Originally Posted by mikelincs (Post 10866708)

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.

Originally Posted by pete_l (Post 10867500)

Just received the annual IBI bill for my 130m² campo house + 2000m² of land. it's all perfectly legal and the bill was €85.

Originally Posted by Neptuno (Post 10868273)

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?

Originally Posted by pwwm (Post 10866838)

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 :thumbup:

Originally Posted by amideislas (Post 10868373)

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.

Originally Posted by Porth (Post 10868363)

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

Originally Posted by Lynn R (Post 10868757)

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!

Originally Posted by fionamw (Post 10873948)

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? !!

Originally Posted by chocaholic22 (Post 10868747)

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!:blink:

Originally Posted by Scribble (Post 10868018)

food much cheaper in Spain.
restaurants too.