For many it will be an all-too-familiar tale: the search for the dream home in the Spanish sun. Sally Watkin details her own trials and tribulations.

Sally Watkin's very own place in the sun

We all know someone who's done it (or we've seen them on TV so often we feel we know them): sold up in the UK, bought a farmhouse in Spain with land, olive trees and stunning views for a song and lived happily ever after.

Forgive me for jumping on the bandwagon, but after working in the UK media for 20 years, I wanted a piece of that action.

It pays to take things one step at a time when you're looking for your dream home in Andalucia.

In the campo (countryside) south of Granada, where I'm currently renting a village house with my partner and two young children, it's not easy to find a bargain.

The canny locals have watched prices rise as the guiris (foreigners) move in, smelt the used euros and now all that remains is for them to dance all the way to the bank. And who can blame them?

The first likely contender we came across was packed with potential. And not much else, but what can you expect for GBP 25,000? With terraces scarcely wide enough for a sun lounger, drops precipitous enough to instil fear into any parent and a barely habitable house, it was love at first sight.

The trailing jasmine and mountain views more than made up for the lack of a loo. We decided to go for it.

It pays to take things one step at a time when looking for your dream home

Unfortunately, we hadn't bargained for tanteo y retracto. This ancient Spanish law means you can invest a small fortune in lawyers' fees and land searches, but – even after the contract is signed – your neighbour-to-be is within his rights to gazump you. And it's all completely legal.

The law only applies if the adjoining land is smaller than the plot already owned by the other party. In theory, all he has to do is match the price you agreed to pay, and hand over the cash within a few days of you signing the contract.

Luckily, we managed to avoid splashing out huge amounts on legal fees, but only because we decided to pay the owner of the adjoining property a courtesy call first.

Big mistake. Or not, depending on your point of view. Over beer and tapas, he made it only too clear that he intended to buy the land himself, and wouldn't look kindly on anyone who stood in his way.

Our fantasy of our offspring playing with his three youngsters evaporated faster than you can say salud, and we left, feeling forlorn. So it was goodbye to the small farm with the scary edges.

The next place we found was on the market for more than four times the price we'd originally planned to pay.

It called to us in the way that only half a million pounds' worth of mature Spanish farmhouse can.

With turrets, a terrace to die for, original features aplenty, and more land than we could have handled either side of retirement, it was everything we'd longed for.

It was also in a pretty dire state, which, given the price, was a worry. Undeterred, we offered half the asking price.

There's just enough space for a swimming pool and veggie patch

No joy. So we hired a bilingual lawyer to speak for us. That failed when we discovered he was in cahoots with the (only) local estate agent, so we parted company.

Over the next three months, on the owner's instigation, we had several meetings with him, which ended in stalemate.

For the money on the table, he offered us the house, an animal shed and a piece of steep, rocky and un-irrigated – ie useless (unless you're a goat) land.

He was planning to hang onto the remaining acres of beautiful, grassy meadows until one day in the future when they became 'urbanisable', and as such, ripe for development.

Doubtless then, the stunning mountain views would have been wrecked by houses or, perish the thought, pisos (flats).

So that was that. Time to lower our sights. And I'm delighted to say that in two weeks' time, we'll be taking possession of our very own place in the sun.

It's not likely to fall through as we've handed over the deposit, so unless the vendor gets a much better offer within the next fortnight (if he pulls out, he has to return us double our deposit), the deed is done.

There are fruit and nut trees, enough space for a swimming pool and veggie patch, and a tiny white house. And all for less than the price of a garage in central London.

August 2004

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Subject: Finding your dream house in Spain; Life in Spain