bjme2

We moved to Spain two years ago and unfortunately have to move on due to work commitments but unlike many we would SAY GO FOR IT. life is what YOU make of it not what someone else does for you. A lot of Brits have been disillusioned due to health cuts, cost increases etc. However this is happening not just in Spain it is happeningn everywhere. it needs to as well, the Spanish Government should not have to pay for us coming here and as for unemployment yes it is high but I would challenge the statisitics as the black economy seems rampant. Maybe this is what Spain needs to attack?

The lifestyle is better but you need to have some money behind you for the first twelve months

jackytoo

It's sods law. When they came out to visit us in October break it was unusually hot until the day before they arrived He seems to have had a great time though, enjoyed pointing out to the other kids the hospital where he was born. They had a trip to La Roselada stadium and he bought a Málaga football shirt. He didn't want us to sell our house in Spain, he asked us to wait until he was 21 so he could buy it

Sir John

I think you just want to bury your head in the sand madlass and hear only the good things and not the reality!,read the papers do your research which i don't think you've done have you?.

Spain per se is a great place to live,many good things about it,i work hard here and will continue to do so,have an active lifestyle,swim,fish,water ski,and much more besides and have a very happy healthy lifestyle,with good my spanish wife and kids.
But with 30% out of work and no hope for employement very,very dificulty if not impossible to get work if your young or 40s plus,its just that over the last few years living here has become much harder due to the financial crisis affecting all europe and the world,while cost living has gone up prices in the shops,bills,wages have not followed,in fact a lot of companies have said to their staff take a pay cut 25% wages or we close,so correct information you should get and NOt look through ROSE TINTED GLASSES as most expats do,which is what you are doing.
You obviosly have more money than you know what to do with and less common sense too,so make the move fall flat on your face and blolw all your money,and by the way i have a property in the uk,so i think the only person going back there is you in a short period of living here in spain when it all goes tist up for you.

paris

Sir John

Just a point for you,why do need encouragement,why do you need it,you have made up your mind?,do you need your decision approved or re-inforced by everyone,if you had done your homework you would not have to ask?.

You did ask a question so here is a better answer for you,a more balanced view,not that you will take any notice i know that!,so that you will be better equipped for when you come here

Positive things living in spain.

1/better weather annually,can be very hot 35-40c can be cold 0-2c winter
2/much cheaper IBI (council tax)
3/cheaper food/acoholic drinks/tabacco
4/cheaper car tax,fuel bit cheaper than uk
5/quiter easier going lifestyle generally depending where you live e.g not madrid/barcelona large cities,people are just as streesed as the uk.
6/friendly spanish people
7/mostly free parking at the beaches
8/swimming pools cheaper access
9/roads better maintained and cleaner and parks and towns
10/ nightly daily rubbish collection,more hygienec uk weekly.
11/reported better diagnosis with doctors and treatment hospital under the spanish social care sytem,less prone to get hospital related infections.
12/guardia civil(civil guard police) from experience myself others been very good when bad problems occur,helpful relaxed,quick to respond normally depnding location.

There you are some encouraging things for you dear.

Negative Positive things living in spain.

1/bureaucracy gone mad OTT,mountains of paperwork,endless forms triplicate takes ages to get things sorted,so much so you have to employ a GESTOR official to wade through it all quicker.
2/very,very,very slow laborious court system to deal with justice for people,not always satisfactory results either,some have been waiting 5 years and still waiting,e.g illegal new built property,on illegal built land,by dodgy builders,council,mayors,architects,solicitors,land theft,abuse.
2/corruption on a massive scale,solicitors,estate agents,judges,police,constructors,builders,archite cts,developersect ect ect.
3/higher water charges,higher electric bills,much much higher phone and internet charges and mobile charges,expensive to live major cities spain renting and buying and annual costs,council tax(IBI),ECT ECT.
4/higher house,car,motorbike insurance policy charges.
5/corrupt police bribery and can be uninterested in dealing with crimes of breakins into properties,domestic disputes and small crimes,cuts in policing and funding,lack of police patrols presence estates,police lowered morale for their job,cuts in their wages for not meeting their monthly fines targets!.
6/expensive banking charges,an annual charge,admin charge,maintenence charge,credit card annual charge,debit card annual charge.
7/ zero tolerance on drink driving toughest in europe and very very tough penalties...which is good.
8/extremes of weather which some like,i do!!,very hot summer maybe 40c+ we have had it down to 0-2c winter,freezing and snow in winter worst in the higher mountain areas or north spain sever like the uk,here can be extremely cold and last 3 months as it has done previosly,electric blanket most expats have,a good heating system.
9/barking dogs continually are a big nuisance in spain,the spainsih accept it you wont like it,speeding noisy scooters.
10/fiestas here are an important part of spanish culture and i we lall love them,however if you are an unfortunate shall we say to live in the village or in the town where the fietas takes place which can go on for 1 week,you WILL NOT GET ANY SLEEP all night as the fiestas continue all night into early hours morning,firecrackers,fireworks,trumpets,drums,pipe s,shouting,lots noise,it also can all start up at 6.00 am morning,great if you have young kids or a baby!.
11/racist/ageist/sexist attitude toward employment,been that way long time
12/lack of real help or support if you lose your job or and home even if you have family kids,you are on the street,here establishmnet are very unforgiven,unlike uk,their are charities but they are now overwhelmed!.
13/social security payments (dole money) is only 400 euros a month if you are out of work and been working previously this is for you your wife and kids,bills,mortgage,rent,plus if you have not worked before you get nothing and no health cover.
14/with the crisis and jobs cuts many immigrants especially morrocans,romanies gypsies,bulgarians,russians ect many working in groups to break into villas,houses,flats all over spain especially on estates and in the les populated areas and when expats or spanish leave their properties empty winter or return back holidays uk or wherever,they are and have ben using violence and force against peopl even breaking in when the people are in their homes,and previously gassing the people in their beds at night when the air-conditioners are on by spraying knock out gas into the intake or the aircon,they also have no compassion to kill your family dog or guard dogs to gain entry.

If you can accept and deal with bad stuff like we have its a good life here ok!

paris

mogsmum

chrisjolly

Hi..You asked the question and sorry if you do not like the answers but if they appear negative and lacking in encouragement it is probably because the people who are writing have experience of living in Spain and are trying to offer a realistic appraisal of life here. The chances are you will take no notice ( and why should you?) and come to Spain whatever anyone writes but bear in mind you will also be one of the many who go back.
I am not writing this because I want it all for myself as we do not stay in Spain for the winter now because the weather is so poor..you are welcome to it.

Sir John

paris

jojojojojo

Actually, we tried to work it out. Five years ago we put our UK house on the market for £425,000. We were looking to buy something in the region of 300,000€ in Spain. We didnt because our UK house wouldnt sell due to the "almost" start of the recession, so we rented both ends - UK and Spain. At the time I wasnt happy, I wanted to buy in Spain! But here we are now, back in the UK and in our UK house!

Five years on and some of the houses in Spain we were looking at for 300,000€ are still on the market and are priced at around 150,000 - 175,000€. Our UK house is still valued at £425,000! and by coincidence the exchange rate is more or less the same now as it was then. So, had we have bought in Spain 5 years ago and then needed to return.........

Jo xxx

agoreira

You might have a job convincing these people that have been waiting years to get treatment. Many here have been waiting 700-800 days, some 1,000 days. Yes, 3 years!
http://www.diariosur.es/v/20121016/m...-20121016.html

nogard

This is a GREAT thread for one planning to move to Spain! Keep it coming.

MoonBaby

There ARE a lot of negatives about moving to Spain, but it's not all doom and gloom. I think some people forget just what the UK is like. It's hardly paradise there either.

Sure, the welfare culture is great, but only if you're actually on or entitled to benefits. It's not so nice for the people paying into the system. I wasn't entitled to (and didn't want) a penny from the government. I just wanted to work and support myself, but it was getting more and more difficult. I could barely live on my wages, once 25% was taken out for tax. I wasn't guaranteed any hours at work (which is common in TEFL in the UK), so if there weren't many students, I didn't get paid. If a student cancelled at the last minute, I didn't get paid. I didn't get paid when my granny died and I needed to go to the funeral, for any bank holidays or when the school closed for Christmas and Easter. I finally left because our rent went up to over £1000 (for a very average one-bed flat in a very average area) and our monthly Oyster cards went up to over £160 and I couldn't be sure that I'd make enough money to pay for them. To add insult to injury, most of the other tenants in our block were on benefits and didn't work, so kept us up until 4am on weeknights with their noise, covered the shared garden with beer cans, crisp packets and even dirty needles so we couldn't use it and the police turned a blind eye to it all.

In Spain, I get a monthly salary, regardless of how much I teach or how many bank holidays there were that month, my rent is very reasonable in comparison to my salary, travel costs are much lower and my neighbours behave like normal human beings. There are plenty of nice things to do for free (endless plazas and cobbled streets for walks, nearby beach) and you can sit on a plaza chatting with friends and have a few beers without it costing a fortune. There are several local fruterias with delicious, fresh fruit and veg 1-2 mins from our flat, so we always have cheap, nutritious meals and my mood is always better because the sun is almost always shining, even right now, going into November.

All in all, our quality of life is higher here and I'm much less stressed. The wages are low, but so are outgoings (if you're careful), so I'm as well off as I was in the UK. I think it is possible to come here, but only if you're realistic and have a realistic chance of finding work in your field. There's loads of work for qualified, experienced English teachers - I'm turning down work every day. Bar work or anything that like - no chance. I think people on here are pretty helpful as long as you're not another person saying 'Fed up of UK weather, want to move to Spain, have 4 kids and a dog, don't speak any Spanish, don't have any qualifications, what are my chances?'

agoreira

So to sum up, in Spain the sun always shines, you get paid for doing next to nothing, fruit, meals etc cheap as chips, accommodation dirt cheap, whilst UK is horrendously expensive and full of drop outs on benefits. Smart move, sounds like you definitely made the right move.

rspltd

Of course the two pieces of information missing from the post by Moonbaby is where in the 'UK' he lived and why he was working at a school teaching without a contract (perhaps because TEFL is not seen a a quality qualification in the same way as a degree would be?)

MoonBaby

That was MY reality in the UK and this is MY reality in Spain. I never said I get paid for doing next to nothing, I said I get paid for official holidays, a luxury I never had back in the UK. I don't know why so many people seem so determined to make the UK sound like paradise compared to Spain. It was a very, very tough place to live for me and I've lived in several countries.

I lived in London. Most schools in London offer 'zero hours contracts', where you're not actually guaranteed any work. That's just the way it is there. I have a degree and a Master's degree, like most of my colleagues back in the UK. A degree is a minimum requirement to work in TEFL in any decent school. It's just supply and demand really - there are always far more qualified teachers than decent teaching positions. I actually had one of the best TEFL jobs going, despite the lack of holiday pay. That's just how the industry is there, it's not the best place to do this job. Hence why I'm finding it much easier in Spain.

I don't understand the animosity. It's as if some people in here actually WANT people to fail? Sorry you don't want to hear it, but for me personally, living in the UK was much tougher than living here. I felt like I was putting so much effort in and getting so little back.

rspltd

So perhaps your posting should have gone somewhere along the lines of 'When I worked in London at a language school on a zero hours contract...............'