# My UK House



## Mr Mannering (Jun 1, 2016)

We want to move to Spain, we love and like the culture..... I like the food! Well there are many reasons to be honest. However to truly fund this I will need to sell my house in the UK. It's not my best option as of course what if we don't really like it or have some issues that I can't think of now. My UK house is my security to fall back on. Of course I can rent my UK house and then rent in Spain for a year or two maybe. 

Has anyone been in this situation? Are there other options?


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## The Skipper (Nov 26, 2014)

Mr Mannering said:


> We want to move to Spain, we love and like the culture..... I like the food! Well there are many reasons to be honest. However to truly fund this I will need to sell my house in the UK. It's not my best option as of course what if we don't really like it or have some issues that I can't think of now. My UK house is my security to fall back on. Of course I can rent my UK house and then rent in Spain for a year or two maybe.
> 
> Has anyone been in this situation? Are there other options?


Yes, sold our house at the top of the market towards the end of 2007 and bought a house in Spain three months later. We left the UK two days before completion and were just crossing the France-Spain border when our bank phoned to say the sale proceeds had just been received. Over an 18 month period we had many trips to Spain exploring the areas we were interested in and spent two weeks before the move looking at houses and arranging a short-term rental. We also did extensive online research and bought about a dozen books on living in Spain, so went in with our eyes wide open! We have no regrets and enjoy every moment of our retirement in Spain.


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## Mr Mannering (Jun 1, 2016)

That is very good to hear. Always nice to hear a positive story. What area did you choose?


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## Jesnat (Mar 5, 2016)

We are renting our house in the UK and have recently moved to the Los Alcazares area on the Costa Blanca renting a small town house. The consensus from many posters is not to rush and to take your time getting to know the area which best suits you. Which in our case means renting long term before we buy - if we ever do decide to. We get a bit more in UK rent than we pay here but still need to supplement our living costs with savings, but so far it's working out. I guess you have to work out what disposable income you would have here if you rented your UK home or if you need to sell to fund everything. We had to do a bit of work to bring our UK house up to an acceptable rental standard - more than I budgeted for so that's another consideration. Anyway good luck. This site is full of great info, advice and opinions.


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## haynesbob (Oct 9, 2012)

Hi,

We are at present just awaiting completion on the sale of our UK house then we will be moving full time to Spain.

We bought a property in Ontinyent about 4 years ago raising the money for the purchase by taking a mortgage out on our UK home with the intention of paying it off when we sell. We could not retire until this time as I had to wait for my 55th birthday so that I could start taking my company pension plus my military pension.

We have found the local people in Ontinyent to be very welcoming and we love the area a it is very Spanish with only a small expat community. You also get so much more for your money being away from the coast which is less than an hour away.

We cannot wait now for the long expected move.

Good luck with your decision


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## Mr Mannering (Jun 1, 2016)

guys... thanks for the insight. We are looking at areas suitable for us at the moment. I am thinking around the outskirts of Valencia. We visited Granada and loved the place but just wasn't quite us.


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## The Skipper (Nov 26, 2014)

Mr Mannering said:


> That is very good to hear. Always nice to hear a positive story. What area did you choose?


We live in the mountains about 15 minutes drive from Alcoy. As the crow flies we are only about 25 miles from Benidorm but the mountain roads are narrow and windy so it's a good hour's drive. It's a beautiful and peaceful area ... totally different from the holiday resort madness on the coast!


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

We live an hour from Valencia inland. Its a little village with all the amenities you could ever need without leaving the village if you wanted to. As another poster said you seem to get more for your money away from the coast which is a 40 min drive for us. I guess if you are unsure of where you want to settle then rental would be a good initial option but if you find somewhere you love then thats a different story. We have no regrets about our purchase and 6 month in are loving life in rural Spain , Good Luck with your search ;-)


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## Mr Mannering (Jun 1, 2016)

Do you mind me asking get where? I am looking at a few places around Montserrat valencia


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

We bought a house in a large town in La Axarquia, East of Málaga, in 2003 with an intention to retire there when we were able to, and used the house just for holidays until we moved over permanently in late 2006. We sold our UK house at that time, which helped to finance our living costs as we were only 50 and 57 at the time, so had some time to wait until our pensions became payable. We've never regretted our choice of location nor the decision to move here. 

The key things, I think, are to concentrate on practical issues when choosing where to base yourselves rather than having romantic ideas about living in splendid isolation with marvellous views, especially if you are intending to be here in your later years. Do as much research as you possibly can on the ground once you have narrowed down an area, thinking about such things as what noise or parking issues there might be at various times of the day/year, whether facilities are going to be available all year round, what kind of orientation you want in a property (north facing will be cooler in summer but colder and could be gloomy in winter), whether there is any industry around which could cause nuisance issues and so on.


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## tebo53 (Sep 18, 2014)

We spent many years planning and finding out every detail required to make our move over to Spain effortless and it turned out to be so. We had many holidays out here and did many "reccies" to see where we wanted to live. We wanted quiet in the evenings and night but busy and bustling in the daytime. We picked the outskirts of Benidorm and we love it, no question.

We retired 2 years early, organised a solicitor to meet us just after arrival and they have sorted out everything for us for being legal residents including the Modelo 720 and all the taxation forms.

We sold our house in the UK as we didn't want the hassle of renting it out. We invested the money and rent a nice apartment just outside Benidorm. 

Good luck with your dream 

Steve


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Mr Mannering said:


> We want to move to Spain, we love and like the culture..... I like the food! Well there are many reasons to be honest. However to truly fund this I will need to sell my house in the UK. It's not my best option as of course what if we don't really like it or have some issues that I can't think of now. My UK house is my security to fall back on. Of course I can rent my UK house and then rent in Spain for a year or two maybe.
> 
> Has anyone been in this situation? Are there other options?


Be very careful exactly when ( I know easier said than done!) during the year you sell your house and then move to Spain as it is possible to be facing CGT in Spain for a house sold in Uk. Obviously buying a property in Spain may offset liabilities but it's worth checking on


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## peedee (Aug 30, 2015)

By not blowing all the pot on a spanish house we managed to buy a flat to rent in the uk as well as a Spanish property so giving us options. A reasonable exchange rate at the end of last year helped. 
We went for a place near Gandia as it has good rail links to Valencia and cheap with the tarjeta dorada (less than 6€) and we're only 20 mins from the sea.
Gandia is a working town so has all you need plus a good community.
We looked at inland from Valencia (turis, monserrat, etc) but it didn't suit


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