Moving to Spain

I retired two years early and We sold up totally in the UK including house, cars, 2 motorcycles, furniture etc,etc and arrived here in Benidorm with a couple of suitcases and a healthy bank balance. That was seven years ago and we've never regretted one day. We love everything about living in Spain. It was a challenge to navigate the Red tape to get full residency and healthcare but after three months we were full residents. We both now have out TIE cards which state we are permanent residents.

Nowadays it's not so simple as it was then, Brexit has made things so much more difficult!!

Have you looked into the requirements for obtaining residency in Spain? You first have to apply for a visa from the Spanish embassy in the UK. If you meet all the income and healthcare requirements you can move over here and then apply for residency. 

If you have an Irish passport then it's a whole different way of getting residency. 

It's worth every effort to come and live in Spain. 

Steve 

Hi

We moved to Spain 9 years ago. We deliberately chose to rent somewhere so that if we didn't like it we could move on easily. We rented a lovely flat a few metres away from Villamartin Plaza, but after 6 months we realised we were in the wrong place - its a good job we were renting!

Apart from that, we have had no problems at all and certainly no regrets!

We now own our home in Playa Flamenca and regularly use the shops and bars in La Florida.

However, be aware that public transport around here is not up to much!

Cheers

Steve

Thank you so much for your reply. I'm going over at the end of the month and im going to stay in playa flamenca for a week to look around the area. My partner has a house in Santa Pola which isn't too far from Playa Flamenca/ La florida which is only a bus ride away. 

Hi Susan,

My husband and I moved here permanently just over 5 years ago, taking early retirement at ages 58 and 55 respectively.  We do have a property in the UK, which we rent out.  We knew the area well, as we had been regularly visiting my husband´s parents, who lived in the area for 18 years.  Unless you know the areas well, I agree with Steve about renting first.  The costs associated with buying and selling property in Spain are much higher than the UK (property purchase tax calculated at 10% of the purchase value, plus another 3-4% for lawyer, notary and land registry), so getting it wrong can be expensive.  Bear in mind that you´ll also have to pay for private health insurance until you reach State retirement age.

I would also say, come with an open mind.  Bureaucracy is a favourite ´sport´(!) in Spain, but it is what it is and you have to kick back, work your way through it and, hopefully, the upsides of living in this wonderful country will more than compensate.  If you´re constantly comparing the relatively well-oiled machinery of UK bureaucracy with Spain, you´ll drive yourself mad.  We´re legally resident, pay our taxes here, and I´m learning the language - a must if you want to integrate with the locals.  It´s incredible the difference in Spanish people when you make the effort to speak their language.  

We´ve never once regretted our decision to move permanently to Spain.

Good luck with your house sale.

Kind regards,

Kim

Hello

 Yes there is a bus you would be able to get which starts in Pilar de la Horadada and goes to Alicante via Torrevieja. It does stop in Playa Flamenca ( it says on route map) but I've never seen anyone at the stop and should stop again in Santa Pola - if you do get it, it will take about 1hour & 20mins as there are many other stops on that route

Cheers

Elinspain

The stop in Playa Flamenca is less than obvious!

Thank you Kim, well I'm hoping to move from rep of Ireland to live permanently in Spain, when my house has sold. Well I've actually weighed up the pros and cons of whether to rent first or buy a house and I've decided to buy. So I can't wait to start my new home in the sun

We moved over four years ago and it was the best decision ever made. Totally agree with Kim about red tape, it’s really daunting as first, but once you’ve passed  those hurdles you’re fine. So what,  if it takes you three hours to open a bank account - you’ve not got anything else to do  with your day apart from sunbathe and your reason of having a nice cool beer just because you’ve opened a bank account is more than justified.

Everyone says rent at first especially if you don’t know the area, we didn’t we bought !

I’d never been to the area, but my husband had and my only knowledge was gained from trawling the internet and watching  A Place in the Sun. That was many many hours wasted as when we came looking for property we realised that nothing looked like the pictures we’d seen.  
Fortunately my boss had purchased his first holiday home  in the Costa del Sol over 20 years earlier and he gave me lots of advice of what to look for in areas and properties.

But in all honesty after only a couple of days house hunting once we’d found the location we wanted to live in and then found the house we knew everything was right and a put a deposit down straight away. That was on my fifth day of visiting the Costa Blanca!  Was it good luck or good judgement I don’t know, but it was definitely the right decision.

Lynn

I and many other posters will recommend renting for a short time first especially if you don't know the area very well. For every good purchase their is a bad purchase and if you make the latter you could be regretting the decision for ages until, or if, you can resell. Making the correct choice will make a big difference to the start of your Spanish life.

Steve