I lived for a year in a 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom penthouse in the most upscale neighborhood of Barcelona (Sarriá-Sant Gervasi) And boy were those walls thin. I sometimes pitied our neighbors, to be honest. Much much thinner than we are used to in Belgium and The Netherlands, were i lived most of my life.
Thanks Chuck, looking at house and apartments in Madrid suburbs and this info could be useful - although not that much as it unlikely we go for better than semi detached house or penthouse if we stick to La Moraleja. But afraid of the noise, especially of people banging the floors above. Fwiw talking about posh neighborhood, just going to the next suburb, which is far from a shithole, for the price of a semi detached house (slightly under 2million Eur) in La Moraleja one gets large detached houses with huge gardens, I would rather rent but not sure how keen are landlords there to let to someone whose only income if from capital and has no fiscal history in Spain.
By any chance, have you figured out in Spain how to deal with dividends from countries like HK and Singapore. Reading the tax treaties it seems they should be taxed at 5% in Spain, but looking up Spanish language investment forums, people there think all dividends should be taxed the same way from the spanish side, added together and taxed at 22% if over 50k euros for the year. No one seems to have direct experience though. Reading other news bit on internet, the answer is not clear, even in Spanish. Quite sure withholding tax wise it is better to buy spanish listed stocks than US or other european stocks, but not clear with countries outside those. IB is a disaster commission wise to deal in Spanish stocks, will probably have to move part of the account, possibly to Degiro. A bit disturbing as it seems our stay there will end up more costly than I had anticipated tax wise.
I will ask a tax advisor, but decided to see one in Spain, before registering as a resident there, rather than in Hk where it is more of a hassle, but would apreciate all related info beforehand.