetting!
I do find the Spanish can be racist, so there is no surprise there. But that is no different that the British, who are now hostile to anyone and everyone foreign. Farage looks to take the next election, based on a racist manifesto.
I will never meet the Spanish lady in question again. It was just a chance meeting and discussion.
I will take on board what both of you have said in my house search, so thank you for your input.

 

kalohi, wherever I buy it'll be both an alarm plus a CCTV system in my peoperty. I first installed a CCTV system 20 years ago around my home in the UK, long before they had caught on.
Lynn, sorry to hear about your experience with your neighbours. That must be really upsetting!
I do find the Spanish can be racist, so there is no surprise there. But that is no different that the British, who are now hostile to anyone and everyone foreign. Farage looks to take the next election, based on a racist manifesto.
I will never meet the Spanish lady in question again. It was just a chance meeting and discussion.
I will take on board what both of you have said in my house search, so thank you for your input.

What's racist about putting British people first in their own country?

 

Good luck with your search. We have lived in a different part of the same town for the last 8 years with not even a hint of a problem with security, and ironically there are a lot more people of North African origin living in this area than there were where we lived before! As far as I can see they are quiet people who just go about their daily lives without causing problems for anybody, and quite a lot have set up businesses here - including one bar where they are happy to serve alcohol.

 

I think this is in too much danger of becoming no more than a magnet for racist posts, so I'm closing it.

I know that specifically wasn't the intention, but that's where it's going anyway, sadly.