Thread: Moving to Spain

I live in Cyprus at the moment and I am thinking about moving to Spain - can anyone tell me the cost of living in Spain - would be nice to know the price of petrol, electricty, broadband, mobile phone call charges, community charges, water and anything else.

Welcome to Britsabroad Ursula :)

We have some Spanish members, so hopefully someone will be able to help you out :)

Enjoy the message boards here on the forum,

purps

Hi, I am actually moving today, so I will update this thread with my findings. I need to change some money over to Euros today...Purple do you know the best place to do this. I'm still in the UK until tonight anyway. Thanks. Jim

Hi Jimbo9, welcome to the forum.
Updateng the thread with your experiences would be great! :)
I guess that you're out of the UK, and have the Euro's by now. You could have exchanged currency at your Bank, and there are currency exchanges at the International Airports.
I'm not around on here all the time, and being based in the US, the timezone difference will always stop me being here before lunchtime on UK time.

All the best, and we look forward to hearing more from you!

purps

This would be great to read about and learn.

Yes, I'm now in Spain. I drove there...the Weather through France was bad, after Bordeaux the Weather was much better.
In the end I phoned up the bank and they said that it was free for me to take out Euros. So that's good to get cash out quickly, the thing with using your card abroad is sometimes it does not work for anti-fraud measures. But I thought it best to transfer money into a new Spanish account. My friend who lives here told me about a UK Company he uses to transfer money across. So I've started using them now. Their web address is, www.satworldwide.co.uk

Congratulations Jim!

We'll look forward to hearing more from you.

How are things so far, you think you'll settle in ok?
Kind of interested to see how the weather compares there too.

All the best for now!

The only thing thats more expensive in Spain than the UK is an Internet broadband connection. I pay 42 Euros a month for mine. Eeek!
My local Tax, that we pay to the Town Hall, is 145 Euros a year. That is for a 135 Sq Mtr village house - 3 beds, 3 baths, 2 terraces and a big patio with trees and a pond in it (its now up for sale as we are moving further south). Electricity is about the same as the UK I think. Gas we don`t have but it comes in bottles and the price is regulated by the Government. Water is cheap here but it is very hard water and is not oficially classed as "drinking water" but as "agricultural water" - the bill is usually about 14 Euros a Quarter.
Be aware that the weather (at least here in Valencia) can be cold in Winter. Today the temperature is about 14 degrees in the mornings, hotter in midday and then down to about 12 degrees at night. In Jan/Feb it can be about 2 degrees first thing. For two years running it dropped below freezing occasionally and was -2 in the nighttime and I had to smash the ice on the pond with a hammer in the mornings
We have been here 17 years now, firstly in Andalusia and for the last 7 years here in Valencia. In our experience the people up here are much more friendly and cheerful than in Andalusia. There isn`t much trace of the machismo thing here and they treat animals much better too.
I don`t think you would regret moving to Spain unless you need a job. The unemployment situation is dire just now.

Hi Jack, many thanks for the information you're able to give to the people wishing to move to Spain.
It's always good to have someone that has experienced the life and "lived the dream".

I'll be gently pushing the Spain seekers in your direction for answers to their questions, in future ;)

purps

Hi Purps!
Yes. we love it here, but people shouldn`t think it is easy. Too many come a cropper and end up back in the UK having spent their money and disrupted their children`s schooling, friends etc. It should not be undertaken lightly. In this financial crisis situation we are ALL in it is just as well to remember that it affects every country.

Really the only people who should be uprooting themselves are those with pensions on which they can live when the going gets rough. Especially if they have kids!