Ultramarine

Was it a climate, better than in the UK? Or more reasonable cost of living? Or scenery? Or anything else? (apart from personal circumstances like Spanish GF or a job)

Also which of your expectations fulfilled and which not once you relocated?

Joppa

I'm in the process of moving to Spain, but main factors are weather, way of life, Spanish people, cost of living and Brexit (needing to move this year).

Rosemary

You are asking an awful lot of questions that definitely feel like you are doing a survey rather than looking for information to help you with personal research. Instead of continually bombarding our very patient and helpful members with this all of the time perhaps it is time to tell them something about yourself.

Why are you interested in moving to Europe?
What are your aims?
What sort of area do you prefer?
What are you interested in, for example, beach, mountains, countryside,
Will you need to find an area that fits in with hobbies?
Do you want to live with fellow Brits or not?

Well that is a start. Getting to know each other in a forum is very important. Feeling like you know a person encourages support. As I said at the beginning of this post at the moment you are coming over as someone doing a survey or a troll.

Rosemary

Ultramarine

Rosemary,

First of all, I hope my (and my friend's) questions asked here would be useful not only for me but for the entire community here, once they are answered, of course.
Second, I did not want to test anyone's patience here and I would be sad if it feels that way.

Why are you interested in moving to Europe? - One of the reasons is that the door will close soon.
What are your aims? - To have a better quality of life.
What sort of area do you prefer? - This is yet to find out. Asking questions here would be one of the methods.
What are you interested in, for example, beach, mountains, countryside, - Beach nearby would nice but not a requirement number one.
Will you need to find an area that fits in with hobbies? - I don't think so.
Do you want to live with fellow Brits or not? - I do.

Pulaski

Your questions have been asked and answered a thousand times already, and probably many times that. You are not filling a public service by asking dozens of generic questions.
No it won't you'll just need to obtain a visa, which means proving you have a job, rather than just wandering in because you feel like it. There are Americans working in Europe, as well as people from other countries around the world, which is evidence that it can be done. You don't even need a job offer, most if not all countries offer investor visas for people coming to start or buy a business.
What does that even mean? That is often given here on BE as a reason to move to Australia, Canada, the US, NZ, Spain, etc., etc. but usually people don't even seem to have much of an idea about what they themselves mean by it. Sometimes it apparently means a larger house and garden, sometimes it means better weather, but usually it looks to me, and many other of the regulars here, to mean they want to get away from "certain aspects" of life in the UK that they don't like, and often are not willing to articulate.

missile

Sounds like a banal question one gets asked at a job interview

Ultramarine

Well, maybe it's a good idea to have a beginners or FAQ section then.

Necessity to obtain visa means significantly smaller number of opportunities if at all and a generous discount to your income. For investor visa you need €500,000. Yes, it is all possible, at least in theory but so much more difficult than just arrive and notify the authorities on your arrival while they can't even say no.

Hm... what do you mean by those "certain aspects" then?

christmasoompa

We have a search function. You can use that to search for previous threads where the same question(s) have been asked.

Let's keep this thread on track please, and focus on your Spain related questions.

Thx.

amideislas

Although I question the real intent of this thread, I'll answer for the sake of legitimate interests.

For the sake of brevity, it's pretty simple. Quality of life. The weather of course, along with higher quality food, lower cost of living, lower crime rate, excellent healthcare system, beautiful surroundings, lovely people, access to nearly anything you fancy within a short distance...

And yes, it's turned out to be better than imagined. But it's not for everybody. Especially if you're skint. It won't solve that problem.

missile

Why on earth does it matter why others want to relocate to OP?

bobd22

You will find that Spanish authorities can and do say no if you don't meet the laid down criteria. You are correct after full Brexit it will become harder. However if planning on making the move I would get your skates on and ensure you are also able to fulfill the required residency requirements. Finally I would do it for your own reasons not for the reasons someone else decided to do it, we are all different.

dougal03

We came to Spain to operate a similar business to one we had had in Scotland & later in England.It was in 1984/5 so before Spain joined the EU.Pulaski,& others as well,point out that non-EU citizens ,i.e.Americans etc.,have worked successfully here.That is true as indeed we did.BUT it was hard despite buying from a Spaniard who had a legal licence to operate which we were able to transfer to our name,hence the reason to purchase.When we Brits.are no longer in the EU,at present we have no idea what conditions the Spanish Govn.may impose.Remember also that the Spanish were asked to keep quiet regarding Gibraltar until negotiations over other matters were concluded.So that is still in the pipeline as an extra for us resident here.The major difficulty we found,at that time,was that the Spanish set prices for us way beyond what was required from their own countrymen & we had no authority to argue our case.The boot was on the other foot,Britain a member of the EU but Spain not,no MEP to turn to for advice if you feel you have a grievance.This was a long time ago so I appreciate that nowadays things have progressed from that blinkered logic.However I cannot believe it will continue to be"just much the same" if we do leave the European Club.

Pistolpete2

Well spitballing for a mo, there is this thing that last summer in the UK, in the lead-up to Boris Johnson arriving on the scene in the UK after TM departed, and with Brexit taking centre stage, one couldn't really talk to anybody about anything, other than dogs or the weather.

This is made even worse now due to the handling of covid-19 and how it has hit a nerve in individual experience, and the divisiveness of the present PM for some, his 'leadership' style and now BLM. It's much easier to watch at a distance.

Commentators on real estate trends are suggesting that the handling of covid-19 at the national level motivates 'some' in Spain to look to Portugal as a better haven, IF they have a choice and thought Portugal has handled things better and in particular if covid-19 is not going away anytime soon.

IF the OP wants to spend time around other Brits, one would think others' experience in this regard might have a bearing on things if it is a priority. Personally, I would run a mile and find it easier if English turns out to be the common language.

We've already seen the thread effectively comparing Spain and Portugal and Portugal itself might be next, or maybe not. Maybe Cyprus or Malta?? Both have the same deadline.

I have to say that our plans to return to Portugal on a regular basis are quite simply down to the micro element in that we have discovered a place and a small search area that works for us without a car and bundles enough positive stuff together for us not to really bother to look for anywhere else in the Iberian Peninsula, in spite of Spain presenting well for opportunities at that micro level FOR US - Cadiz, Jerez and all.

But then, I could pretty-much say the same thing about the UK - in the four years we were there, the West Dorset part where we were was in retrospect perceived as probably our best choice out of all options where we had a blank canvas going in - lots of ticked boxes and a good number of un-ticked ones too. Others would say Weymouth at large is a dump and a no-go area, so there we are.

Experiences of Spain in Andalucia (East/West/South), Galicia, the Balearics, northeastern Catalonia and Extremadura would all be very very different, the same way fans in Portugal rave IN GENERAL (please don't actually come here though!) about their own particular havens in Western Algarve (Sagres and Monchique), Atlantic Coast Alentejo and the Silver Coast. It's what works for you as a bundled experience and good access by air and local transport links will be very important IF one needs to get back to the UK on a regular basis.

The Best Relocation Areas in the UK thread has 927 replies and 117,405 views at this point and the OP is now, I beg to say, pretty-much none the wiser. BE ends up, in such instances, being like the decision-making process post checking reviews on Airbnb, though one can always PM here to double-check.

el collado kid

I total agree with you amideislas.Are only difference is we want to live on the coast between el porrtet and fustera but thankfully we were brought to the jalon valley where we have lived for 5years and very happy and will never go back to england.

Moses2013

No idea and there are millions of reasons. Those who had reasons to move to Spain might later have other reasons why they left Spain again.