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The Cost Of Living In Spain

The Cost Of Living In Spain

Old Aug 25th 2013, 8:32 am
  #16  
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

Originally Posted by mikelincs
Petrol and diesel, cheaper, food.. about the same, or higher if you insist on brit foods all the time, VAT is higher, electricity, phone and internet and gas (rare to have mains gas in Spain), all higher, and your internet speed, unless you are very lucky, is likely to be much slower.

Do you need to work? very poor employment prospects, so you would almost certainly need private health care, if you are a pensioners, then you can gete Spanish NHS free, well almost as you will NOT get free prescriptions, you will have to pay part, you get the same healthcare as Spanish pensioners get.
food much cheaper in Spain.
restaurants too.
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Old Aug 25th 2013, 10:53 am
  #17  
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

Originally Posted by pete_l
Just received the annual IBI bill for my 130m² campo house + 2000m² of land. it's all perfectly legal and the bill was €85.
That's what I'm referring to-it's a joke;how can that derisory amount be justified.No wonder councils are short of money! There should be a basic amount that every property owner pays as all the services are available to them-fire, police,ambulance, roads, street lighting,street cleaning, libraries, health centres etc.Then their local amenity charges can be added to the basic amount.85 euros cannot possibly be a fair charge.
It's very nice for you to pay a low IBI, but how on earth did the powers that be come up with that amount?
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Old Aug 25th 2013, 11:39 am
  #18  
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

Originally Posted by Neptuno
That's what I'm referring to-it's a joke;how can that derisory amount be justified.No wonder councils are short of money! There should be a basic amount that every property owner pays as all the services are available to them-fire, police,ambulance, roads, street lighting,street cleaning, libraries, health centres etc.Then their local amenity charges can be added to the basic amount.85 euros cannot possibly be a fair charge.
It's very nice for you to pay a low IBI, but how on earth did the powers that be come up with that amount?
It's just the way things are financed in Spain.
In the UK C.T. pays for schools, the police, refuse collection, gold-plated pensions for council employees (not an amount to be underestimated, and rising all the time) and a load of other things. I am led to believe that these facilities are NOT funded by local councils from IBI. The Ayumtamiento does collect an extra amount for basura (and water). However, I would have to pay if I ever needed to use a health centre (and probably for an ambulance, too). As for libraries: never seen one and we don't have street lights or road cleaning. For the services I actually get from the Ayumtamiento, €85 seems a fair price.

Personally I'd resent having to pay for all those other things that other local councils in Spain finance, since I can't access them. Maybe the spanish councils should start doing what british ones did in the 1980s and send out leaflets with the annual demands, saying what the money is spent on.
(or maybe that would be the worst way they could shoot themselves in the foot? )
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Old Aug 25th 2013, 11:48 am
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

Surely the IBI DOES go towards the services I mentioned, services which must be available to you? Otherwise what on earth does it go on.Someone has posted they pay 450 -why the huge difference?
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Old Aug 25th 2013, 11:54 am
  #20  
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

Isn't it the case that councils get a large proportion of income from building developers' fees? Builders can't just build anywhere, they have to pay the council to categorise the land as an urbanisation... Fine in normal times, but with the property crash obviously there were no new builds, so councils got heavily into debt...
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Old Aug 25th 2013, 12:10 pm
  #21  
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

Originally Posted by pwwm
We think it is cheaper here, our IBI or rates for example are less tan a quarter of in UK, our wáter is about 40€ a quarter and this includes running a pool. road tax much cheaper, but this is dtermined at your local Ayuntamiento, here our Discovery is 121€ a year, but have heard more elsewhere and less only 10kms away.

We do not need heating in Winter we get by with a Wood burner, but we are in a micro climate in our valley and rarely go as low as 10º in Winter at night, most of Spain gets very cold, yes as others have said internet is much more expensive, electric is more expensive, we have the butano bottles as d most people for our gas, we find they last quite while and half the UK Price.

Our rubbish collection and yes you pay for this, is 35€ a quarter, but the rubbish is taken every day.

As you see different parts of Spain the cost will change due to wether you need central heating for exampe (we obviously do not)

Spares for cars are dearer here but hourly rate for us at our local garaje is 26€ think Citroën are about 49€.

I think food shopping is slightly less than UK, we do not use UK stores, apart from closest is an hour away, live in Spain use their products. But we have friends that do use them.

Fuel at Al Campo in Motril for diesal is currently 127.4€ but locally 142.7€ we dont use him!

If you have pets veterinary prices are less.

Hope it goes well for you
In Javea you say Vet's fees are less here - sorry not so at least here and do not compare with France. Vet's here tend to be one or two or three man bands. In France they tend to have Vet hospitals and the costs are lower than Spain
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Old Aug 25th 2013, 12:17 pm
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

The way I understand it, IBI has little to do with the value of the property, but more to do with history of ownership and family. We pay far more than the previous owner, I've been told mainly because the previous owner inherited it from a long line of family dating back centuries, which never required reassessment of IBI. They paid nearly nothing.
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Old Aug 25th 2013, 12:50 pm
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

Originally Posted by amideislas
The way I understand it, IBI has little to do with the value of the property, but more to do with history of ownership and family. We pay far more than the previous owner, I've been told mainly because the previous owner inherited it from a long line of family dating back centuries, which never required reassessment of IBI. They paid nearly nothing.
Nonsense. IBI is based on the catastral value of the property which is required to be revised at least every 10 years. The revisions are carried out area by area on a rolling programme, by Catastro staff and not by local Ayuntamientos. Large variations between different areas arise when values have been recently revised in one area and not in another.

http://www.surveyspain.com/blog/the-...anish-property

My IBI bills (€573 for a 3 bed town house with no land - except I get a €243 discount on that) are now far higher than what the previous owners paid, too - that's because our last catastral revision happened in 2008.

More info here:-

http://www.onthepulse.es/content/ibi...lities-much-10

Last edited by Lynn R; Aug 25th 2013 at 1:01 pm.
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Old Aug 25th 2013, 5:49 pm
  #24  
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

Originally Posted by Porth
In Javea you say Vet's fees are less here - sorry not so at least here and do not compare with France. Vet's here tend to be one or two or three man bands. In France they tend to have Vet hospitals and the costs are lower than Spain
Our vet in Spain is much cheaper than our UK vet.From time to time our dog manages to eat things she should not and in the UK she had to have an x ray and examination to check what was inside her and it cost us £120. Exactly the same thing in Spain cost us 40euros! However I do think vets bills in the UK can be a joke!
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Old Aug 25th 2013, 5:57 pm
  #25  
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

If anyone wants to know EXACTLY how the catastral value of properties is calculated (and can read Spanish), I remembered seeing a link to the official Catastro document setting out the exact methodology a while back, and after much furrowing of brow have been able to find it again:-


http://www.catastro.meh.es/ponencias/metodologia.pdf

I wish all you brave souls who embark on the journey to decipher it the best of luck - it did clear up one reason as to why the IBI bill for my house always seemed to be higher than similar sized ones nearby in that the value increases slightly for each "fachada" onto the street that the property has, and I have three!
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Old Aug 28th 2013, 11:58 am
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

Originally Posted by Lynn R
If anyone wants to know EXACTLY how the catastral value of properties is calculated (and can read Spanish), I remembered seeing a link to the official Catastro document setting out the exact methodology a while back, and after much furrowing of brow have been able to find it again:-


http://www.catastro.meh.es/ponencias/metodologia.pdf

I wish all you brave souls who embark on the journey to decipher it the best of luck - it did clear up one reason as to why the IBI bill for my house always seemed to be higher than similar sized ones nearby in that the value increases slightly for each "fachada" onto the street that the property has, and I have three!


On that last point,...... and I haven't yet looked at your link!! ..... what happens if there's no street for the property to have a fachada onto? !!
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Old Aug 28th 2013, 12:01 pm
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

Originally Posted by fionamw
On that last point,...... and I haven't yet looked at your link!! ..... what happens if there's no street for the property to have a fachada onto? !!
No alternative but to read the document, I'm afraid (abandon hope all ye who enter here) - I couldn't even begin to try to explain it!
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Old Aug 28th 2013, 5:52 pm
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

Originally Posted by chocaholic22
Our vet in Spain is much cheaper than our UK vet.From time to time our dog manages to eat things she should not and in the UK she had to have an x ray and examination to check what was inside her and it cost us £120. Exactly the same thing in Spain cost us 40euros! However I do think vets bills in the UK can be a joke!
I'm sure your UK vet earns a lot more than your Spanish one, so you'd expect to pay more. We have had several Spanish vets here locally in UK, I guess they were only here for the money. Talking about charges being a joke, just reading today in the Spanish press that from Sept, charges in Madrid for children starting at public schools will range from €80 a month for low earners, and for those earning over 21K (quite a low wage) €260 a month! Plus €60 for food. €80 a week!
http://www.abc.es/familia-educacion/...308281133.html
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Old Aug 28th 2013, 5:53 pm
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

Originally Posted by Scribble
food much cheaper in Spain.
restaurants too.
Yes, you can eat like a king with a €3 MDD.
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Old Aug 28th 2013, 6:00 pm
  #30  
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Default Re: The Cost Of Living In Spain

Yeah, right!
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