Housing

I am not sure whether it’s a general British idea or just mine but, I always had an idea of what houses in Spain were like. To be honest it wasn’t anything hugely specific, possibly a courtyard, usually a pool, obviously a terrace, but always houses of one type or another.

It seems however that I was mistaken; here they all live in flats. What’s more, they’re small flats. Many do have pools and communal gardens. Most are new and have lifts, underground parking and aircon. Very few in Madrid have terraces.

On first moving here I just took it for granted, I had somewhere nice to live and there was so much to adapt to that I didn’t have room in my head to consider the things that might be harder to adapt to in the long term.

I have always lived in a house, not a big house, but a house with two storeys and a small bit of garden. It’s not flash but it’s what I’m used to.

One thing I can definitely say is that I have not adapted to this flat-living thing, and I am not likely too. It’s not the size of the flat that I have a problem with, it’s more than big enough for me to deal with. No, what I hate is the sensation of us all being stacked up on top of one-another, like a house of cards; one puff and we all fall down.

On a practical (and probably slightly less fanciful) note, living in a flat is annoying simply because your happiness and comfort can depend so much on the thoughtfulness (or lack thereof) of your neighbours. For example, our current neighbours are pretty good but everyone has their moments: this morning we were woken up when the couple upstairs started having a blazing row and apparently organising a cavalry charge (feet stomping etc) – we know exactly why they were fighting, we could hear every word of it.

I also don’t like the idea that my home depends on my neighbour’s state of mind at any given moment; what if they accidentally leave the water running or the iron on? Will their moment of forgetfulness result in me losing a lifetime of memories; irreplaceable knick-knacks that seem like crap to everyone else but are priceless to me?

There is no private outdoor space: Nowhere to grow anything, nowhere to create a private world with a little bit of air and a patch of earth.

The communal pool is gorgeous, it’s enticing, and it’s costs us a fortune every month (even though it’s only open in the summer).

I have also never used it.

Think of all of those American high school dramas / series / films that you have ever seen, picture the, so-called “popular” set – well that is the way the communal poolside is ordered in our “Community of Neighbours”. The pool is mainly the preserve of the “President of the Community”, his wife, their children, the deputy President and assorted hangers-on. Everyone stare avidly at everyone else, and they all gossip.

So this is my main issue with flat-living: There are no secrets in a block of flats; no private rows with partners or children, no raising or lowering of shutters, staying out all night or even trip to the bathroom that goes unnoticed by someone in The Cell Block,

The most problematic thing about this situation is that there are no real alternatives.

In Madrid the cost of an actual house, rather than a flat, is usually somewhere near the 1€ million, that is a detached house with a garden. If you want a tiny (smaller than my flat) terraced house with a 2m squared patio then you can get that for about 400,000€. The latter option doesn’t solve the problem of being constantly overlooked. In other words, it’s seriously out of my price-range to stay in Madrid and get away from the curtain-twitchers and gossips.

So, move out of the city? I used to commute to London, a journey of at least an hour, and had no problem with it, but, I am not sure that I want to extend my commute here too much given that the roads in the city are generally in a state akin to a car-park and, when you are moving, there is always someone around who seems quite intent on killing you.

Public transport? I really would actually prefer this option to driving any day but, the Metro here (which I love as it is air-conditioned, cheap, safe and clean) is not as extensive or as fast as the Underground. Madrid has been growing so fast that the network barely reaches the outskirts of the city (where I already live) let alone beyond where there might be an affordable house. And guess what? The towns that have a train station with a direct connection to Atocha or Chamartin have houses that share their price-tags with Madrid’s.

In short, for me, housing here is a real problem.