Dick Dasterdly

http://www.thelocal.es/20140117/spai...s-200000-fewer

Not only Brits pulling the plug, but Germans, French, Romanians and C.Americans also.

Lenox

It's certainly a shame. There are two basic types of foreigner - those who come here to work, usually from the 'third world', and those who come here with money, to live well.
The first sort send their money home to Mum and take over Spain's scut jobs. The second type bring in money, lots of it.
Lots and lots and lots of it.
So, why would the Spanish be prepared to lose that massive injection of benign money? By labeling foreign-owned homes as 'ilegal', by creating the World Asset tax declaration and by disallowing short-term house rentals? Andalucía could so easily have been as wealthy as Southern Florida, instead of which, it has the highest unemployment in Europe.
Spain as an expensive modern country - at least the southern half - just doesn't cut the mustard. High-speed trains are all very well, even when heavily subsidised by the tax-payer; but we really don't need them, now do we?

lutonlad

Not just people that leave for good.

I know quite a few who seem to be spending less time (and less money) in Spain. Very few talk openly about the reason, but I reckon it must have something to do with 'the form'.

Many people had a relaxed attitude about the number of days rule, but now they are making sure they conform.

In any case it's not particularly good for the spanish economy.

steviedeluxe

Not sure about that (if we're talking about British expats). The average Russian or Norwegian tourist spends a lot more per day on average than the Brit equivalent. We can assume then that the increase in Russian home-buyers will result in higher spend per head? Of course the total numbers probably won't get up to the number of Brits living in Spain, but there will still be a substantial number of Brit expats in the country.

steviedeluxe

Russians seen as a threat to expat businesses

http://thisisspain.info/costa-blanca...ieja/russians/

Dick Dasterdly

I wonder how many starving mouths could have been fed with the 80 billion or so wasted on a train system that leaves the country with a less comprehensive service than it had before and some towns and peeps with no service at all.

Then the introduction and enforcement of legislation which instead of having the desired effect of raising funds has instead lead to so many expats simply put themselves beyond the reach of the Spanish authorities.

Yet another case of the Spanish govt throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Stupidity beyond belief !

EMR

It amazes me that so few realise that those countries that have had to go cap in hand to the Eu/IMF/ECB have little real control over their finances.
Their tax regimes are virtually dictated by these agencies with little thought if any to the damage they may or may not be doing to the local economies or the longer term financial health.
You can blame Spain for it financial mismangement pre crisis but todays tax changes are signed off if not derived from Frankfurt and Brussels.

bobd22

Which I feel is the reason the EU needs to reform not just for benefit of the UK but for all. I think now the Eurozone Countries are starting to see the cost of being on the club, they had the benefits now its payback time.

EMR

The Germans would agree with you as they have had to underwrite most of the debt.
Fortunately the UK has had very little exposure not being in the Euro apart from a direct loan it gave to Eire in the early days of the crisis.

agoreira

Only Spain isn't paying back yet, it's still a net recipient. Spain has been the largest recipient of funds since it joined and up until fairly recently, it's had billions thrown at it, and yet it still finds itself in the mess it is. You can blame the EU all you like (and I frequently do) but in this case Spain need look no further than it's own bunch of crooks that are running the show.

bobd22

Whilst I understand and agree with your comments above. However surely again that is why the EU must change to stop the corruption and waste. Problem of course for some including UK we are outside the main club. There must be change or I think if Cameron does as he says and has a referendum without changes to current set up then there is a big risk UK will say get out. Whether that is good for UK I suppose time will tell.

Dick Dasterdly

The EU itself must change drastically and clean up it's act if it's not to fall apart.
However member countries are a different matter, especially the S.EU countries such as Spain where corruption is endemic and a way of life or part of the normal culture and highly unlikely to change any day soon.

guirijohn

Interesting map of Spain´s population changes here

http://www.elconfidencial.com/espana...nicipio_74966/

Quite noticeable how the northern half and especially Galicia has lost population, but CDS and the Mediterranean Coast generally seem to be holding up.

Longlegpete

I wonder how accurate these figures are, we had a letter, as did most of the houses around us pined to our gates, it was from our council, it was addressed to the previous german owner of our house saying he had 30days to confirm he was still to be registered on the padron, he left nearly 5 years ago, I also heard the deputy mayor of Javea (just up the road from us) saying on the radio they were doing the same thing to clear the system and make it more accurate, maybe it just catch up time?

Longlegpete

Our gardener (Spanish with an English wife) was telling us he has lost three houses where he worked, Russians replaced the British and German owners of said houses and of course are using Russians to do the gardening