Hi everyone,
After accepting a job offer with an engineering company in Madrid, my girlfriend and I are moving to the city in early 2008, likely in February or March. I’ve been there a few times but have not spent any extensive period of time living there so I was hoping to get some help or suggestions on the following:

1) Which area is the most lively to live in? My girlfriend and I are looking to live in a more trendy area with lots of restaurants, bars and cool places to go to. We loved the Le Marais neighbourhood in Paris so something similar to that would be wonderful. I heard that Cuenca is the gay distict so we were thinking of checking it out. Any thoughts?

2) Does anyone have any recommendations on gyms to join or classes to take such as pilates, boxing etc.? I’m asking more for my girlfriend as shes a little worried she won’t have anything to do as she can’t speak spanish just yet

Thanks in advance for your help!

Saludo,
Errol.

Hi Errol,

Welcome to the forum. I also live in Madrid. The gay ares is actually called Chueca and yes it is very lively with shops, bars and restaurants with rental prices more reasonable than the Salamanca area. If you want to browse for accommodation take a look at http://www.fotocasa.com and www.idealista.com

There are loads of gyms to choose from, your girlfriend will have no problem finding one and she will start to pick up the language very quickly if she participates in these sorts of local activities. If you’re interest in Kung-Fu I go to a great school that has a great master in the centre of Madrid. If you have some addresses of places to live and you want to do a sanity check of whether it’s a good area give me a shout, I’ve been here 2.5 years and own a flat in Chueca and did a lot of research before deciding to buy there.

I also came here with my husband who already had a job lined up but i found work within 3 months that doesn’t require the Spanish language, so if you’re girlfriend want to work she’ll probably find something…

Let me know if i can help in any way…

regards
Ranpal

Hello Ranpal,
Thanks for much for the advice and suggestions. It definitely would be nice to meet up for drinks when we’re in town if you and your husband are interested. Kelly and I are always keen to meet new friends. In any case, I’ll keep you updated as to what’s happening with our plans.

In the meantime, I’ll look into those websites you suggested.

Sure, would be great to meet up for drinks. Happy to help in any way I can…

By the way, I also just wanted to add that we found it very useful that my husband’s company paid for a relocation services company to help us to find a place to live and getting registered into the Spanish system both with the local town hall as well with the police and helping to get us our NIE (Numero identificacion de extranjero) - foreigners numbers, which you need if you are going to work here. In Madrid the queues at the police station where you have to go to get this done are very very long and confusing so it’s great to have the relocation service to not only to stand in the queue for you (you just meet them at a set time when they know they will almost be at the head of the queue) but also to navigate once you get in there. It’s hard to describe just how crazy it is but you will no doubt find out - they will also make sure you have everything you need first time round (photos, money etc). We worked with a company called Solutions http://www.solucionmad.com/ not sure if you can get your company to pay for this for you both or if you already have something worked out…

Unfortunately, I don’t think the company will shell out cash for this. Just curious, how much did this company charge and what else did they do for you?

hi Ranpal,
Sorry, just had another question pop to mind. If for example we decide to buy a place instead of renting, is it easy for foreigners to get a mortgage? We’re likely to be able to put a significant amunt for the downpayment but I’m in the dark as to our chances of getting financing for the remainder given we have no credit history in Spain.

Thanks again for you kind assistance!

Errol.

We don’t know how much was paid for the service since it was provided as part of our moving package by my husbands company.
1. Lined up rental places for us to see and took us to see them and translated for us - in the end we found a place ourselves though.
2. got us registered with the local town hall (empadronamiento) - this is the first step and everything depended on us have this piece of paper to show we had an address.
2. Gave us the forms need to apply for an NIE and for a residence card (card no longer needed but you still need to get a certificate for which you need photos and money)
3. Queued up for us at the police station at some ridiculous time in the morning and told us when to be there since they have an idea of how fast the queue moves so that we didn’t have to wait, once inside the police station somehow got us to the right desk so that we could hand in the application forms, money, photos copies of everything about my whole life!. The NIE then came in the post.
4. Once i received notification that my residence card was ready for collection i met them at the police station, they got me in to the right desk and helped me get my card.

Now since the residence card is no longer needed things may have changed and perhaps this is all easier but i’m not too sure, at the end of the day nothing is impossible - it’s just challenging…

About buying a place, we bought a place pretty much immediately but still had to rent for 6 months, you need your NIE if you want to buy the place as a resident which is best for when you come to sell it (less tax to pay), and since the NIE (at least 2.5 years ago) was not issued immediately means it’s best to rent short term and get your self sorted out. We rented a furnished place and left out stuff in storage for a few months until we had the house bought. We have our mortgage with Barclays and if you have 20% or more to put down then you might be ok, sometimes you need to show payslips but perhaps if you can show a job contract and at least one payslip from here you might be ok.  Perhaps if your current bank have branches in Spain that might help you.

No problem with the questions at all…

I have a document that explains some things about the residence certificate, it’s too big for me to upload but i can send it to you, PM me your email address, i’ve sent it to others on the forum and they also found it very informative.

I really recomend that you get the NIE a the spanish embassy near you.
I also came over for my jo together with my girlfriend and the queus are REALLY long. fortunately, we asked this document at the spanish embassy in Belgium and we just had to wait 2 months.
I live about 15km outside Madrid and we love it here!

Wow, 2 months is long considering it takes 2 weeks here. Just out of interest don’t they require a spanish address for the application form for the NIE.

We actually live about 50km outside of the centre of Madrid (because we wanted to live in a detached house and had to keep going further and further away from Madrid until we found something affordable) and also have a small apartment in the centre (like real Madrilenos) which we let out short term only, i drive into the centre for work everyday.

We also love it here and don’t regret moving here one bit.

Hi RG, no they do not need a spanish address in order to ask for the NIE.

Where do you live? I live in Las Rozas.
Cheers

Hi wendone,

All my friends live in Las Rozas - a bit busy for my liking, hence we live in an urbanization in Valdemorillo in the peaceful ‘countryside’...

Ranpal

So Mandrage,

Are you already in MAdrid?:-)

cheers

ha in Madrid on the 7 -11 feb if any one from the forum whats to meet up foir few drinks
jurdy

Hi Wendone,
My girlfriend and I are arriving this weekend Feb 2 to look for apartments and finalize as much as possible (i.e. applying for bank account, sign lease for apartment, hook up internet, etc.). Thereafter, I’m hoping to make the actual move by end of February or beginning of March.

RG has been kind enough to offer her advice and assistance on a whole lot of things so hopefully we’ll be meeting up for drinks. We’re always open to meeting new friends so if you’re in Madrid too, please drop me a line and we can arrange to meet.

Cheers,
Errol.

Excellent…where do you think you will move to?(which part of Madrid)
I am also in Madrid wth my GF..so let me know and we will meet for a drink/dinner