HelloI have just joined and wanted to say hello​​​​​†‹â€‹my reason for joining is myself and partner would love to move to spain and buy a bed and breakfast that is already established or a property we can do our own self contained rooms...yes another one I hear you all say..lol...obviously brevity has put the mockers on that, or made it very different with visas etc...so after reading so much and going round in circles is this doable? We are 50 and 53, currently both employed but I plan to take my retirement early at 55...so not long to go..we have a house to sell so should have about £300,000 or there abouts...any help or guidance would be great...I may have posted on the wrong thread so again, point me in the right direction 😀
Best wishes
​​​​​​⠀‹Sue

Hi Sue and welcome.
​​​​​​⠀‹Stay where you are is my advice but of course not the message you want to hear.

Welcome and you've also posted in the right place:-). Not a permanent resident and luckily have an Irish passport, this is good article though and might give some help https://www.spanishpropertyinsight.c...n-post-brexit/
https://extranjeros.inclusion.gob.es...029/index.html
You are right and unfortunately you are not the first person to have this idea. I suppose it would be no different if a Spanish person said they want to move to England and open a fish and chip shop.
The mistake a lot of people make is that they have their holiday location in mind and will still open a B&B, even if the place doesn't need another B&B. Unless it's only a hobby to keep you busy and you stand out from all the rest, I would look at that location and ask myself what type of business doesn't exist yet.

Hi
oh no this is not what I wanted to hear but appeciate you replying and being honest...I think...lol....I know its what we all want to do but after working hard since the day I left school, never claiming any benefits, and never given anything, there comes a time in life you want something for you, and something nice... This Country is just getting worse with one thing or another so want out.before time runs out....any reason why you would be so against it?

Thank you for your reply....Yes I realise this is what most want to do, in their favourite holiday location, but we would look to go to a village where there would not be much going on, and set something up, or a small craft ale bar, as my partner is very much into his ale..and not just the drinking...lol....my family were Polish, so I did think about going down the route of dual passport, but finding details regarding my grandparents is proving difficult and my Dad passed away 11 years ago, so I cant ask him...seems to be a closed door which ever way we try..x

Before we can discuss the business viability, we must start with visas. If you or your partner don't have a passport from an EU/EEA country, post-Brexit you will need a visa to live in Spain. Most go for non-lucrative visa which is aimed at the retired with a good pension (state + private pension), but you can't work, including running a business. To do so would require a self-employment visa, which is quite difficult to get. You need to convince the authorities that you have a viable business plan, and you will make a positive contribution to local economy by hiring staff, for example. As already stated, B&B and holiday rental is a saturated field and it would be difficult to get a visa for, as you are just competing against existing businesses. There is golden visa which is granted to those investing 500,000 euro (around £439,000) in a property or a portfolio. It covers dependent family. You can run a business, but you need to have existing income or savings for your living cost. Plus you need full private health insurance for everyone.

I understand your enthusiasm but trust me with 23 years expat experience neither B&B nor bar are anything but ways of throwing your money away....go back to the drawing board before it's too late.

How do you think you would make money in a small village where there would be too few customers and the locals would not frequent your bar...??

Spain is a beautiful country but coming here to make money and survive is extremely difficult.

Good luck to you - keep researching

https://www.pellicerheredia.com/en/open-library/

Being totally honest, getting the passport would seem like an easier task and I'm sure there are also good solicitors in the UK that deal with Polish laws.
Apart from the Visa challenges, Spain is not an easy country to run a business either and they love paperwork. While you might feel everything is getting worse back home, a lot of Spanish feel the same with their country and this is nothing unique that we complain. Better to invest in your passport first is my opinion.

Of course you could make a go of it and be successful but as most of us who have been here a while will tell you there are two things British folk who want to live and work in Spain opt for: The Bar and The B and B! Very few produce enough to cover cost let alone incomes. Firstly Air BnB has effectively saturated the market when it comes to choosing accommodation and quite frankly people prefer the privacy of renting a flat than sharing an isolated property miles from anywhere. Secondly you are plumping all your money into a business that will even if successful will not fetch more than you paid for it and most likely sell at a loss as property inflation in Spain is very low and taxes for selling are high. Thirdly unless you speak Spanish you wont realky be able to run the business in a competive way ( as the other poster says - the reverse is the spanish couple dreaming of running a fish and chip shop in Sheffield). Still if you want to proceed there are businesses like this available but unless you have a EU passport you will need to be investing heavily to get the appropriate visa
Finally, Spain is no better than UK. We have nurses about to strike in many areas and the highest youth unemployment in the EU. We also have the dark shadow of a far-right political party becoming a possible coalition government next year. Couple this with average wages being 17.000 euros and pretty much no benefits nor tax allowances - the UK is still seen as heaven for many Spanish!!

Im going to jump in as we originally wanted to do this way back in 2017 and again in 2019 and are still considering it.
I have a file box full of paperwork that is needed to open or even to buy an existing B&B.

But first as others have mentioned WHAT PASSPORTS DO YOU HAVE??

This is very, very important as you will not get an autonomo visa easily with just a dream and some money.
The NLV will be no good as you cant work.
For the business visa you have to prove you will improve or provide some local stimulus and or employment of locals.
You will be expected to have experience and qualifications in the area you want to do business in.
You will require to have either already purchased the property or are close to completion and you have all the licences etc to run the business (food requires a kitchen licence, collecting people from the airport requires a transport licence) and on and on..
Paperwork and confusion are two things the Spanish bureaucracy love...

We spent months looking for property and contacting various organisations, the council (who will give you the tourist licence), accountants (who will charge you to put your paperwork in every 3 months), suppliers (who wont deal with you for anything other than cash because you are an unknown) I could go on.
We shelved our plans in late 2018 after the costs would outweigh the benefits (I was going to stay working in the Uk, my son and wife were going to run the business here).
We even went and stayed at a couple of local B&B's to where we were thinking of living and I still keep in touch with one of them. The others have all closed up or just retired as it was so much hard work, he has around 80% occupancy for the six months he opens but still reckons after all expenses he makes around €6,000 before tax.

I did a longish reply either on here or the other place most of post and if I can find it I will copy and past it.

We were (and we still revisit) the plan of doing this, having a country property not too far from a good town, we had a niche business plan with something like a couple of million possible customers spread across multiple countries, I had even reached out to various organisations that these people are members of and I still couldn't make the books balance easily.
We have experience as my wifes father ran a successful hotel in the Uk, my wife and son owned a restaurant and then a seaside cafe/coffee shop. I have experience in the niche side of the business.
We also have a good network here now and that is very important.
However three years ago there was one hostal and three B&B's in this area and we get quite a few tourists, cyclists and walkers, now after Covid the hostel is open but running at 50% capacity and only the one B&B is open and neither get anywhere near full occupancy.

Im not trying to put you off, but starting and running a business here in Spain is hugely more difficult than the Uk and a lot more expensive.
For instance the Autonomo payment (while there is a sliding scale now) will after a couple of years see you paying in over €300 a month no what what your income is (OK thats also changing but its a far cry from the paltry stamp you pay in the UK)

It is possible but you need to do your research and then do it again, come and stay here for a couple of months (something like this cannot be setup remotely) then go home and think about it, come out again and get to know people and then research more before you even start to get on the paperwork side.

Someone I know who owns a couple of bars around here (one in Benidorm and one in Albir) was applying for a business visa from the UK as he and his wife wanted to move here finally and buy a third bar (In La Villa) and they turned him down as his plan wouldn't benefit the community as it was they who wanted to run the 3rd bar.. Go figure eh.
He also agrees with the saying "the only way to make a small fortune in Spain, is to start with a large one"

I'd seriously consider looking at getting Polish nationality for those members of your family who can, and from there the rest can have a family member of an EU citizen card - it would make relocating to Spain or other EU countries a lot easier, whatever job you decide to do in the end.

I did a quick search (e.g. "search Polish birth certificate") and there was lots of info available in English and adverts from people willing to do the legwork on your behalf.

One of the issues with trying to get passports from other EU countries is that many now insist that you are or have been a resident for a period and you have connections with country. My son's mum is Swedish so it seemed obvious that he would get a Swedish passport which he is entitled to. However, when we went to start the procedure we were told that first it has to be done before 18( that is fine he's 16) and secondly that he needed proof of connections to Sweden in terms of visiting, studying etc. Again this was okay as he visits his grandad and cousins. Further the passport is only until 21 and if he hasn't lived or been living in Sweden it is cancelled. So it is not quite as easy in some places as many think

I took a DNA test as part of my family history research using a kit I bought off https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ When you get the results you'll see a breakdown by percentage of countries/areas your family came from. They also show you how many cousins (close and distant) you share DNA with. You can message them (if they opted to allow messages) and enquire about your family; it could well be the case that one or more have information useful to you...I have over 450 cousins and I've spoken to a good few and shared our family trees.

Well worth paying a monthly subscription because you have access to data bases of all sorts and once you get the first couple on you family the Ancestry computers do a lot of the searching for you.

My advice is get an EU passport and don't touch B&B with a bargepole.

You should be able to get a Polish passport if you get some professional help. Believe me, it will make life a million times easier for both yourself and your partner. Getting an Irish passport was the best thing I ever did since the wretched Brexit.

Re the business, sorry to be blunt but I don't think many people really want a British style B&B in Spain - I certainly don't. Self contained apartments definitely but I think most people want to do their own thing and really don't want that level of contact with the owners.

If you really need an extra income, buy a property in the UK, leave it in the hands of a letting agent and live on the proceeds of that.
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I think living in Spain and Portugal is miles better than living in the UK. I agree that Sanchez is for the boot, PP and Vox are likely to be voted in and there are various problems but the quality of life is fair superior to the UK. I'm not sure about unemployment either, there are labour shortages around here.

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