Moving to Torrevieja

Hello Kay, 
This is a very good guide for letting out your property. All the details are within the guide but basically there are very strict rules for obtaining and keeping a Tourist Licence.
Davebev1's guides: Renting out your property as a holiday let in Spain
Crime in Spain is a lot lower than the UK but wherever you find tourists there will be distraction crimes and phones, pads, wallets, handbags etc are a prime target. The main crimes I hear of are the motorway thefts, where a helpful stranger in a passing car will start indicating you have a problem with your car, you will pull in, possibly to a service station, and bye bye car and contents, and  the other is pickpockets.
I personally feel safer here than in my previous Hampshire market town and you are going to find crime everywhere.

Hi Cheryl, 

Thanks so much, that's really helpful. We travel to Spain a lot and know to be careful and we've never had any problems. 

It's reassuring to know that the crime rates are low. It's getting worse here. 

We can't wait to get our property next year!

Thanks again,

Kay

A couple of sites to have a look at before you arrive are as follows:

Jim's Guides on this site - these can give you good advice about many things, many translated from Spanish laws..

The Citizens Advice Bureau Spain - for current rules and regulations about many things for which you will have queries.

N332 - for anything to do with driving in Spain.   It is run in collaboration with officers of the Guardia Civil for English speaking people and has an English version of the Spanish equivalent of the Highway Code.

We had holiday in torrevieja,  hated the place , prostitutes are on some roundabouts,  have you spent time there ,? If not try a few holidays there first , best area by far is villamartin/ la zenia area , 

That's really helpful thanks. We are planning on coming over in May and visiting a few places around there. We've looked online at lots of properties in Villamartin too and it looks lovely.

Hi...I'm a Kay too!

All depends what part of Torrevieja. Like all cities it has good and bad areas. Are you actually aiming for the city itself or one of the urbanization? Tendency is for anywhere new building is going on to be quite high crime, usually looking for money and documents left accessible by people who are still in holiday mode. Once an urb is complete crime level usually drops off.

Have a look at Guardamar if you want the best of both worlds (the centre rather than the Puerto area). Its a great place to live and very little crime other than the usual opportunist pick pocketing etc, largely in the tourist season.

Ah Kay! Thanks for that it's really helpful.

We are hoping to buy somewhere to have as a holiday home, then when it's paid off sell our home here and move to Spain.

Do you live there? How long have you been there? 

I live about 20 minutes inland from Torrevieja and you can find the ‘ladies of the roundabouts’ everywhere, not just in Torrevieja.

Thanks, we've been on lots of holidays to lots of places where you see lots of these "ladies"! Haha! There's always loads in Tenerife and Ibiza too. There's plenty on a night out in Newcastle! They get about a bit don't they! Literally! 

Kay