Joy and Spencer Rennie decided to move abroad when their search for a business in the UK proved fruitless.
ldquo;We tried to buy a couple of B&Bs back home but we encountered lots of problems,” recalls 50-year-old Spencer. “With one of the purchases they accepted our offer, but then someone else came along with cash and they didn’t give us a chance to come back to them.
The business we ended up buying was the only one we went to view
Spencer Rennie
"When that fell through the vendors came back and offered it to us again. The same thing happened and it fell through a second time. That was when we decided to look abroad.”
Redundancy
Spencer, who was a computer services manager, and his wife, a 44-year-old teacher, had been contemplating a change of lifestyle for a while, and had already thought of buying a B&B. Then Spencer was made redundant, and that pushed the couple on to make their dream a reality.
They found the internet ideal not just for finding businesses, but also to appraise them before viewing. “I think you can get a good idea of how B&Bs look from pictures on the web,” says Spencer. “You can also look for feedback from guests on other websites.”
Though prospective buyers should remember that finding the right business doesn’t always happen quickly, the Rennies struck gold immediately in their search abroad.
“The business we ended up buying was the only one we went to view. What clinched it was that this business was unique; others were a bit out of our reach and much more expensive.
“We compared it to other places we’d been looking at on the internet to make sure we weren’t paying too much.” They eventually paid £190k for the leasehold.
The couple are now the proud proprietors of a 10-room country hotel, which they found through an English business broker who was selling businesses in Mallorca. They have an ‘Agrotourismo licence’, which means they have to cultivate some of the agricultural land in the 33,000m2 estate.
And because the hotel is a 17th century farmhouse, there are building constraints. “There are rules about what additional building you can do. The ratio of buildings to land must be maintained.
“The way things are for us, we can’t build any more — but we’re happy with the way things are.”
Perfect retreat
The Finca (Spanish country house) is located in beautiful countryside in the south-east of Mallorca, surrounded by vineyards, fruit orchards and mountains with glorious views. It’s the perfect retreat.
“It’s very quiet and peaceful here,” says Spencer. “We are 1km from the road and 35 minutes from the airport.
“There’s currently a lot of motorway building going on, which makes it very quick to get around the island.”
Spencer admits that they hadn’t done much research before taking the plunge and moving abroad. “To be honest, we knew a lot more about the UK market — the way the businesses work, quiet and busy times, and so on.
“The season is longer in Spain and it’s been very different and a lot harder for us than we thought it would be.”
