Where should we explore if we want to consider living on the Costa Blanca? - Page 2

You've picked quite an extensive area with some 200km from north to south. Bear in mind the closer you get to the beach area the more expensive the property. Slightly inland and they go down substantially. Trouble is the public transport gets worse.

We picked about 8km inland and a town with an all round vibe and everything open. Just a 10 minute drive to the beach if we want it but we are in a quiet area which suits us fine although we have lots of bars and restaurants within walking distance along with half a dozen of the major supermarkets within a couple of k of us. Quiet when we want and busy when we want which suits us fine. And a 40 minute trip to the airport suits us as does the main motorway just 5 minutes away so we can go where we want with no hassle.

We travel up and down the coast spending a week or so in each place during the season. Altea is nice but a stony beach. Calpe and Villa Joyosa two of our favourites and we have Valencia for the times we want a city break. Then even further south to Almunecar, Cartagena or Mojacar, all an hour or two away. Train travel is cheap here and we can get to Barcelona from Alicante in 5 hours for about 60 euro and, sometimes, Madrid in less than 3 hours for the ridiculous price of 12 euro.

Guardamar del Segura has a wonderful beach but just going a few km inland to El Raso (still under Guardamar) and you get a lot more property and grounds for your money.  But public transport like feathers on a fish.

A garden was essential so we could sit outside and tend the plants and we like eating outdoors as well so a gazebo gives us shade. Not too big a garden at our age but just big enough for lots of pots and bushes. 

Evening meals under the stars enjoying a glass or two of something is one of the things we love here along with breakfast in our back garden among the hibiscus and bougainvillea.  

Great response and useful info..my  wife liked the sound of Guardamar del Segura, so that, and surrounding area is something we will have a look at.   Looks like if we go off the front a car or taxis will be necessary evil, but as I said in the initial post,won't be a deal breaker for the right area.

Thanks for the info

Ian & Emma

A couple of websites that may have information for you are:

Citizens Advice Bureau Spain, for bureaucratic stuff, and

N332 for anything to do with driving in Spain.   This site, and their Facebook page, is for English speaking people and is run in collaboration with officers of the Guardia Civil.

Nobody has mentioned La Mata yet!  La Mata is an old Spanish village not far from Guardamar so has the same beautiful Sandy beach which runs along the coast to the edge of Torrevieja.  There’s a marvellous boardwalk used by so many of us day and daily. An excellent bus service, all amenities and mostly on the level. No longer dead during the winter as so many Scandinavian people stay until  May/ June to escape their cold winters. Lots of restaurants, bank, pharmacy, opticians, tobacconist and all the rest but NO McDonalds or any of those well known fast food places. In my opinion, La Mata is idyllic. I hope you are planning to keep a property at home. By all means do air b&b but keep July and August for your own use as you’ll more than likely want to escape the damnable heat and tourists who descend on the coast to escape the city heat. 

We bought in this area 21 years ago and still love being there. We are not resident but spend about 5/6 months a year over there. 

Hi 

Not massively up to speed with all the tax stuff.   A couple of questions;

Do you mean Tax year (6 Apr to 5 Apr) or calender year?  

Is there a time frame/delay from getting a non lucrative visa and becoming a tax resident in Spain.

Would the Capital Gains Tax still be an issue of we decided to rent before we bought a property?

Appreciate we probably need to speak to a Financial Adviser, but any info you can impart would be helpful.

Thanks

Ian & Emma

Hi

thanks for the info we will certainly have a look at La Mata.

Are you saying we should retain a property in the UK to return to in the summer months (July/August) to rent out the rest of the year via AirB&B? Or have I misunderstood?

Also, you say you stay 5/6 months of the year. Are you still able to achieve this with the 90 day stay rule?

sorry for the confusion, 

regard s

Ian & Emma

Just to clarify, the tax year in Spain is January - December. Returns usually made in May, payment taken in June.

Firstly, as stated, the Spanish tax year is the same as the calendar year, Jan to Dec.

You become a tax resident in Spain once you have been here for more than 6 months in any calendar year.

If you sell property in UK after you become a tax resident in Spain you would be liable for CGT in Spain. If you become resident in the second half of the year you do not become a tax resident until the following year. For example, move over in October 2024 and you would not become tax resident until the year 2025 and complete your first tax return by April 2026 for all income in 2025. If you move over in April 2024 you become tax resident for 2024 and complete your first tax return by April 2025 for all income in 2024 including world wide property sales.

You can stay in Spain for up to 6 months in any one calendar year but not in one go. it is split into 2 lots of 90 days each in a rolling 180 days. 

To expand on this, if you sold your UK property in, say, January 2025 (after the start of the Spanish tax year) and then moved to Spain shortly after, spending 183 days or more of the calendar year in Spain you would become liable to Spanish Capital Gains tax on the sale of your UK property. There is no taper or indexation so if, for example, you bought your UK property 25 years ago for £100K and then sold it for £400K, getting the timing wrong  could land you with a costly tax bill on the £300K gain.

I also mentioned La Mata in my first post and it probably meets most of your requirements, as it does ours. The only negative as far as we are concerned is that the majority of the properties available are either apartments or townhouses with communal facilities rather than villas with private pools and gardens which is our preferred option. If you prefer a villa then you could consider the Aguas Nuevas area of Torrevieja, with easy bus access to both La Mata and central Torrevieja, and decent facilities in that area itself.

We were the same as you both we did 500 miles down the coast of costa blanc south in April 2023, I can high recommend Jay from Oakwood,Properties he put us up in a villa for 5 days and picked us up each day and visited lots of areas. We have  purchased a villa in Pilar de la Horadada its 5 mins walk into pilar and the central square a Spanish town with bars and restaurants 

If you wants like any further information please let me know