# Young family moving to spain, need lots of info please



## xgembeanx

hello all.
ok planning to move to Spain next april/may 2011. my boyfriend really wanted Alicante center (gran Alacant) i think, but we could not find anywhere on the search engine in terms of long term rentals. 
so we looked at Benidorm (because i know somebody who lives there, but they hardly reply to my messages so im thinking maybe not rely on her to much) 
we would be looking for a 2 bedroom house/villa/apartment, ideally with private pool/garden, if not pool then defo garden as i havr to small children  for around the 500€ mark.
i dont drive so would need to be near state schools.
what age do they start the schools? Lucie will be 5 and Lanie will be just under 2.
also what are utility bill costs approx? gas (which i have been told are gas bottles) elec? phone? internet? do you have to pay council tax like here in the uk?
how do we register on the padron and doctors and things? also bank accounts? i have read somewhere that is you open a bank account you get charged for things like taking money out ect?
neither of us speak spanish but are very willing to learn, altho i am a slow learner which is worrying me lol

any help would be really welcome 
thanks in advance
Gemma x


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## SteveHall

hello all.
ok planning to move to Spain next april/may 2011. my boyfriend really wanted Alicante center (gran Alacant) i think, but we could not find anywhere on the search engine in terms of long term rentals.
**The place is CRAMMED with long term rentals. Get over here to check them out. Easy.

so we looked at Benidorm (because i know somebody who lives there, but they hardly reply to my messages so im thinking maybe not rely on her to much)
we would be looking for a 2 bedroom house/villa/apartment, ideally with private pool/garden, if not pool then defo garden as i havr to small children for around the 500€ mark.

^^You won't get a private villa with pool @ 500 but you would get communal for that.
i dont drive so would need to be near state schools.
^^ Gran Alacant will be OK then 

what age do they start the schools? Lucie will be 5 and Lanie will be just under 2.
also what are utility bill costs approx? gas (which i have been told are gas bottles) elec? phone? internet? do you have to pay council tax like here in the uk?
**See cost of living sticky. 

how do we register on the padron and doctors and things? also bank accounts? i have read somewhere that is you open a bank account you get charged for things like taking money out ect?

^^All simple stuff. 

neither of us speak spanish but are very willing to learn, altho i am a slow learner which is worrying me lol

^^Start learning NOW

any help would be really welcome
thanks in advance
Gemma x 

^^You really need to get over here to check things out. Gran Alacant and Benidorm are two very different towns. Once you have found where you want to be all the rest will fall into place. Gran Alacant is just full of long term rentals - just Google Gran Alacant alquiler or Gran Alacant rentals to check the listings.


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## jojo

So many questions. First of all, as Steve says you need to come over and find out where you want to be. There are loads of rentals - short term doesnt necessarily mean a holiday rental, it can be anything upto 11 months and then renewed - so most people who rent here do that.

As for billes etc, apart from rental which can be cheaper than the UK and generally includes the council tax/IBI, most bills are about the same as the UK, gas is bought in bottles and is a little cheaper but not much and most houses dont have central heating so you'll be relying on gas or electricity heaters in the winter - and the winters are very wet, windy - well this year certainly has been!!! Food is about the same as the UK as are clothes, shoes etc. 

Schools officially start at 6, but there are nurseries etc, which I think you may have to pay for - not sure on that cos mine are older.

You can open a spanish bank account as long as you have a proof of address - either here or the UK. Once you have an address here you have to change the account to a residents account, banks do charge more than the UK here, even cashpoints charge unless you use you own banks ATM. Once you have an address here then go to the local police station and you can get an NIE number and you must register with the local townhall/ayuntamiento to get put onto the padron. 

Before you leave the UK you'll need to get the family their NHIC/E111 cards which will cover your health care needs until you are paying into the system here.

If you need to work here, well there is hardly anything around - even if you are fluent in written and spoken Spanish, times are are hard here - worse than the UK and you wont be entitled to any social security aid or child benifits from either country once you're here.
However, if money inst an issue then its a lovely place to live and bring up a family. But to get it right for you, you must come over and take a look, Spain has so much variety to choose from

Jo xxx


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## xgembeanx

thanks 4 info steve & jojo 
to be honest we will do any job we can find, and hopefully things will have picked up by summer 2011. we are starting saving so that we can at least pay for 3 months rent in advance and have 3 months of money to pay for bills ect to give us a little bit of time to be able to really explore all jobs schools ect and generally find are feet. my friend lives in Albir so we have narrowed it down to Albit & Gran Alacant, i have been looking at flights only and they seem to be coming back quiet dear, also i have been trying to find estate agents within these areas to try and send then information on what i would be looking at and things but the only one's that icome across are sale & holiday rentals going by prices per week. do you think i should mail them anyway and ask if the holiday rentals would be considered for long term?
i do appologise if it seems im asking alot of questions but i just want to be as prepared as i can be, espcially as i have 2 young girls, i have wanted this for so long so want it to work


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## SteveHall

Let me be blunt. If you are coming with the hope of working ............don't! 

Gran Alacant must have 90%+ expat unemployment. 
Everybody is scraping/scrapping for what little bits of "work" (NOT employment) there are.

Albir is probably one of the most expensive resorts on this coast. 
Lovely holiday resort but zero employment and 100s fighting for every job. The Copacabana had a poster up in the window a few weeks ago and had over 100 responses within 3 hours! He ripped the poster down and took the phone off the hook! Mmmm, if they all bought a beer that would be his best day's takings for the summer. (That to work in a bar at 8 euros per hour). 

Come with 2 years' money in hand or don't come. 

Sorry .... and I wish you every success but just today I have heard of another bar closing down. A young couple who were working their xxxxs off to make it work ...but there are just too many bars and too few visitors. BTW They spoke good Spanish as well as fluent Swedish and English.


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## SteveHall

Get to GA, walk into any bar and you will be knocked down in the rush if you tell the owner you are looking for a rental. Or go to Suzy Screws and check the postcards in the windows. If there is nothing there you fancy go to any of the bars in that block and ask around.

In Albir, try CostaBooking if they are still there or go into the Three Lions bar. The owner, Sean, has been in the area for years, speaks fluent Spanish and is a top guy for a Man City fan. Another good place to start is the Norwegian Seaman's Church where the pastor Reinar would usually be happy to help. If no joy there, walk across the road to Javi's Pizzeria (Pizza Plus (?) anyway next to ArgiGrill) A local married to a Norwegian who knows every apartment in town.


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## xgembeanx

wow thanks steve, 
i really dont know what to say now.... lost 4 words.
will defo save the information you just gave me. lets hope things pick up the summer 2011 (


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## mickybob

Try keyro.com usualy lots on there, dont forget to haggle.


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## grahunt

Have to agree with Steve here. Don't do it. 
Unless you spend the next year talking in Spanish 100%. You start learning how to earn money without working for someone, ie on the net or through the many ways there are of earning money in real jobs you do yourself. And you get down here first to see first hand where you want to be.
My suggestion as always is keep away from the expat areas and get to a real place. I have a friend living in Huesca who is the only Brit in town an works 10 hours a day giving business English classes and could double it easily if he decided not to sleep. 
I am currently writing a book on ways to make money without looking for a job. Maybe keep an eye out for that too ;-)


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## xgembeanx

thanks guys for all your help.
i wont deny im upset but we have had a chat and decided that we are going to continue to save and just keep an eye on things, if the workfront has not improved then still continue to save money and so on until like you say steve, we have enough money incase we dont find work. as hard as it is to put the plans on hold it's something i will have to do because of my girls.
thanks again guys, im still gona come on here and keep up to date and fingers crossed


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## SteveHall

Gee, if you are so easily put off, I have to say that you would never make it here! It's just my opinion and others may tell me I am wrong and that there is not 42% youth unemployment, 18% general unemployment, banks foreclosing on expats everywhere and a general feeling of "Hang on in there, baby". Not to forget the lack of a social welfare system for newly arrived expats. 

Keep saving, keep learning Spanish and always remember, you only need one break. Te deseo mucha suerte.


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## xgembeanx

SteveHall said:


> Gee, if you are so easily put off, I have to say that you would never make it here! It's just my opinion and others may tell me I am wrong and that there is not 42% youth unemployment, 18% general unemployment, banks foreclosing on expats everywhere and a general feeling of "Hang on in there, baby". Not to forget the lack of a social welfare system for newly arrived expats.
> 
> Keep saving, keep learning Spanish and always remember, you only need one break. Te deseo mucha suerte.



it's not that im put off, far from it, you just made me realise that i would probably need more money than what i was planning to take, just in case we dont find jobs that easily, because there might always be that big IF so at least if put it off for a while and have more money = more time to find a job. lol believe me my dream is still with me just might take me a bit longer to get there than i had hoped is all


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## SteveHall

Good on you .... and keep up with the Spanish!


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## Pippasverige

*UK family moving from Sweden to Canary Islands*

Hi there, it seems to be somewhat of a minefield. We've done the spreadsheets, spent time at Mallaca Instituto starting to learn spanish, have part-time freelance jobs for UK and Scandinavian based employers and we are still unsure whether we can afford to make the move.

We both really want to live in Spain. The weather, the sport, the language, the food etc. But the situation looks pretty bleak. We've allowed money for rent, food, bills, school books, fun stuff but now we think that we have to find another €210 each for social security payments plus health insurance on top which makes the whole dream look impossible. Our part-time jobs will only pay us €750 each after tax so we'll be eating into savings which will only last us 2 years and then what? 50% of a villa which we'll have to sell and then we'll have to return to the UK with our tails between our legs.

We can't stand another swedish winter and the thought of going back to the UK with the crime and the filth (we are both Londoners) is a depressing one.

Are we being too negative? It just seems that we have to find €2500 per month wiht an income of only €1500 per month. The maths don't look good!


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## Stravinsky

Pippasverige said:


> Hi there, it seems to be somewhat of a minefield. We've done the spreadsheets, spent time at Mallaca Instituto starting to learn spanish, have part-time freelance jobs for UK and Scandinavian based employers and we are still unsure whether we can afford to make the move.
> 
> We both really want to live in Spain. The weather, the sport, the language, the food etc. But the situation looks pretty bleak. We've allowed money for rent, food, bills, school books, fun stuff but now we think that we have to find another €210 each for social security payments plus health insurance on top which makes the whole dream look impossible. Our part-time jobs will only pay us €750 each after tax so we'll be eating into savings which will only last us 2 years and then what? 50% of a villa which we'll have to sell and then we'll have to return to the UK with our tails between our legs.
> 
> We can't stand another swedish winter and the thought of going back to the UK with the crime and the filth (we are both Londoners) is a depressing one.
> 
> Are we being too negative? It just seems that we have to find €2500 per month wiht an income of only €1500 per month. The maths don't look good!


Difficult to know without more about you. DHS payments, yes. Do you have to rent? You dont necessarily need health insurance if you are paying into the system, thats the idea of paying into the system


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## jojo

Pippasverige said:


> Hi there, it seems to be somewhat of a minefield. We've done the spreadsheets, spent time at Mallaca Instituto starting to learn spanish, have part-time freelance jobs for UK and Scandinavian based employers and we are still unsure whether we can afford to make the move.
> 
> We both really want to live in Spain. The weather, the sport, the language, the food etc. But the situation looks pretty bleak. We've allowed money for rent, food, bills, school books, fun stuff but now we think that we have to find another €210 each for social security payments plus health insurance on top which makes the whole dream look impossible. Our part-time jobs will only pay us €750 each after tax so we'll be eating into savings which will only last us 2 years and then what? 50% of a villa which we'll have to sell and then we'll have to return to the UK with our tails between our legs.
> 
> We can't stand another swedish winter and the thought of going back to the UK with the crime and the filth (we are both Londoners) is a depressing one.
> 
> Are we being too negative? It just seems that we have to find €2500 per month wiht an income of only €1500 per month. The maths don't look good!


Its touch here. My husband commutes and earns in the UK, we couldnt possibly afford to live here if he didnt. Wages are pretty low here. As for the weather HUH!!!! We need to talk about that in the summer. I dont think its stopped raining here since the middle of December, floods, landslides, structural damage - it isnt pretty here at the mo lol!!!

Jo xxxx


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## SteveHall

Pippasverige said:


> We can't stand another swedish winter and the thought of going back to the UK with the crime and the filth (we are both Londoners) is a depressing one.


Hejsan Pippa! 

Hälsningar från Strömstad, Bohuslän. What do you mean that you can't stand another winter? It was as warm as minus 23 last week and today during the day it was even up to minus 1! Now there are only 110 boats icebound off Kapellskär and the buses are finally getting through in Uddevalla and Allsvenskan starts this weekend! Admittedly my car is still under snow from 20th December! Although to be very serious, tragically 4 people froze to death this weekend in Uppland. Very sad. 

To me it's all about balance. I know I could earn a fortune more up here (Oslo is only 90 minutes away) but still spend 90% of the time in Spain. Spain for 80/90% of expats of working age is about survival and there are almost zero jobs with contracts. Compare this type of forum with, say, The Local - Sweden's news in English and you will see that the expat here is a different one to those in Sweden who are working for accountancy firms, IT consultanies, design agencies etc etc

I'm like Strav a little bit confused on the figures but in general I see the issue - lifestyle or money. Unless you find a way to bring in a parallel income it is going to be tight. 

Os deseo mucha suerte - not surprised to see you have started with the Spanish. The verbs are a "little" trickier than the Swedish ar,ar,ar,ar,ar,ar but apart from that it's lätt som en plätt. (piece of xxxx!)


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## SteveHall

Jojo, how do I break this to you? It has not rained here one single drop since the beginning of December. My bedroom has no heating at all - the houses are BUILT for these type of temperatures (4+ months of minus temperatures). I don't have to put a portable fan on until it's down to minus 15/18 or so! Just checked it's minus 9 outside. Cold but dry and no wind. The coldest I have been this winter was Fuengirola 5th/6th December at plus one. Biting wind and the flat, bars etc are not built for it!

I remember Málaga February 1991 - it rained every single day! Then 1st March came and we hardly saw rain again until October or so.


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