Hi everyone,
I will be taking a sabbatical from work next year and would love to find a nice place for my family in Barcelona. I am willing to move to an appartment at anywehere from $2,500 to $4,500 Euros. I am also interested in studying graduate level business courses, art, and something new. My wife and child (he will be 4 in February)will be with me. I need for my son to attend pre-school at a good private school in the city.
My wife is from Mexico as well as myself. She has Spanish citizenship, though she has never lived in Spain, and I have US citizenship. We currently live on the US-Mexico border.
Anyone have any recommendations? I will likely visit next February for a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, I need some advice as far as contacts is concerned.
Thank you,
Gustavo
40, married, one child and having a sabbatical in Barcelona in mid '09
Welcome Gustavo,
you'll easily find a flat with this budget. As your wife has spanish citizenship, it will for sure make things easier. Have you already contacted the spanish embassy?
Barcelona is a great city I am sure you will like it!
Julien
Gustavo
I'm British and my girlfriend here is originally from the US.We have lived in Barcelona for more than 7 years.
You might look at these American schools for your son:
[url=http://www.bfischool.org/url]http://www.a-s-b.com/
The French school here is one of the best:
http://www.lfb.es/
I imagine though that your child might be best off at a local school such as these:
http://www.escolanausica.org/
http://www.colegiodecroly.com/
Two American friends we have here send their kids to the first of these local schools, which is an escuela concertada ie a private-public mix. They are happy with it.
As Julien says, you will easily find rental flats in Barcelona at the price you suggest. A good website to start with is this:
http://www.idealista.com/pagina/buscar? … nmueble=V#
There are some good business schools here too:
http://www.esade.es/
http://www.eserp.com/
http://www.bbs-edu.org/
Arts options here are endless.
If and when you do move to Barcelona, I would like to ask you a favour. I wish to bring a chair, which would be new and still in its original packing, from the US to Barcelona, but shipping it on its own is inordinately expensive. Shipping it as part of a load that someone else is sending over might work for me. There is no immediate hurry for me to do this, but it would be helpful if you would let me know the status of your move here and when you think it might happen.
Meanwhile I am happy to give you more tips on Barcelona as you require.
Nick
Gustavo wrote:Hi everyone,
I will be taking a sabbatical from work next year and would love to find a nice place for my family in Barcelona. I am willing to move to an appartment at anywehere from $2,500 to $4,500 Euros.
Thank you,
Gustavo
It will be very difficult to find good housing depending on the size of housing you are looking for. Being in america you will probably want to find spacious rooms and are used to it. Your maximum budget should give you better availability for somewhat decent space. Don't forget that you will need almost one year equivalent of rent as a deposit. It gets expensive! If you're employed in Spain and can verify monthly income they sometimes accept 3-6 months deposit.
Look in idealista.com. It's the most popular website for housing search in the area. You will also get an idea about the prices. The square meter in the ad may differ from actual size and be much less in reality, so you may wish to keep this in mind.
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