[Mark Stücklin]

The British market is doing booming business in the buying of Spanish homes – but you won’t catch me retiring to the Med

If you are interested, there is a new article at the Daily Telegraph saying that British pensioners are flocking to buy homes in Spain taking advantage of their pension pots and the stronger pound to enjoy life in a sunnier clime, but the author prefers to spend the twilight years in familiar surroundings (obviously never visited some parts of the Spanish coast that are British ghettos ;-))

I note this article claims there are 381,025 British expats living in Spain. I wonder where that figure comes from. Any ideas?

[DBMarcos99]

A strange article altogether. Just as some people would prefer to live in the country, and others in a big city, of course some people prefer the familiar settings of home. And of course one always has to weigh up health issues and the location of loved ones. The writer seems to think the only pull factor of Spain is the sun. Well it’s undoubtably a major factor, but if it was only down to the sun, people would retire in equal numbers to Kenya or south Africa. There are lots of other pull factors including security and short flights from Blighty.

[Chris Nation]

And I don’t buy into the trad English middle class dream of a cottage in the country with roses round the door, lupins in the garden, a village green with a pub on the boundary of the cricket field…

Many do. Good luck to them. One major reason I want to move to Spain is that I want city life. I want to be able to walk out onto the street and be in a cafe within a few minutes, be surrounded by people going about their business, cultural institutions tempting me in to see whatever … And having lived in central London [R. Albert Hall 5 mins walk] for 30 years I’m sorry to say that I am entirely spoiled for the other cities of UK and, as London is now way beyond my budget, I have had to look ex-UK.

But I no more want golf, sangria and a villa on a costa than I do the English country idyll. Before anyone points out the ‘costa’ lifestyle look of my avatar, I fancy that’s me after a 30 minute trip on a hot #19 bus from Plaza Ayuntamiento, Valencia, to a table outside Bobo’s, on the city’s beach.

The writer of the Telegraph article clearly has a very narrow view of what draws people to Spain.

 

 

• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by Chris Nation.

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