Originally Posted by Lynn R

I see. So you, as a privileged person, are able to have an enjoyable lifestyle whilst being aware that there are people living in poverty in both Spain and your own country. But somehow other privileged people can't have the same awareness.

Originally Posted by Boseley

The winters in the British Isles would put me right off. Here where I live we don't have winters, no snow or frosts, so no heating bills, plenty of year round daylight.

Originally Posted by Moses2013

Quite a few probably do exactly that and have a holiday home. Unfortunately there is a lot of poverty in the UK too and not everybody is that privileged. I suppose we all have an image of a country and don't really see the real problems. When you are retired and happy in Spain, you believe that the whole UK is a rough place and everybody lives in poverty. These people also don't see the poverty in Spain and think that those living in a rural property without electricity have a great life and no worries and everyone else lives a happy life near the beach. I must admit that I feel privileged to be in our part Ireland and I was driving along the wild atlantic way in the sun this weekend and you could see all the Spanish and French enjoying the scenery and nice little villages. Of course I'm well aware that Dublin is a complete different place and these days people are struggling to pay the rent and don't leave their front door open all the time. It's the same when I walk along Playa de Fenals and see happy people on holidays. Unless you already own a property, try competing with wealthy foreigners who earn 3x your salary.

Originally Posted by Stingychips

winters in the mountains of Spain where I live are colder than the uk. And the summers are stupid hot. 40 degrees it can get to. So in the winter you get hammered with big gas oil bills and summer you have to run the air conditioning even with sky high electricity bills. Probably why house prices here are cheap.it takes a robust person to live in the mountains unless of course you have lots of money to burn. The costas are a lot more forgiving.

Originally Posted by KVP

Totally agree Moses.
It's very easy to "see past" issues when you are financially comfortable. (Not saying those more well off don't understand, its just not maybe their first thought)
I love Dublin despite it's flaws, however, I am comfortable and not looking for a place to rent! I really don't know how some people are coping.
When here in Spain, its easy to look around and think everything is great because I don't have first hand knowledge of my surroundings. In the past month here, I have gained a small bit of insight and I'm seeing that it's not all happy holiday makers and ice cream on the promenade.

Originally Posted by KVP

Totally agree Moses.
It's very easy to "see past" issues when you are financially comfortable. (Not saying those more well off don't understand, its just not maybe their first thought)
I love Dublin despite it's flaws, however, I am comfortable and not looking for a place to rent! I really don't know how some people are coping.
When here in Spain, its easy to look around and think everything is great because I don't have first hand knowledge of my surroundings. In the past month here, I have gained a small bit of insight and I'm seeing that it's not all happy holiday makers and ice cream on the promenade.

Originally Posted by Moses2013

Don't get me wrong and I could quite happily live in Dalkey if I had the money:-) and same situation with rents in Galway. It's similar when you see people looking to move to Auckland and ask other residents if they like it there. Sure, when the mortgage is paid and the home is now worth a million, life doesn't seem too bad. Even where we live, there is not one rental in a radius of 15km. When you are earning €1000 in Barcelona, Spain is not cheap. You could argue and say that the person could move to to Torrevieja where rent is cheaper. Well, when you don't have work even €400 is a lot of money. It gets more extreme further inland and you might see families living in old houses without running water and 40c is no fun when you can't afford air conditioning.

Originally Posted by EuroTrash

The obvious question is - why go to Spain at all, then????

Originally Posted by Lynn R

Rather than a month, I've been here for 16 years full time, the first 11 of them being spent living in a barrio which has many very poor residents and a bad reputation locally for crime (not wholly deserved in my view, and there is a lot of Spanish prejudice against the gitanos - which many of our former neighbours are. When I was learning Spanish I went to an intercambio session at the language school I attended, and had a conversation with a man who was a doctor in the local health service. He asked me where I lived and when I told him he said "isn't it dangerous there?". I know people there who don't have electricity in their houses, and my husband recently paid the water bill for a Spanish friend of ours who was being threatened with having his supply disconnected. We see the people going to the comedores sociales every day to pick up their free meals and queuing up at the banco alimentario. So irrespective of my being retired and having enough money to live on, I find implications that I am ignorant of less fortunate people's circumstances both condescending and offensive.

Originally Posted by britishlondon30s

Hey !

So some advice please!

Me, my husbands and kids (born in Spain) have been living in Castilla y León for almost 8years
I'm British ! But we don't like the area anymore and feel the village life is just getting too small for us. We are considering moving back to the UK but house prices have rocketed ! We are also thinking about future pension. Will I loose my Spanish state pension If I move back to UK, as I've been working here in Spain. Also which country is better with pension funda (UK or Spain?)
another option is to move to the south of Spain...a cheaper way of living perhaps and chepaer houses with potentially more British people.

Any advice? Stay put in Spain given current world situation? I have a good job here. We just miss some of our home comforts and we are not sure to move back financially will be good as our house will be paid is less than ten years here but on a small village.

Most appreciated!!

Originally Posted by britishlondon30s

Can I get dual citizenships? Can my kids too? I thought was only one or the other ??

Originally Posted by Albir_Tom

I think people just need to give themselves a pinch sometimes when in limbo like this, Spain isn’t perfect but it could be worse. Your kids have grown up in Spain, guessing you and husband speak Spanish living where you live.

UK has got some beautiful places to live but it’s expensive and the weather is crap.

Move to a cheap part of one of the Costas, your kids will love it.

Me personally, give me less wages and a cheaper way of living over the UK anyday.

Originally Posted by DLC

You also don't have to hand over your passport but you do have to solemnly promise to give up your other nationality/ies at the ceremony (and maybe some day you'll get round to it).

Spain won't recognise your British nationality and you are supposed to use your Spanish ID/passport with the Spanish administration at all times and follow the rules for registering at the Spanish embassy when moving abroad.

As your husband is Spanish your kids have dual nationality already. You and your husband just need to do the paperwork to get it recognised and get DNIs for them. Probably best to do this before they're 18.