# Advice re relocation to Costa Del Sol



## aries67 (Mar 25, 2016)

Hi
My husband and I are thinking about moving to the Costa Del Sol with the the kids aged 9 and 10 years. We would be looking at long term rentals and would ideally like to buy a lease on a cafe/takeaway type business. We would make sure we had rental and living costs covered for six months to allow for settling in.I would be very grateful for any advice regarding the above and also any advice regarding importing british food, ie bacon and sausages for the business. Many thanks .


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## HarryB (Jan 17, 2013)

Firstly where abouts on the CDS are you thinking. Many different towns and cities. Have you thought of schooling, ie International schools are expensive. There are many rules and conditions you have to meet now before you can move to Spain. There are answers to many of these on this forum. More info is really required before anyone can advise. X


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## aries67 (Mar 25, 2016)

We were thinking about Fuengirola or Benalmadena. We would be looking to put the children into a Spanish state school. Its very early stages and plan to do as much research as possible before we make the move. I have a street food van ATM but would plan to lease a takeaway/cafe. We would love to give the children a new life in the sun as opposed to growing up where we are at the moment.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

aries67 said:


> We were thinking about Fuengirola or Benalmadena. We would be looking to put the children into a Spanish state school. Its very early stages and plan to do as much research as possible before we make the move. I have a street food van ATM but would plan to lease a takeaway/cafe. We would love to give the children a new life in the sun as opposed to growing up where we are at the moment.


Hi and welcome to the forum. First you need to make a few fact finding trips. 

The advice on schooling, really at their ages......you might get away with sending them to a Spanish school - but, really for their ease you should be looking at an international school - unless they're fluent in Spanish??? Its a huge step, not only the language and the homework, but the curriculum and teaching methods are very different.

As for leasing a bar - that is going to be very hard work for you - many folk have tried and failed, its nothing like the same in the UK with the rules and regulations, the competition (there are so many English type bars in Benal and Fuengi) and that Spain isnt quite out of the recession yet. You would also need to be fairly competent in Spanish and understand the rules and regs. So a visit or two to these places and get a feel for how hard it might be.


Have a look around the forum and see if theres any information that might help you.

jo xxx


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## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

Hi, the two locations you have mentioned already have a myriad of such establishments. That isn't to say yours won't be successful but as Jojo says a few fact finding trips could only be of huge benefit. Find out what the competition are offering and how busy they are, not just in the height of the tourist season but also in quitter months. Many restaurants and bars close for 6 - 12 weeks over the winter period as there just isn't enough business to be worthwhile opening. You may have something different to offer which might well work but you really need to find out if someone else has thought of it already and then to see how well they are doing. Don't limit your search to those two towns either; there are plenty of other thriving places that might not offer what you want to do and therefore there might be a niche in the market worth exploring. Good luck!!!


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## Allay sea (Aug 22, 2014)

I've lived in Benalmadena and Fuengirola. Tried the bar/cafe leasing for awhile and it's one of the toughest businesses to get involved in. Unless you can offer something different from the other bars you will be competing with, you will find it hard to break even. If you can't afford staff you will be working round the clock and won't have much family time. I found it exhausting and had no children to worry about. Best of luck.


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## HarryB (Jan 17, 2013)

Think very hard about this. We moved with an 11 year old and a 4 year old. Kids nearing the end of primary will struggle immensely in a Spanish state school. Our daughter did and we returned to Scotland. The education system here is fantastic, dont think life will be easier in Spain because it most definitely will not.


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## LDN2ESP (Jul 24, 2015)

The International schools are expensive down that way. My youngest daughter has just hit 11, so state schooling is out of the question as far as I'm concerned (IMHO). After toying with Mijas, then Velez Malaga, both preceded by the Costa Blanca last year ... we've now found a nice little place to lay our hats east of Malaga. It could be a short stay though? If the UK votes out, it's game over as far as I'm concerned. Good luck saucing the bangers & bacon, you maybe able to purchase via HP though ...


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## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

Your children will be ten and eleven when you get there; would you take your children out of their English speaking school in Scotland and put them in a school that speaks no English and then expect them to thrive? Children do learn languages quite easily compared to adults but at ten or eleven their learning curve will be slowing down. There are brit bars and cafes all over the costas... you need to go and look, when you move take lots of money too.

Lots of brit shops / stores down there, even Iceland stores so you can get your sausage and bacon locally.

Put your thinking cap on and be brutally honest with your proposed project.


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

As the saying goes, 'If you want to make a small fortune in Spain, bring a large one'. 


I wonder what advice you would give a family like yours, but from Spain, who wanted their children to move to Scotland and continue their education in a new language? Unlikely, I know, but if they moved to an area with lots of Spanish speakers, one could imagine that they might struggle to overcome the language barrier, no? In moving to the Fuengirola/Benalmádena area, which my Spanish father-in-law refers to, with a twinkle in his eye, as the occupied territories (and he is not far wrong), you are asking a lot to expect your children to do well in school. 

I know of Brits in their twenties in Málaga, who have done exactly that. They were brought to Spain by their parents at between 7 and 15 years of age, left school with no qualifications and now work in casual bar jobs, for below the legal minimum wage, paid cash under the counter, with no social security - no security at all, in fact. When the bar closes at the end of the summer, they are unemployed. Because they don't pay into the system here, they have no dole money or anything else. No paying in means no paying out. There is no benefits system like one is used to in the UK (hence the migrants camped out in Calais, etc.). They complain that they were bullied at school here because they were different (it happens wherever in the world you are) and found refuge in their British friends. They still don't speak enough Spanish to work in other than British-run bars. One could say they are part of an underclass.

A 'great family life today' may make life very difficult in the future. Please think long and hard, do intense research, ask yourself why there are so many bars for sale and plan for the worst case scenario. 

I know someone about to return to the UK having sold property here at a loss. With no job or property to return to, I don't imagine life will be easy. 

We can only give advice going by the experiences we have encountered here, please do not think it negative, but honest, well meant advice.


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## aries67 (Mar 25, 2016)

Thank you all this is very sound advice. We will plan for the whole family to learn Spanish before we go. We are not planning on making a fortune, just enough to fund a simple lifestyle in the sun. We also do not wish to run a bar but use my experience selling tasty homemade takeaway food. We would also keep our home in Scotand for a year as a safety net. The children have been having a hard time at the school that they are presently attending and I dread them going to the local High School here as well. If funds allowed then definately, we would send them to an international school. 
We would go with enough money to fund us for the first six months. 
Its a massive step to take I know but if we stay in the EU then why not take advantage of the freedom that this affords us?


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

aries67 said:


> Thank you all this is very sound advice. We will plan for the whole family to learn Spanish before we go. We are not planning on making a fortune, just enough to fund a simple lifestyle in the sun. We also do not wish to run a bar but use my experience selling tasty homemade takeaway food. We would also keep our home in Scotand for a year as a safety net. The children have been having a hard time at the school that they are presently attending and I dread them going to the local High School here as well. If funds allowed then definately, we would send them to an international school.
> We would go with enough money to fund us for the first six months.
> Its a massive step to take I know but if we stay in the EU then why not take advantage of the freedom that this affords us?


Just a few observations: you'll only start learning Spanish once you're in Spain! No matter how many classes you take or what course you use, it will take at least a couple of years here in Spain before you will be able to understand spoken Spanish. Speaking is the easiest part...it's being able to understand what is being said to you at breakneck speed that counts. Even if you sell Brit takeaways to Brits you'll have to deal with Spanish bureaucracy in Spanish somewhere along the line.
To operate any type of food business requires all sorts of licences from the local authority, just as in the UK.
I live down the coast from Benalmadena and Fuengi. Both places already have hundreds of food outlets of all kinds. Competition will be stiff. No way will your life be laid-back or simple, far from it. You will be working all hours God sends in the summer season....and the winter weather here can be cold and wet too. In order to survive the winter you need to make a lot of money in the comparatively short summer season. 
If your children are having a hard time in Scotland they will have a much harder time here. State schools teach in Spanish with little help for non-Spanish speakers. International school fees aren't inexpensive, I doubt income from a takeaway business could fund even one child's education.
I think that single people or anyone with no dependants willing to chance their luck could have a go at making a life in Spain, as long as they have a Plan B if all goes pear-shaped. But a couple with children need to think very carefully, as I'm sure you will. In order to be able to get residency and work in Spain you need to prove an income paid into a Spanish bank of around 600 euros a person a month, including for each child. Until you have paid into the Spanish system you will have to fund your own health care. You won't be able to use the NHS. 
The EU gives you the freedom to move, true...but it won't guarantee you a job or a satisfactory standard of living.
And in the words of the late, great Janis Joplin, 'Freedom's just another word for nothing else to lose...'


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

aries67 said:


> Thank you all this is very sound advice. We will plan for the whole family to learn Spanish before we go. We are not planning on making a fortune, just enough to fund a simple lifestyle in the sun. We also do not wish to run a bar but use my experience selling tasty homemade takeaway food. We would also keep our home in Scotand for a year as a safety net. The children have been having a hard time at the school that they are presently attending and I dread them going to the local High School here as well. If funds allowed then definately, we would send them to an international school.
> We would go with enough money to fund us for the first six months.
> Its a massive step to take I know but if we stay in the EU then why not take advantage of the freedom that this affords us?


I have to coincide with mrypg9, you can't just "learn Spanish" before you go (although I understand why you think this is possible). That's not to say that anything you learn before you go won't be extremely useful. It really is a good idea to study as much as you can before you go to get a good basis and a passive knowledge of the basics, but you have to put it into practice and that will only realistically happen when you are here.
It's also true that's it's unlikely that you will have a more relaxed life in the sun and I realise that you haven't used the word relaxed yourself. Bar/ cafeteria hours here can be punishing. When you come to check things out look and see how they manage staffing and opening hours.
However, apart from all that as mrypg9 points out are the licenses that are needed. For that the best thing is to get in touch with a gestor, who should in theory, be able to manage all of that for you, and your self employment status too. A gestor is someone who knows about paperwork basically and can get you the correct papers from the town hall, fill them in, hand them in, and this includes making trips to banks to pay fees. They can also handle your accounts and if you want as you'll have a lot on your plate they can help you register at the town hall and on the Foreigners list which you will have to do anyway.
Whilst I understand why you want to do this I would advise extreme caution and real research and planning before bringing the family over.


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## aries67 (Mar 25, 2016)

Thank you Pesky Wesky this is the type of information that I really need. Its not easy setting up a business with the local council and licencing here either so I will be prepared for that. 
Thanks for noting that Im not looking for a relaxed life - Ive always been a hard worker. I think the best way forward would be for me to move first, then my husband and the boys follow when I have things in place. 

I also have a personal trainer and fitness instructer qualifications, my husband is a Karate black belt and could look into setting up classes but we think there is probably a lot of this in place already.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

aries67 said:


> Thank you Pesky Wesky this is the type of information that I really need. Its not easy setting up a business with the local council and licencing here either so I will be prepared for that.
> Thanks for noting that Im not looking for a relaxed life - I've always been a hard worker. I think the best way forward would be for me to move first, then my husband and the boys follow when I have things in place.
> 
> I also have a personal trainer and fitness instructer qualifications, my husband is a Karate black belt and could look into setting up classes but we think there is probably a lot of this in place already.


Although I don't come on here to get thanks, it's nice to receive it once in a while

You might be able to do something with the personal trainer, fitness instructor and karate qualifications. It's always good to have another string in your bow, isn't it? It wouldn't be something to rely on, but who knows.

I still think the odds are against you, but someone somewhere's got to make it, haven't they? Just make sure you look, really hard before you leap.


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