-
Definately getting Australian Citizenship as a first step, I want to get all the paperwork required for the Spanish visa application ready to go once we have Oz Citizenship to reduce the time involved to get the Spanish approval.

-
Not an option unfortunately

-
We want to retire / settle on Menorca and then fly back to the UK a few times a year and stay at my brothers place or with our son for a few weeks at a time, might even look at buying a small one or two bed place in West Sussex near our son to stay in.

I'm just trying to see whether there's a way for you to spend just under 6 months in total in Spain during a calendar year and set up residency elsewhere. Ireland/UK are the easiest based on your passport, but you could possibly also look at places like Gibraltar if there are any financial benefits to setting up base there.

For Spanish healthcare you need to get something fully-comprehensive. They call it "sin copagos" which translates into "without co-payments," so no excess. If you mention that you need the full coverage for residency purposes (and throw in the words "sin copagos") then they'll know what to do.

Providers can vary and opinions can vary even more! The main ones at least where I'm at are Sanitas (BUPA), Adeslas (owned by one of the biggest banks and hence one of the biggest), DKV, Mapfre, possibly a few others. All the expats I know are with one of these unless they have moved onto regular/public coverage.

_
We are UK citizens but don't want to settle back in the UK. As i mentioned in my original post, my brother has purchased a property on Menorca so we would rather be local.

Thanks for the advice on health care

I understand and respect that completely. If you will be moving permanently to Menorca then apart from immigration/visa matters make sure you get your finances in order and know what you are getting yourselves into BEFORE making the move, because it will be a lot more complicated than the generally logical and easy to understand Australian system.

If your brother has been there for some time then he will surely be able to advise but do plan this ahead before making the leap.

P.S. I'm curious how you'll find the climate in Menorca. Having moved from the Gold Coast myself I generally saw the Canary Islands as my first choice weather-wise, and it's almost a perfect match: almost exactly the same daily high temperatures in summer, and +2C degrees in winters (bonus!).

You should look at the tax situation. It seems AU and ES does have a double tax treaty in place. If I understand the UK situation for property rental correctly (someone can correct me otherwise) the income is taxed in the UK and also declared in ES, but you’re not taxed twice. However the income can mean any tax payable in Spain maybe higher as the income pushes you higher up the tax rate bands.

Selling the house in five to ten years may have CGT implications (perhaps anywhere not just Spain) - look at this carefully to understand the position and take proper advice.

OK, so after some long chats this week we have some further questions if you guru's don't mind.

What would the best visa be if we potentially looked to either work or set up our own renovations / decorating business ? - I understand this could be impacted by that new law for non residents purchasing and selling properties until we become permanent residents ?
Would the Spanish government favour a weekly income from our investment property in Australia or prefer to see that lump some used to purchase a property outright on Menorca ?

Sorry to be a pain

Thanks

No personal experience so this is all anecdotal read from other sources. I assume you’d need a self-employment visa. This isn’t just a box ticking exercise and requires a comprehensive business plan to be created and submitted as part of the initial application. I understand they’re looking for past experience, the level of investment in the business, if any jobs created and how much revenue it will generate.

Then you’ll have tax, VAT and social security contributions to consider. People I know who are self employed (autonómo) pay at least €300 per month every month for social whether you have work or not - I think it is less for first couple of years. Neighbour who is an electrician and here pre Brexit has struggled for work and spent large part of last year back in UK contracting. He’s getting work now but it took him time to get the bigger projects than fitting a new socket.



If successful unsure whether you need to maintain that visa for five years until permanent residency is achieved.



Sorry more questions than answers!

Here you go the requirements for a self employed visa.
This is from the Spanish consulate in the Uk but the details will be the same.

https://www.exteriores.gob.es/Consul...ta-propia.aspx

You will of course be enrolled in the state healthcare system but you will pay more than you would if you had a private health but you would also be paying pension contributions you wont actually be able to receive.

Hi all,

Circling back to this after some time, apologies.

I read also read that on an NLV 'passive income' is acceptable, does anyone know if rental income from a holiday investment property would be deemed as 'passive income' or would there be a need for a business plan ??

Many Thanks

Is there any existing revenue stream that you can provide evidence of as that is likely to be required?
What location is the property? If local to you then it won’t be possible to manage cleaning, servicing, check-in, bookings etc as that would be working.
Tourist licences rules are also changing across Spain e.g. IIRC in Valencia Community they’re restricting holiday rentals to a maximum of ten nights, and also buying a property with an existing licence doesn’t transfer to the new owner etc.

As in continuous nights for a single booking? Not some kind of overall limit per month or anything like that I take it.

Seems like these changes are always just for show, to pretend that something is being done without actually wanting to change anything.

Sorry for the OT but this is kind of like the UK trying to do anything about gambling or drinking issues. It's either wasting time & effort on pretending to do something or - what's even worse - using it as an excuse to raise duties and levies ("if booze is prohibitively expensive then people will be able to afford less of it").

Less than or equal to 10 consecutive days to the same tenant, and as you’re supposed to register guests you apparently can’t do 7 nights as one person, 7 nights as another (e.g. as a couple).

https://www.turismecv.com/2024/09/03...as-turisticas/

As you say is it for show and how is it enforced.

Yes it’s difficult to enforce, but they cover that by having enormous fines if you get caught. The new law in Andalucia comes in this week and the maximum fine is €600000. They did the same trick when the Form 720 asset declaration was introduced. The fine for non declaration was 150% of the value of the assets. Panic ensued and everyone declared their assets or left the country!

The only difference between most of the Canary Islands is that they are not as “lush/green” as Queensland nor are they as humid with much less rain as Queensland, Menorca is my fav Spanish island it has history, not as busy as the other Balearic Islands and is also lovely and green.

Menorca is cold in winters though, whereas the Canary Islands are warm all year round. Climate-wise I don't think there is a better place anywhere in the world, with the Gold Coast coming a close second.

In general the lack of greenery is only associated with the southern side of islands like Tenerife or Gran Canaria, whereas the north is completely different. Something for everyone...

A huge plus is that residents of the Canaries benefit from cheaper travel as all domestic flights to/from the mainland (and the Balearic Islands) provide residents with a 75% rebate. So a weekend in Madrid or Barcelona is veeeeery cheap, at least when it comes to travel costs.