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Thinking of a move to Spain?

Thinking of a move to Spain?

Old Nov 21st 2006, 7:57 pm
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Default Thinking of a move to Spain?

Hello All,
My Wife and I are really keen at looking to move to Spain. To be honest, the thought of doing so is quite daunting and we are looking for some help from those of you who have had the balls to do it!
We are early 40's and neither of us have a trade in work terms. We will be able to cover any work that is sales based, customer service based or property sales based. To be honest we will do anything initially to earn an income that will support us?
We have no savings as such but will probably have enough to support ourselves for up to 6 months whilst looking for work.
We are having some trouble in terms of trying to find websites that offer anything other than holiday accommodation to rent (these are quite expensive) can anyone offer us a link to a property agency that deals with long term rental that isn't extortionate?
We are also keen to know how the work situation is in Spain? Are jobs hard to find generally for brits?
Any information that you can offer us would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to hearing from anyone who can offer us some help.
Many thanks,
Dave.
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Old Nov 21st 2006, 8:21 pm
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Default Re: Thinking of a move to Spain?

Originally Posted by BigDave
Hello All,
My Wife and I are really keen at looking to move to Spain. To be honest, the thought of doing so is quite daunting and we are looking for some help from those of you who have had the balls to do it!
We are early 40's and neither of us have a trade in work terms. We will be able to cover any work that is sales based, customer service based or property sales based. To be honest we will do anything initially to earn an income that will support us?
We have no savings as such but will probably have enough to support ourselves for up to 6 months whilst looking for work.
We are having some trouble in terms of trying to find websites that offer anything other than holiday accommodation to rent (these are quite expensive) can anyone offer us a link to a property agency that deals with long term rental that isn't extortionate?
We are also keen to know how the work situation is in Spain? Are jobs hard to find generally for brits?
Any information that you can offer us would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to hearing from anyone who can offer us some help.
Many thanks,
Dave.
Most long term rentals will be advertised with spanish agencies rather than brit ones which usually concentrate on the holiday market. You would pay a small fortune doing a holiday let for 6 months so make sure you dont!

Go into Google and do a search on "alquiler" and the name of the town that interests you. That should bring up the spanish agencies. If you can search on town names rather than Costa del this, costa del that, the results will be much better.

the general rule of thumb is that work for expats can be hard to find, unless you speak fluent spanish in which case they will be biting your arm off.

If you cant speak spanish you are limited to expat companies. If you settle in an area with a high expat population you will have a lot of competition. So think carefully about what you want to do, and try to select an area of spain where your skills are in demand - coasts v cities.

My missus didnt have a trade either, so before we left she did a crash course in the UK and got herself one.
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Old Nov 21st 2006, 8:50 pm
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Default Re: Thinking of a move to Spain?

Thanks for your reply Keith, I appreciate it. I do not want to take liberties with you by suggesting you are the Spanish tourism board, but are there any particular area's of Spain that you can recommend please?
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Old Nov 21st 2006, 9:24 pm
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Default Re: Thinking of a move to Spain?

Originally Posted by BigDave
Thanks for your reply Keith, I appreciate it. I do not want to take liberties with you by suggesting you are the Spanish tourism board, but are there any particular area's of Spain that you can recommend please?
Spain is a very big country - perhaps you can narrow it down for us a little bit. Do you want coast, inland, city? Large expat community, just a few brits or somewhere spanish? Can you (or will you) speak spanish? Hot/mild climate? Do you want to work for a brit company for spanish company? or self employed?

I think you will find that most people on this forum will recommend the town where they already live. I for one have found the place where we will spend the rest of our lives and wont consider any alterntives- you cant beat perfection!, but that doesnt mean it would suit everyone.

Last edited by keithwalters; Nov 21st 2006 at 9:25 pm. Reason: god, my spelling is crap today.
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Old Nov 21st 2006, 9:40 pm
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Default Re: Thinking of a move to Spain?

Hi Dave

A property site someone told me about was www.kyero.com.

We are planning on moving over to Spain next year and are more or less in the same position as you and your wife. We have learnt some Spanish and hope to continue when we are in Spain. We also are going to rent and need jobs when we are over there.

Good Luck
Karen
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Old Nov 21st 2006, 9:52 pm
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Default Re: Thinking of a move to Spain?

Thanks Keith, and good point made.. Spain is indeed a big place. I am, I guess, a little tired of living in England and sick of the rat race. We have no dependant children and as we don't benefit from the type of earning's in Britain that are needed to secure a mortgage here, we only rent a property. This means that other than the distance from our Family members, there is little to keep us in Britain? We love good weather (who doesn't) and we feel the way of life in Spain would be far more conducive than that of Blighty. We want to earn enough to be able to pay our rent and put a meal on the table, but enjoy a warm climate when not working. In terms of language, we speak no Spanish at this time but are keen to start the ball rolling in the next couple of days through the use of tapes/Cd's. We are not too fussed about the coast or inland area's as long as we can commute to a beach by bus/train within a reasonable time. We may be wearing those old rose coloured spectacles at this moment in time, hence why we are looking for the best advice we can proffer from those who have taken the plunge already?
We could be trading the Devil for the deep blue sea here, but we just want to better our lives if it is possible to do so and Spain feels like a really good starting point?
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Old Nov 21st 2006, 10:00 pm
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Default Re: Thinking of a move to Spain?

Good luck to you too Karen (Kaylee) and thanks for your reply. What do you hope to do when you get to Spain? Are you going out as a couple or do you have children to think about as well? Do you have a trade or are you just going to go for what you can to survive? We are so keen to give this a go but are worried as I guess most are that we are going to be ok. Still, we won't know if we don't try and give it a go, so here's luck to the both of us. Cheers!!
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Old Nov 21st 2006, 10:30 pm
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Default Re: Thinking of a move to Spain?

Hi Dave

I work in social care at the moment and have had a couple of contact numbers given to me for when we move. I have got qualifications in the field of work I do now but don't know whether they count in Spain, or if they would make any difference . I don't mind what work I do really as long as we don't have to dig into the savings too much. I've done bar work and kitchen work too, so whatever it takes really.

My husband is the same, he has always done heavy manual work, he has been a miner and worked in foundries. We know someone in Spain who moved over and is now doing welding. We plan on not working that hard :scared: (hopefully ) but thats what he did in England and he would rather have the lifestyle Spain can offer when he isn't working.

When and where are planning on moving to and what do you and your wife plan to do for work?

Karen
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Old Nov 21st 2006, 10:37 pm
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Default Re: Thinking of a move to Spain?

I've also learned a lot off expat sites and also from books I loaned from the library. We are off to Spain Sunday, all in the cause of research of course. I need to now what the place we are planning to live in is like out of season
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Old Nov 21st 2006, 10:40 pm
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Default Re: Thinking of a move to Spain?

Hi Karen. We are open to any type of work that we can physically do really? I have experience in Sales and Estate Agency :scared: (I was a nice Estate Agent) and we haven't got a clue what we'll do or where we will go yet! :scared: We are so sick of Britain and the way things are going here, that we just want to give Spain a go and hopefully never look back. We don't know anyone who has done this before and have no friends in Spain, hence posting on this site in the hope we will make some friends along the way and get some good advice from those in the know! Have you been planning for long and do you have a specific area to go to??
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Old Nov 21st 2006, 10:47 pm
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Default Re: Thinking of a move to Spain?

Hi Karen. Good luck on the flight and subsequent investigative work; Don't drink too much on Sunday. My Wife said the same as you in terms of going out to look around to see whats, what. She also said that visiting out of season would be a good indicator of how things are when tourism isn't at it's peak Perhaps you could drop us an email on your return to let us know how you both got on, along with any good tips you may pick up whilst over there?? We both wish the two of you well during your travels.
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Old Nov 21st 2006, 11:02 pm
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Default Re: Thinking of a move to Spain?

Originally Posted by BigDave
Hi Karen. Good luck on the flight and subsequent investigative work; Don't drink too much on Sunday. My Wife said the same as you in terms of going out to look around to see whats, what. She also said that visiting out of season would be a good indicator of how things are when tourism isn't at it's peak Perhaps you could drop us an email on your return to let us know how you both got on, along with any good tips you may pick up whilst over there?? We both wish the two of you well during your travels.
It sounds to me as if you have the coastal tourist areas in mind - you mention things like "out of season" which of course is a coastal phenomenon. With your lack of spanish that is probably a good idea as this is where the expats and british companies congregate. You could probably capitalise on your experience as an estate agent - I believe that some of the brit agencies dont require you to speak spanish.

The biggest draw back for you will be the rental prices which are very inflated along the coasts. If you go inland the prices are cheaper, but the jobs are fewer and farther between.

I would say steer clear of the costa del sol which is already very overpopulated with brits and you would have so much competition when it came to getting a job. I would guess rental for a half decent property there would be about 1000 euros per month, although I'm sure others can advise better.

Investigate up and coming areas where the british havent already taken hold. For a long term let you should get a good 2 bed property for no more than 700 euros tops per month if you pick the area carefully. And rent from a spaniard - they usually charge less and are less finicky about contracts, deposits, pets, breakages, etc.
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Old Nov 21st 2006, 11:10 pm
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Default Re: Thinking of a move to Spain?

Thanks again Keith, some good advice as ever. I am off to bed now to dream of what may or may not be?? Have a good evening and hope to hear from you again in the future.

Cheers to Karen too!!

Later.......
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Old Nov 22nd 2006, 5:47 am
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Default Re: Thinking of a move to Spain?

I think Keith has given you some pretty sound advice there, although you'll probably need to choose an area where there is at least a degree of Brits taking hold to ensure potential employment in the estate agency arena.

Be advised that a lot of people of working age who move to Spain have a very difficult time financially, far worse than they would in the UK - this is both a factor of their Spanish skills restricting their employment choice but is also related to the general Spanish jobs market - in some respects it is a little like the UK 30+ years ago, lots of people poorly paid but comfortable that they are in their jobs for life so prepared to accept the low income.

If I could give you only one bit of advice it would be to work so hard on your Spanish that you think you couldn't do any more - and then double your efforts. If you are a typical Brit with almost zero language skills (including the lack of English grammar teaching that was very prevalent for a period in UK schools) then it can be quite difficult to learn, many people have to learn English properly (nouns, verbs, personal pronouns etc) before they can learn Spanish.

Don't take the above as being especially negative, its not meant to be, Spain is a great place to live whatever your choices of location. I seem to remember that the "living and Working in Spain" book was pretty useful when it comes to sorting out a lot of issues and would be worth its purchase price.

Good luck
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Old Nov 22nd 2006, 7:32 am
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Default Re: Thinking of a move to Spain?

Hi,
I don't want to appear to negative but if you can only afford to live in spain if both of you are working and renting property I think you might find the cost of living higher than you might expect. Not speaking Spanish even in high tourist areas can still be a problem. The Spanish people accept you better if you at least try. My family are moving over next March but we will be living on my Husbands pension and even then we have a strict budget. Do lots of investigating, look at loads of websites.
I do wish you both well but make sure you have all the answers first for every eventuality.

Sue
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