As Jacky says, really there is no such thing as poverty in UK, it exists but on a different level to what most would consider poverty.

A normal British couple buying a normal house in Spain ten years ago would have paid around 180,000 Euros for it. Four years later that same house had fallen to half its value and it is still currently valued at 50% of what was paid for it in 2004.

To finance the Spanish purchase in 2004, it was merely necessary to sell a normal semi detached in the UK.

Selling in Spain now for £75,000 would not purchase an average semi back in the UK,

It means that a lot of British expats are stuck in Spain, tens of thousands of them.

Having worked in various places around the world, including the east, I am not quite sure that people in the UK talking about poverty have a grasp of just how poor some people are.

But, I think you'll find pensioners late in life struggling to get by, in the UK and in Spain.

Ah, ok. So for me (and possibly the guy you referred to), I'm not getting a nasty surprise at all. It's all pretty much equal, based on the research I've done. Trouble is, you don't know what you don't know, which is why I worry when I see these sorts of things posted.

Deep breath. Relax.

You are doing things the right way and shouldn't get any nasty surprises when you move. The key to a successful move is research, research, research!

We spent over twenty years looking at areas to settle in here, we made sure that when the day comes that we both can no longer drive there would be easy access to all forms of transport. Our research paid off as we will be able to get a bus in our small hamlet to our nearest town, there we can get a train into Malaga and from there the world is your oyster.

We completely sold up in the UK and we bought our house here at the peak of the market, yes it has gone down in value (not as much as those on the coast), but to us it doesn't matter in the least as we have never viewed the house we live in as an investment.
We have no intention of ever going back so our house is quite simply only a part of the children's inheritance.

Our bills here don't come to anything like they did in the UK, even taking into account the fact that electricity and Internet access is more expensive. These costs are more than balanced out by the low service costs, an example being that we only pay five euros every two months for water, and we have a pool, the cost for removing our waste six days a week is just seventeen euros.
Of course if you were to live on the coast in an urbanisation it would be more, that's a lifestyle choice that wouldn't sit well with us as we like the open spaces.

We have a nice lifestyle here, we eat out several times a week which is something we wouldn't be doing in the UK.
We go on many trips that are run from the village near us, they are often nights away in a hotel and are very enjoyable...and it helps us with our Spanish.
We can live very comfortably on my husbands pensions, while mine are just there for the luxuries in life.... I doubt that would be the case if we were still in the UK.

Income tax is less in the Uk than Spain, unless you have a gold plated public sector pension. We are a few thousand better off than under the Spanish regime. It used to be vice versa. Then there is the question of assets and investments. I think everyone needs professional advice not from a forum.

Meg met....helps with your Spanish, I thought you would be fluent by now

I don't think it is a matter of which is cheapest when deciding where to live. It is where your heart is.

Even this guy had the sense to rent and he had 3 cars. A Hummer, a Ferrari and A Porsche

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti....html#comments

Agree, and as I said, if you have the money not to have to worry about costs, retirement in Spain can be great.
As for quality of life in Spain being 100 times better, that´s purely subjective, quality of life is best where you are happiest, wherever it may be in the world. There are many thousands of expats in Spain that would probably disagree that it´s a 100 times better.
As for not taking a chance and regretting it, of course there are thousands of unhappy expats, some imprisoned in illegal properties etc that are regretting ever taking that chance. They might have been better staying home thinking "what if?"

Megmet,

Sounds great, it seems like you have it all worked out.

I am about to buy and I am doing so with no expectations of making any capital gain. Like you, I'm buying it because it's the property I want in the place that I want it. I don't want to rent because I want to make the place mine. I will admit that a factor in the final choice was getting a place that ought to hold its value to some degree, i.e. with low possibility of major value depreciation. I do realise that it's buying in 2014 not 2008 that is helping with that.

It's warming to hear such a positive story amongst the pessimism.

My browser won't accept Daily Mail links. I spent a few minutes making sure of that :-)

What a very nice, heart warming post. It gives us all a bit of hope amongst all the doom and gloom normally told. Thanks for that.

Nice to see you are enjoying it, friends of ours enjoy it equally, but I fail to see why you couldn´t eat out several times a week and live comfortably on your pensions in UK. I´d guess we are off a similar age, we dine out at least a couple of times a week, have numerous holidays, had three short breaks already this year and make Spain about 3 times a year. We probably only spend at most half of our combined pensions a week but still live very comfortably, we want for nothing, as do our friends and neighbours. Interesting view though that you could only do it in Spain.

Bet you have a warm house too....and a proper telly

And I bet they don't need food banks!

You´re right about the house, toasty, whatever the weather! I think I could live without the TV quite easily, the computer, Photoshop, Lightroom, not a chance.
Talking of eating out, I asked my Spanish friend today about a restaurant she went to yesterday which I haven´t tried yet, could she recommend the food. Bearing in mind that all Spanish food is top quality and so much cheaper than the crap English food, she came back with this. Sorry for the Spanish, she won´t talk to me in English.