Hi, I've an EU passport and want to move to the Fuengirola area (not Marbella because I'm not a millionaire)!



I've been searching for a while to find out how much money I would need for rent and utility bills. Are the prices realistic for a single household?



Small apartment around 650 Euros/month

Water around 50 Euros/month

Electricity around 100 Euros/month

Phone/internet around 40 Euros/month



Not sure about council tax.


Thank you in advance for any help/opinion

You will need private healthcare as well. There is no council tax if renting. The general rule would be to have around 1,500 euros a month to survive- not eating out or drinking in bars or travelling. Basically I would say you need £20 000 to get through a year living quite basically.

Not Coucil tax but you might have to pay community tax if its not included in your rent.
My wife and I can easily manage on €1,600 per month which includes rent, electricity, Internet, eating out 3 times a week and socialising as and when we like.
Even as an EU passport holder you will need to sign the foreigners register at the Local Police station within three months of arrival.

https://administracion.gob.es/pag_Home/en/Tu-espacio-europeo/derechos-obligaciones/ciudadanos/residencia/obtencion-residencia/inscribirte-residente.html


Steve

Good morning, Thank you!

Ronnyone > 1,500 Euros per month and only for the basic is a lot. I've been living in the UK and Germany and have not spent so much money for a basic life! Seems Spain is very expensive?!

Steve > Thank you for the advice and link.

The bread line income in Spain is 1.100 euros a month. That is the minimum amount that people can recieve and this is for the poorest so 1.500 euros is not much more than the minimum. Most Brits who live in spain have their own property which is usually fully paid for so they often will quote around 1.000 or less when it comes to living costs, if you rent you will obviously need more per month. In fact the only thing that is cheaper in spain in any real sense is accommodation everything else is pretty much equal to uk. You also need to be aware that unlike uk spain does not have generous tax allowances nor various top up benefits so expect to pay some tax and do without any forms of benefits. ( dental treatment is all private ). I think people think Spain is cheap because people go to Benidorm and see cheap British bars so they think everything else is cheap- but this is not really the case. I have been in uk and have come across the programme Bargain Brits in the Sun- this programme focuses on the cheap lifestyle of folk in Benidorm mostly but they seem to concentrate alot on people living on caravan sites where they buy a caravan for 14.000 euros. But if you want to live in a house or flat it will be alot more expensive.

l live in an a 2 bedroom apartment just on the edge of Benidorm centre and the rent is in actual fact cheaper than renting a static caravan.
Viewers of scripted TV programmes like "Bargain Brits in the Sun" get a big shock to find that living in Benidorm is totally different from the misleading information about lifestyle portrayed in those "Scripted" tv programmes. If they did a truthful benidorm lifestyle programme nobody would bother watching such a mundane programme. I'm surprised that anyone believes in such rubbish!!

There are many bars and restaurants here in Benidorm that are also upmarket and quite expensive to eat and serve international style food, in my local area there is a Bulgarian, Italian and Spanish restaurant, not everywhere is cheap British owned bars.
Can i ask you ronnyone when, if ever, did you last visit Benidorm?

Steve

I think the main problem the OP may face is finding somewhere to rent, if they are looking at Fuengirola or somewhere similar. I had a quick look on Idealista and of the 393 properties currently advertised for rent almost every one was available only from September/October to May/June, not for year round rental. There were a couple of studios around the €600-€650 per month mark but anything larger was at least €750 for a 1-bed. The lack of properties for long term rent is the same in Torre del Mar near where I live, the other side of Málaga.

Our 2-person household doesn't spend €100 per month on electricity (and our apartment is all electric), more like €75-80 in the months of heaviest use (December/January and July/August and €50 in other months), nor do we spend anything like €50 per month on water - our bills are €28-30 for two months.

In England now only children and people on certain benefits qualify for free NHS dental treatment (pensioners have to pay unless in receipt of Pension Credit). A filling costs 70.70 - a friend who is spending 3 months in Spain had a filling replaced by my Spanish dentist a couple of weeks ago (had been done in Brighton quite recently but badly) and paid €60.

How much will I pay for NHS dental treatment? - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

To be fair this or very similar question has been asked a number of times. It's very difficult to answer because we all have different lifestyles. We certainly live a decent lifestyle on around the amount the OP mentions but we own our property . For the OP I would suggest couple of main factors will be rental cost and healthcare cost. As for not much being cheaper in Spain ? Food costs in Spain versus UK and I would guess Germany are considerably lower generally. If the OP wants to socialise have a beer coffee glass of wine that is much cheaper here than UK . Ronnyone you mention Benidorm being cheap the OP is talking about Fuengirola which also has lots of cheap or cheapish bars etc. Fuengirola has the rail link at reasonable price into Malaga and places in between. I would say dependant on how much OP has to pay for rent and healthcare it's probably doable but one would need to be careful and expect a very simple lifestyle . Final point you would need some back up savings to cover for the unexpected bill or just in case .

I simply said the program promotes the idea of a cheap lifestyle in Benidorm not that I think that. In fact I work twice a week for the biggest construction company in Alicante and they have now built the most expensive real estate ( per square metre) in Benidorm.!!

I Would agree that you can't take holiday life as a normal way of living in Spain. It depends what the OPs lifestyle expectations are.

The OP I notice hasn't indicated if they are retired or intend to work. If they intend to work an average wage for full time would be between 1000 13000 as I am assuming that they are non Spanish speaking. I work as a teacher and would get around 1200 a month for what is considered full time. I could not really manage if I didn't own my own place. I would say it is an average wage in Alicante. So I think 1500 is reasonable if you have to rent.

Have you thought of transport costs? Do you have a car? Or how much will you use public transport and how much would that cost?

For water I pay about 25€ / month so you could lower that figure, and if you got a well-insulated building you could save on air-conditioning and heating (if indeed heating is required down there).

Here's a tip: given Spain's meat-centric diet, if you become vegan you won't be able to eat out. That'll save you some money

... but there would usually be basura and 'ECO' tax (basura now split into two in most places)

gas bottles for winter?

It varies according to area. In my municipality there is no separate basura tax, it is included in the IBI bill.

If the OP were to rent an all electric apartment then there wouldn't be a need for gas bottles in the winter. The electricity costs I quoted earlier of €75/80 per month in the coldest months include us using our aircon for heating, an electric water heater and all cooking done with electricity, in a similar climate to Fuengirola where the OP has expressed an interest in living.

Good morning,

Thank you so much for all your replies I've read carefully, you may not know but it helps a lot, so I'm very thankfully!

Yes I need to work. I'm support worker working with disabled people and really enjoy it, but can't do the job because my Spanish isn't good enough. Thought I could do a job working with/helping the elderly in Spain instead, but I've found out the salary isn't great. I'm a German and English speaker, so I think it's the best to apply for jobs in customer service or so. I've checked a couple of "net and gross salary calculators" and if I would earn 1,700 Euros per month it would be a net of about 1,383 Euros or 1,800 Euros would be a net of 1,460 Euros.

There is still a lot of work for me to do for example figure out health/dentist insurance and if I could find a job I could earn so much. It would be like a dream comes through living in Spain, but I've to be realistic and it doesn't make sense to move there if I can't afford to live there a simple life.

Thank you once again you're all very kind.
Christine