Living in Spain

Spain no longer offers a cheap lifestyle. This is a mantra I repeat over and over in the course of a day at work to those who still expect to pay 100,000 Euros for a 3 bed villa with a pool near the beach, or 400 Euros a month rent for the same property. I have been selling and renting property for holidays or long term rentals, for the past four years here on the Costa Blanca and watched many pack up and leave those dismal UK skies with high hopes for a cheaper and better way of life in the sun.

It doesn't always work out that way. In that time, I have seen more friends forced to return to the UK than remain. 90% have not gone through choice, they simply cannot afford to stay. Many start businesses that fail (although many do succeed), and others cannot find work. Most jobs here require two, if not three, language - and bar/restaurant work is the privilege of the young.

I have rented more than a couple of properties to people on a long term rental basis, where they signed an 11 month contract and left after a couple of months due to being unable to find work.

Living in Spain can be idyllic for those with money or the retired. They probably do not see how difficult it can be for the rest of us. I never worked so hard, or such long hours in the UK, but I made the choice and have no regrets.

A single parent with two children of 12 and 13, I came to Spain with a well paid job working on the internet and rented a 4 bed apartment for 300 Euros a month whilst both children attended local Spanish school. Now? Struggling to run my own business and paying 900 Euros a month rent + bills, and office rent + bills, and staff, advertising, private school fees.. the list goes on. Why? Sometimes I don't know - must be the Jalon wine.

Working in Villa Rentals made me realise there was a huge gap in the market for a good property management service, so I started one in 2002. At that time business was great, my website was number one on all the search engines (probably because I had no competition for that particular key phrase 'property management spain'), and I was optimistic about the future. However, now the world and his wife are offering these services - mostly couples working illegally from home - and I have seen many websites springing up, many blatant copies of my own which took me months to write.

So many things happened and so much changed during this four year period that I started writing it down - all the little trials and tribulations that you never read about in books written about life in Spain. For instance, did you know that in the small villages striking up a conversation with a married man almost gets you burnt at the stake? Nor did I, I thought he was just being friendly. At this time, I was the only Brit within the village (although some lived in villas outside), apart from one girl who had been there 13 years and married to a Spaniard. Ignorance is not bliss - there is a strict code of ethics in some of these villages that remain predominantly Spanish, one that has to be learned as you go along.

Living in Spain is definately changing for the better as more foreigners relocate. You can now buy chicken without heads, feet and insides attached, women aren't frowned upon for walking into a bar, and I probably wouldn't be hissed at for talking to married men. My 'diary' has now been published as an ebook - Moving to Spain, a true insight on living in Spain permanently.