Moving to The Costa Blanca this year, we cannot afford the sea view we would like so going for the best house in a good neighbourhood.

Elche is not by the sea, it is about 15-20 minutes' drive inland and is a very busy town - the town hall website is:  https://www.elche.es.   However, there is an area that comes under the jurisdiction of Elche and is by the sea, it is called La Marina - it is a small village (don't confuse this with the La Marina a short distance away inland that is an urbanisation and comes under the jurisdiction of San Fulgencio).   Santa Pola is by the sea with a long, flat area beside the sea but a lot of the area at the back is quite hilly.  The website for the town is:  https://www.santapola.es.

I would suggest also that you have a look at the Citizens Advice Bureau Spain site regarding the bureaucracy and financial situation involved in moving to Spain now that the UK is not part of the EU but is classed as a Third Country (not third world country).

For the last 40 years I live near Fortuna where there is a nice "colony" of expats from various nations. It's about 1 hr. driving to the beach and prices here are quite affordable. We even have a local superstore with a considerable variety of British foodstuff.

We live in Catral, which is 15 minutes from Elche. We bought our villa just over 2 years ago. It's on the outskirts of the town in the campo, which is countryside. Catral has many supermarkets, shops and a Saturday market. Also bars and restaurants. We can walk into town so it's not far. It's only 25 minutes drive to the beaches or mountains. The weather here is fabulous. The mountains keep a lot of bad weather away. Spain is a dusty place to live because it's so dry so be prepared, also our garden was layed out before we bought it to gravel which has very little maintenance. The fruit trees are a bonus.

There will be a lot of places to sell as many Holiday homes are being sold, especially when the pandemic is more under control. 

If I can help in any way send a message, also it's important to read all the links that a few members have advised

Hi Angela,

Thank you so much for your helpful message. I think we are set on the area, and there seem to be many fine properties with good gardens.

John & Nina Sheffield

When I sent my earlier post I did not realise that you were from Sheffield, the city where I was born.   My late husband and I moved to Almoradí, about 30 minutes’ drive from Elche and 20 minutes inland from Torrevieja, back in 2005.   Moving to Spain was much easier then.   

Almoradí is a small town of about 17,000 people.   We have a good health centre, a bus station (but not many buses), several supermarkets and many other different shops, lots of bars and restaurants (all closed at present except those who are doing takeaways), a large outdoor market that takes over several of the streets around the town hall every Saturday morning, a couple of churches, a small theatre, sports centre, football team with it’s own ground, dentists, opticians and a post office, along with a Local Police station and a Guardia Civil station.

Hi,

We are not from Sheffield, that is our surname. We live just outside Tunbridge Wells, Kent and have a clinic there. 

John

I beg your pardon.   I must have had a ‘senior’ moment.

Good luck, Stainless45. 

I was born in Sheffield!

Am also looking for a property, 1 or 2 bed flat, around Alicante City, perhaps San Juan, Albufereta, Gran Alacant areas since the city itself is understandably quite expensive. Our budget is 100k euros, unless we blow it first on carryouts.

I've had my fair share of good advice from Golandrina and others, many thanks. But if anyone else wants to throw in their tuppence worth, am all ears.

-:) I have them often.