hf2

I have just bought a 3 bed country property inland Alicante for €165,000 it was valued by the bank at €226,000, It sits on 15000m2 land.
I have just sold my 3 bed semi in the UK for £210,000.
That makes my house in Spain about have price of my UK prop with beautiful countryside, fresh air, minimal crime to bring my kids up in and a much better way of life. If I sold now I would make a tidy sum but hey I don't want to do that do I. I have moved here for a better quality of life and not to live in a over populated, crime ridden, imagrant ridden grey skied misersable country!!
All the imagrants flooding the UK now will be drowning the UK benifits and jobs for British citizens in 15 years (my kids).
A report in the paper a couple of weeks ago was about assians complaining that the Eastern Europeans were coming over and under cutting them and tking there jobs!!

I have been watching this thread for over 12 months now and just thought I would put my opinion in. The area I have bought in is rising all the time (if I wanted a quick buck) but it must be a move to Spain to enjoy the life not just to make a few grand?

CDL Ben

I agree. There are still bargains to be had in Spain if you know where to look. The coastal areas are well overpriced and becoming increasingly more populated too and a lot of people are becoming turned off by this. I went to visit my father just before Xmas and he lives in a place called Atzeneta del Maestrat about 30km inland from Castellòn, just north of Valencia. It is quiet little village but pretty nontheless and you can get a brand new 4 bed property on masses of land there for under 200,000€
I'm perfectly happy where I am and have a good business here, but for those wishing to invest, surely these sort of places now need to be looked in to. The only problem I see is that the Spaniards prefer to live and work in the same town and small villages such as these offer no opportunities for young people so they tend to move out, however, I reckon with time they will start to return inland as they are priced out of the large towns and cities. After all a 30 or 40 minute drive to work is thought nothing of in the UK, yet here it seems to be out of the question if it can be avoided !!

vox populia

Thanks for that info we are trying to move close to the mar menor area and we are getting offers of property at silly prices from agents. We have been to the area twice now and believe we can start a business there but we are not in a position to buy until July 07 do you think we could buy better if we went and rented or straight from the developer cutting out agents ? Any advice would be welcome, P.S. we prefer away from the little Britian areas.

wheatsheaf42

I hope you and your family enjoy your new life as immigrants in your country property in Spain-15000m2, wow- and that your children see why their parents have become immigrants for a better life, just like those who come to immigrant-ridden UK. It will be interesting to see how you get on with the language and job situation, if you need to work that is.

EsuriJohn

Hi hf2,

I always understood the "value" of any object to be what someone else was prepared to pay you to buy it off you. Therefor the last recent transaction on your house shows the real value to be €165,000 anybody elses valuation is only theoretical ie. rebuilding costs or insurance value but not what the bank is prepared to pay you to own your house.

A house is an illiquid asset (one which is not instantly saleable) and has high transaction cost associated with it. I watch a lot of the house refurb programmes in UK and it amazes me that they try to mislead the viewer with instant "profits" of many thousands of pounds when the redecorated property has not actually sold and they do not take into account all the transaction costs particularly capital gains tax where the house is not the primary residence of the "developer".

It sounds to me that you have done well to find your bit of paradise at a price you can afford and with the prospect that over time you will have capital appreciation at or above the market rate ( which looks like it might be negative at some point in the not to distant future).

Enjoy the new house the sunshine and the new way of life and remember it sure beats paying rent!

Regards,

John.

hf2

I will be a resident and not an "illegal" immigrant thanks, nor will I be a potential threat to community.

keithwalters

Legal or not, you will always be an immigrant. And the suggestion that immigrants to the UK are potential threats to the community might be considered a touch inflamatory to put it mildly!!

I agree about the UK being over populated, crime ridden, grey skied and miserable. All very good reasons to leave. But you will find that Spain has an enormous problem with immigrants too, mostly from Africa or South America. The northern european immigrants tend to legalise themselves, but they are still immigrants at the end of the day, and bring their fair share of problems to the country.

It makes me cringe sometimes when you hear British people talking as if Spain should be grateful for having them when they make no effort to contribute to the community, or pay into the tax system despite being happy to drain it. And at least a lot of the illegal immigrants in the UK make an effort to learn the language which is more than can be said for 99% of the UK immigrants in Spain!

I guess this forum could change its name to BritishImmigrants.com, but somehow despite being accurate, we don´t seem to like the sound of that do we? I guess it is a snobbish thing to call ourselves expats rather than immigrants.

ScotinSpain

Don't get too upset with some replies on here h2f. There are also a number of folk who will help you. Gloom and doom merchants are two a penny, but there are more Brits remain out here than return . If you have done your home work and accept the good, with the odd set back, you can have a great life.

Good luck with your venture, and welcome to Spain.

Jock

leighbloke

If you want to get away from immigrants you've gone to the wrong place. Spain has a population of 11% more non-indigenous people than the UK. This does not include the many thousands of North African (night-time imigrants), it also boasts a crime rate growing exponentially in comparison with the UK - unfortunately for you these people target the non-Spanish population.
Enjoy your new life, in a foreign land, I imagine you are taking your skills with you, and unlike the Poles now coming to the UK, you will price them much higher than the Spanish locals doing the same work, yep, that seems like a recipe for success to me, I'm sure your business will prosper.
I look forward to your future post, explaining why you're now returning to the UK to seek medical care for your ageing partner, or asking how you can claim your pension whilst living abroad, or how do you apply for a UK passport for your children.
Mate, do you read the Daily Mail?

vox populia

Your breadth of perspective on this matter is founded upon 'The Daily Mail' bet you haven't lived more than 10 minutes from where you were born! Integration to the language and culture is tantamount to sucess in Spain and I will be having ago hopefully this summer when we can look forward to an adventure having assessed the medium term future in this grey whatever!

hf2

cheers Scott but I wish I hadn't wrote anything in the first place as it's all been taken in the wrong way.

leighbloke

VP
The question re: the Daily Mail was directed at hf2, as, as you point out, it's reporting is pants at best and it's agenda is based around talking down this country and general scaremongering. The misinformed reasons hf2 states for his decision to move abroad, to me, sounded like a Daily Mail editorial.
I actually read Viz, as I find this gives as balanced a view of current affairs as at least the tabloids and I'd hazard, most broadsheets - it also gives me a giggle for the right reasons.

edit
VP & hf2
I have no qualms with your wanting to move abroad at all, it is an aspiration of mine also. But surely if you want to move abroad it should be for the positives of the country you are going to? Weather, Culture, open spaces, cheap cigs and wine? in the case of many people coming to the UK, freedom, opportunity, and a wish to actually better their lot in the longer term. I think we need to accept others into our community not use their presence as a reason to leave.

I hope when hf2 lays down his new roots the locals accept him, for what he brings to their village and not shun him as he did his new neighbours.

Unexpat

I suspect that if you check the facts, the majority of these immigrants that you refer to are in fact legal. Certainly the Poles that came over in large numbers have exactly the same status that you have living in Spain as a Brit, as they and you are all EC members living in a member state, which is your right and theirs as enshrined in EC law.

Most, as has been pointed out, moved to better themselves and will no doubt be an asset to their community in the medium to long term.

All communities have problems and Spain is no exception, with the scale of some problems actually exceeding those in the UK. What makes Spain better, in my opinion, is the stronger social fabric and social order (a facet of greater personal responsibility and accountability) that helps diminish the scale of the problems that do exist. That and the weather, of course

hf2

you all have an opinion of me don't you?
I don't smoke so not moving there for "cheap cigs" I don't read the daily mail!! I'm NOT racist!! I agree that the poles that you see working intergrate BUT what about the eastern europeans (not the poles) that import sex slaves and children??? Is that intergration??? What about the refugees from war torn countries that come here to bleed the UK dry and hate ther neighbours as they have been brought up to hate the west???

I'm moving to Spain as I love the country and the culture and will integrate as i'm moving to a inland Spanish town NOT a costal expat town! I want my children to be able to play without the worry a nutter will take them!! I want to live in the countryside with large open spaces and fresh air, blue sky and sunshine.
I hoe you all don't jump down my throat again as these are my reasons and thats all I say

mikelincs

The point is that they also import sex slaves to Spain, and prostitution is legal here as are brothels, but there are still people importing girls from poorer countries and making them earn a living for them. As to immigrants, there are plenty of legal ones to the UK from the EU and from former British Colonies, I suspect no-one has any problem with those, but it is the illegals from North Africa, etc who do seem to target the UK rather than any other country as they can get more and better benefits there. Spain does seem to send them back quicker and far more of them as well. I do live in a coastal area, but it's not an expat town, my neighbours are from the UK, Spain, Ireland, Germany Scandinavia, Netherlands, and we all do get on together, and even here the air is so much fresher than it was in the UK where I had to travel to work in a steel town, and breath the polluted air all day.