juleyross

We want to move to spain this year, house currently on the market. Where on earth do we start? Is finding somewhere to buy to live the first priority? Or visas and the like first? Are we too old at 51 and 59? Help and advice needed please? Juley R, Eastbourne, East Sussex, UK - fed up with the criminals and drunken thugs, the climate, with President Blair, with police, schools, health service, and everything else...

patsywhitehair

hi Juley, well first of all you may want to consider whether you want to be coastal or country. come on out to spain and have a good look round, look on the internet at whats on offer and see what type of property you can afford. you dont need a visa for Spain.
my partner and I have only been living in Spain for nearly 3 months and love it,we live In Barxeta,nr Xativa,Valencia. We are at the foot of a mountain but 5 mins fm the village. We badly need to learn to speak Spanish as where we live most people speak English so learn before you come out to live would be a good idea, if you need any more info then feel free to e mail me, pat

juleyross

we would prefer a village and not a major town. How about getting residency - any idea how much that costs - and what about medical care etc. How do you know who to trust for legal or estate agency advice as we understand the property laws are a bit odd over there! How quickly were you able to move to Spain - sorry for so many questions, just desperate to get moving! Can speak little Spanish as I had lessons but my husband can't!

patsywhitehair

you dont need to get residency.
we looked around for about just over a year, we had about 3 one week holidays where we were looking around daily with different agents.we were recommended a Spanish solicitor by my brother who lives in Spain,he has been great.
As for property laws, I dont really think they are that odd. what part of Spain were you thinking of moving to, and will you have to work? Myself I am 56 and retired (lovely)
we have a villa with about 2000 metres of land and are near a village so if we dont want to get the car out we can walk to the bakers,if you need to know anything else then keep asking,there are lots of nice people here who will help with any questions

maryg

we feel the same......we've had enough!
We will moving over later this year and have a place inland Murcia.
Come over, look around and and find an area you feel happy with. Do you want the coast which is a mix of mainly Brits, Germans, etc......or do you want a quieter cheaper life inland? Do you need to work? Do you have skills that you can make a living out of in Spain? Can you speak Spanish?
Look around the multitude of sites on the net and don't rush in to anything!
We had a few visits to the areas we liked the look of, and and found our place through an English estate agent.........we are very happy with our place.
BBest of luck!
MaryG

GCM

First thing is consider your finances - i.e. do you need to work - in Spain it's low pay and lack of jobs even on the coast.

Secondly - come over on a couple of holidays and hire a car and scout some areas out - then when you sell in Uk - come over and rent first.

Good areas - Costa Blanca and Murcia area is up and coming + Valencia area.

Mark

Nige

See you are in Eastbourne JulieR. And you complain about the climate ! Eastbourne has one of the best climates in UK - just think what it would be like if you lived in Aberdeen !
If you need to know anything about the area called Costa de la Luz or specifcially Cadiz province then let me know. This area is not saturated by northern Europeans but it has had a lot of influence from Britain in the past. Especially with the Sherry trade. But it's really important to make a few visits and try seeing for yourself. And of course be wary about any of those 'salesmen' types who want to SELL SELL SELL. Just trust on your instincts and don't rush into anything !

poollounger

Choose you area carefully, as I am sure some of the things you want to escape can be encountered in Spain as well. I always think you should move to a country, if you have the choice, because you love the culture, landscape, people, climate not beacuse you want to flee your own....Utopia is a myth!!

juleyross

I have already taken Spanish lessons, although my husband hasn't yet! I have friends near Motril, although they had more cash than we will have! Thank you all for your help and advice - we know we need to come over and plan to do so again shortly. What area - nothing too British - love the lifestyle Spain has to offer, as well as all those other things! I think their fruit and veg taste like fruit and veg, something we have forgotten in UK! Skills we have include IT (is that the same in Spain?), bike mending, secretarial, (I was a sub editor too) grass cutting, nail technician, and running our own business, and we are both happy to work on anything - I'm sure we'll manage. The only problem is just making that very first move over!
I will surely ask more questions if I may...........

Unexpat

You'll need a fairly strong command of Spanish to work in IT here, if you're talking about the corporate sector.

I would strongly suggest a good Spanish community, or a non-seasonal expat one, in view of your respective ages. Crime on the costas is definitely on the rise. To my mind it has to be inland. I would recommend somewhere like inland Murcia, if you have to work, close to a major town of reasonable size.

Murcia gets a lot of flak for it's agricultural emphasis, but I believe that it has one of the fastest growing economies of all the Spanish autonomous regions, at present and there are many nice places to live in the community, still within easy reach of the coast.

juleyross

first...thankyou all for your most valuable replies ....just to say we have been to spain on several occasions during the last 20 years or so and we both enjoyed the visits we had ....( only on two visits were we together the both of us .. him and me...) ) ..but really we have no pre-conceived ideas of where in spain to
live ...we just dont want to continue to live in england with the cold weather and 5 times higher crime rate here .. we have a number of skills and expereience but lack formal qualifications ...also we are very adaptable...yes we would have to find income from somewhere but we are so willing to do almost anything to live in spain ...we just want out ....we are not rich ..just working class folk ..

is there any hope ?...

GCM

There is hope if you have the right attitude. I know a lot of Brits that are moving back now having found life is considerably harder here than they thought it would be.

The novelty of being here wears off for many when they are constantly scraping a living (or not as the case often is).

I would keep your house in England and rent it as since I have lived here prices in England have gone up but not here so it can be difficult to move back and go back to the same type of house you were used to.

It's essential to have say six months money so you don't have to work immediately - it gives you a cushion while you look for work and settle in.

Mark

eales

Hi Juley We have been trying to move to Spain for 3 years and have finally nearly there. Of course you are not too old. We are 58 & 55 and we feel younger just thinking about the move. We are renting from friends in Pizarra for as long as we like and are going to chill out for ages to recover from the this awful country. There are so many imigrants here now and the country is filling up so we thought we'd leave a vacancy.We have been to Spain many times to look at different areas and properties but keep coming back to Pizarra, Alhora area. You will know when you find the area for you so do not rush to buy. We may find when we have lived in the Pizarra area for a while it weill not be for us,going to a place for 1 or 2 weeks is different to living full time. We love seeing the old folk sitting in groups or on walls and the women huddled round talking at the top of their voices, where would you find that here, they are too afraid to go anywhere. Take the plunge and enjoy

utookmylove

Hi Julie,
We are taking the plunge we have been looking for two years we swapped areas like anything i found valencia and ,urcia very good value, however we are going to a town called coin which is about 25 minutes inland from marbella.
the reason for that is our friends live there so i wont feel as homesick like you we are sick of the crimes and especially the healthcare, my daughter has been waiting for a hospital appointment, for nearly 10 months she has had her condition for 5 years which has left her 70% deaf in one ear and about 30% in the other due to the medical profession not knowing what was wrong with her after about a billion antibiotics and 2 years to get a specialist to see her we have found out all of this could of been prefented now she is having to wait for a major operation which could leave her totally deaf.
Also i walked out of my home once and had a 7 inch knife thrown past my face which narrowly missed due to english men and the refugess fighting in the street, so like you i think this country has become a sad disappointement, all i can say to mr blair is keep the country as it is going and everyone will be leaving to another country to try and get a better life for there familysx

mikelincs

I suggest you come over and take a long let, say 6 months, you don't need visas as you are EU citizens you just come over. Look at the many properties around, we live on the Costa Blanca, and there are many houses available round here, right on the sea front is the most expensive, and prices drop quite markedly as you get further away, we are only about 600m from the front, but our house price was about 60% of a similar one on the beach. Plenty of opportunities to start a business, or take one over, but you would do better where there are more expats as they will be your major customers. There are even training courses in various skills over here, such as nail technicians. Just remember that on the coast temps in the last 2 weeks July and first 2 weeks Aug will be 30 degrees +. If you do decide to take out residency it isn't that expensive, we are in the process and it will have cost about €230 for the two of us, we are retired so our health care is free. Taxes, running a car etc all cheaper then the UK.