I have never made any secret about my happiness about moving to Spain, where we (my wife and two children) have been for the past seven years. However, I have equally never maintained that life in Spain could be compared to paradise. Living here is certainly not for everyone. Spanish culture (on all levels) is different from the UK and can yield (depending upon yourself and how you deal with life here) as many difficulties as it does benefits.
So, in response to my article on 10 reasons for moving to Spain, here are – as objectively as possible! – 10 reasons for not moving to Spain:
1. Spanish property is unsafe to buy. To some extent, this is true – with real care required to avoid buying illegal property (of which there is a significant amount) or property in Spain that has potentially serious future liabilities. Equally, there is the danger of ‘Land Grab’ and the hazards of laws (like the Ley de Costas) that have not been properly enforced. Corruption is endemic and the general standard of conveyancing is poor. In other words, buying Spanish property can be unsafe – unless you really know what you are doing.
2. Different language. Away from coastal areas, little English is spoken. This is particularly true of rural areas. In any event, being in another country and not speaking the language to a basic conversational level is always challenging – with any problem magnified when you are unable to communicate effectively.
3. Spanish culture. Day to day, Spanish culture may appear to be similar to any other First World nation but, in reality, it is significantly different. In provincial areas, siesta timings mean that shops are closed during the middle of the day and then re-open until mid-evening. Bars are noisy (the Spanish are nothing if not gregarious), the laws different, the towns are sometimes choatic, parking is simply bizarre and social life continues until very late (whatever day of the week). Unless you are fluent in Spanish, any theatre plays and cinema films are essentially useless to you. Furthermore, Spanish communities tend to be tightly knit and integration can take time.
4. Far from family and friends. Spain may be only a couple of hours flight away form Northern Europe – but this is not the same as having your family and close friends nearby, whilst intimately living the ‘theatre’ of daily life with them. Obviously, being abroad makes any quick response to an emergency, to all intents and purposes, impossible. Equally, it takes time to build a meaningful social circle and with it a reliable ‘support’ structure for your new life in Spain.
5. Work in Spain is difficult to find. Certainly, if you lack Spanish, finding work in Spain can be difficult. Even when you do find work, the pay is normally much lower than within Northern Europe for the same type of job. So, you need to know exactly what you are doing or a know of a good niche before you come to Spain.
6. Vulnerability of Sterling income. The past couple of years has shown how a change in the strength of Sterling with regard to the Euro can decimate the purchasing power of a UK derived income. So, life in Spain with regard to your finances will always be subject (for good or ill) to the workings of international finance – something over which you will have little control.
7. Foreign health care. Rarely can anyone feel more vulnerable than when they are ill abroad and have to turn for attention to a health care system with which they are unfamiliar. This is particularly the case when, as with Spanish state health care, there are no formally supplied translators. This means that most people feel that the only alternative is the relative expense of private health care - with delivery of that care through guaranteed speakers of their language.
8. The perils of high inheritance tax. In Spain, inheritance tax can be very high – unless you are formally ‘tax resident’ (which you must apply for after being in the country for 6 months).
9. Too hot and no ‘defined seasons. Of course, much depends upon where you live in Spain – as the climate varies hugely around the country. Certainly, it can be very hot in the summer (the Almeria area being the hottest of all) and in Mediterranean areas there tend to be (very roughly) two seasons rather then the four of North European countries.
10. Too dry and arid. As above, the variations of Spain’s vegetation and geography are staggering. There are areas that are arid (and almost like desert) and other areas that are green (in the Asturias or around the Mediterranean coast of Valencia, for example). Much of the north western coastline is not disimilar to the UK. Everything depends upon where you go and the type of life in Spain that you want.
I think that these are some fair reasons for not moving to Spain?
All are valid in their way - albeit that some of the above have actually delighted us, to be honest. That said, as a family we have always had a robust philosophy about our life in Spain. We have chosen freely to live in a foreign country and we knew beforehand that we had to have a strategy to deal with Spanish culture and the different challenges that would come our way.
Making the best of life in Spain (probably like anywhere in the world) does require an open mind and an ability to absorb what you do not like (and cannot change!) – without it becoming an insuperable problem. Certainly, it is vital, before moving to Spain, to know any major downsides and take action (beforehand) to avoid them. This is particularly true where Spanish property is concerned. About the latter (and the delicacies of location), I have written ad nauseum, not least in my ‘Moving Safely to Spain’ book. In short, exactly where you move to – and precisely what you buy – will define absolutely your future life in Spain. It will also negate or maximise many of the ‘problems’ above.
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