When I bought my place, we went back to the same place 5 times over a 3 month period before we bought. On one visit to spain, I went back to look at the development at various times of the day, I think the sales girl thought I was stalking her I went so often. Over thos visits, I noticed one thing. One of the big boys who does not appear to be around any longer, brought in a number of couples on mini buses and in my visits I saw the same people on a regular basis. It was only later I found out that these people would be the company staff.
The sales person was heard to say that there was only one apartment left and these (staff) were heard to say that they liked it and would need to act quickly as they had heard another couple say that they really wanted it, so putting pressure on the real buyers, glad that does not still happen, I hope! I wonder if they still own the place or if they have lost a lot of money and gone back to the UK complaining about the way the Spanish treated them with their buy or the way the Spanish ripped them off. My viewing of it, was apart from the sales girl, everyone else was British and the sales girl just gave the rep the details and hardly spoke to the buyer.
“One of the problems, he says, is that some expats can drift into life in Spain without thinking too much about it. “People talk about ‘emigrating’ to Australia or Canada, but they sometimes don’t see moving to Spain in quite the same way. They don’t realise that they are cutting ties and they will have to deal with insurance and mortgages and money in a foreign language. They think it will all be eating al fresco and fresh fish, but that can wear off pretty quickly.”
Alan, who has just been accepted as a local volunteer bombero (firefighter), is also happy they made the jump. “But the English have a bad name here. You get people who move out here and put their brains in storage at Alicante airport. They buy a Mercedes convertible and go out five or six nights a week, and a year later the bank has got their house and they’ve gone back to Britain. And we know of some people who’ve taken money for a job and then gone back to England without doing it.”
I’ve just been reading through the thread and find it very interesting.
We are considering moving back to the UK, at the moment we live in Barcelona. A bit about us so you understand our situation. We are both in our early 30’s and we have 6 month old twins. We have been here 3 years and really love our life here, my husband has a job (one that he transferred from the UK and can transfer back) and I am a stay at home Mum at the moment, intending to go back to work when the children start school. We rent an apartment here and own a house in the UK that we rent out. We intend to move to Australia in 2-3 years time, this will be a permanent move. We have a cat & dog. My husband is fluent in Spanish and I have enough to get by and life not difficult.
Our apartment is very small and to move would be a huge cost when the money can go towards the Oz visas, so we’re thinking if we are going/need to move then should we just bite the bullet and go back to the UK now.
There are a lot of pros but also some huge cons for us, we’ve written them all down so I’ll put the list here.
PROS, in no particular order of importantness.
1) Family & friends can get to know our children.
2) Our house: * Big bedroom for the children.
* Playroom
* Garden (here we don’t have a balcony so no outside space) for play.
* No damp (here the insulation isn’t great and as we have found out in the winter we can’t use cupboards in
bedrooms because they get mold, so we wash them every coupld of days and air them daily in the winter months)
* Central heating (this wasn’t an issue until we had the babies and this winter has been cold so lots of portable heaters)
* More space.
* Bigger better equiped bathroom & kitchen.
3) Playgroups: There is one English playgroup here but it is very clicky, most here are in Catalan. Same with nurseries. I know there are loads in our area in the UK.
4) More saving potential, we have done the maths and we would be able to save at least ?1000 a month in the UK for Australia.
5) Cheaper nappies, baby food, toys, clothes.
6) Lots of greeness, our house in the UK is next to the river and some big parks which is great for the dog as she loves to run about off the lead.
7) Easier earning potential for me if I wanted to do something from home
8) More career options for husband, he would pretty much get promoted instantly if we were based in the UK. Also more job security.
9) Healthcare, if something happened with one of the children we would rather be in the UK with the NHS who we trust, we have had not too great experience with healthcare here if we’re honest.
10) Can buy and sell baby stuff on ebay, only option here is segundamano which is rubbish.
11) Swimming, baby pools are not heated here and we want the children to learn to swim as soon as possible.
12) Easier to sort visas and getting pets to Oz from the UK
13) We could go to Oz sooner because we would be saving quicker.
14) Easier to sell house if we are in the UK.
CONS, again in no particular order.
1) Weather.
2) Culture
3) BCN is a beautiful city, we can’t say the same for where we live in the UK.
4) Peoples attitudes, please don’t take this the wrong way and I know other people may feel differently but we spent 4 months last year in the UK and we were amazed at how many people walk around with frowns or generally moan about their life. We don’t find that here, people are generally happier and always looking up even though with the state of the economy they probably should be sader.
There are more pros but we really do love living here, it’s all the little things like being able to walk down the beach to meet my husband from work, meeting friends in squares for coffee or a beer, parrots in the trees, going to the park on a summer day and seeing acrobats, slackliners, people playing drums, juggling, just easy free fun.
It’s such a hard choice, we are trying to work out if now we need to look at the bigger picture, our end aim is to get to Australia and we could do that quicker if we go back to the UK at the end of this summer… But we have such an amazing life here. What to do?
I get the feeling from your post that you already know what you are going to do. Move back to the U.K. (en route eventually to Australia). Importantly, you have thought it through, and you know what you want and what is most appropriate for you and the children now. The pros (in my view) far outweigh the cons.
There are such beautiful areas in the U.K. and oddly enough I was just reading that there is a drought back there now, in a number of regions, so contrary to popular legend it does not rain all the time in the U.K. Perhaps the area you will be in back in the U.K. is not that exciting, but it will be temporary and there is little to beat fine Summer weather in the U.K. or in my home country Ireland. I have lived in Spain all my life, but I find we are spending more and more time back home.
A year or so ago a long-time friend of mine in Spain and his wife (English) moved back to U.K. with their children and have never regretted it for one moment. Granted they have moved back to a very attractive part of the country.
You also have very great advantages, as outlined in your “pros”. You still have your home back in the U.K. , your husband’s work and prospects, your own, ....I feel you are on to a winner.
Let’s put it this way. If you were my sister I would have no hesitation in telling you to go for it.
Goood luck!
Patricia
I?ve just been reading through the thread and find it very interesting.
We are considering moving back to the UK, at the moment we live in Barcelona. A bit about us so you understand our situation. We are both in our early 30?s and we have 6 month old twins. We have been here 3 years and really love our life here, my husband has a job (one that he transferred from the UK and can transfer back) and I am a stay at home Mum at the moment, intending to go back to work when the children start school. We rent an apartment here and own a house in the UK that we rent out. We intend to move to Australia in 2-3 years time, this will be a permanent move. We have a cat & dog. My husband is fluent in Spanish and I have enough to get by and life not difficult.
Our apartment is very small and to move would be a huge cost when the money can go towards the Oz visas, so we?re thinking if we are going/need to move then should we just bite the bullet and go back to the UK now.
There are a lot of pros but also some huge cons for us, we?ve written them all down so I?ll put the list here.
PROS, in no particular order of importantness.
1) Family & friends can get to know our children.
2) Our house: * Big bedroom for the children.
* Playroom
* Garden (here we don?t have a balcony so no outside space) for play.
* No damp (here the insulation isn?t great and as we have found out in the winter we can?t use cupboards in
bedrooms because they get mold, so we wash them every coupld of days and air them daily in the winter months)
* Central heating (this wasn?t an issue until we had the babies and this winter has been cold so lots of portable heaters)
* More space.
* Bigger better equiped bathroom & kitchen.
3) Playgroups: There is one English playgroup here but it is very clicky, most here are in Catalan. Same with nurseries. I know there are loads in our area in the UK.
4) More saving potential, we have done the maths and we would be able to save at least ?1000 a month in the UK for Australia.
5) Cheaper nappies, baby food, toys, clothes.
6) Lots of greeness, our house in the UK is next to the river and some big parks which is great for the dog as she loves to run about off the lead.
7) Easier earning potential for me if I wanted to do something from home
8) More career options for husband, he would pretty much get promoted instantly if we were based in the UK. Also more job security.
9) Healthcare, if something happened with one of the children we would rather be in the UK with the NHS who we trust, we have had not too great experience with healthcare here if we?re honest.
10) Can buy and sell baby stuff on ebay, only option here is segundamano which is rubbish.
11) Swimming, baby pools are not heated here and we want the children to learn to swim as soon as possible.
12) Easier to sort visas and getting pets to Oz from the UK
13) We could go to Oz sooner because we would be saving quicker.
14) Easier to sell house if we are in the UK.
Thanks for replying Patricia. I guess you are right, we know what we have to do. Leaving here will just be so sad. It’s so clean and lovely and there is so much to do and most of it free.
We have also made some great friends here, I’m out most days and just pop the children in the pushchair and take a walk, usually down to the beach, stop for coffee on a terrace along the way and often find there are great things going on, just people out doing their thing. I think about a typical day (not in the summer) in the UK, what would I do? We live in a large town in Berkshire, I could walk down the river, go to the park. For a coffee I would have to walk into town, along a pretty dirty grotty road often with junkies, drunks and young chavs nearer town and end up at a starbucks for an expensive awful coffee, that thought doesn’t fill me with joy and I wonder if I would bother. We spend lots of time at the beach and the city park and Parc Guell, and love the outside. There are great affordable restaurants here and going out in the UK is expensive, so I worry that we would be stuck in all the time. The streets are so clean here and where we are in the UK it’s nowhere close. I know it may seem like small things but we moved here because we knew we would get a better quality of life and we do have that and the thought of losing it makes me very teary to be honest. BUT do we need to give it up so we can get to Australia quicker? I think we have to, I just need to get my head around it.
If we do go back it wouldn’t be until August time so we can give our tenants a good deal of notice, they are so lovely and love living in our house I feel very guilty about the thought of asking them to move out. That way we would also get one last summer here. It all seems such a big decision, whatever we finally decide we have to make sure it’s the right choice, I don’t want to have regrets.
I do so understand your wondering and questioning. That is quite normal. The fact is that while we can PLAN for the future we do not have the faculty to foretell the future, nor do we have the faculty of manipulating the future. I have discovered that nothing is written in stone.
I don’t know Berkshire at all, though I have seen its beautiful villages and countryside on T.V. So, I can’t give any opinion. I do know though that there are many small and more congenial coffee shops than Starbucks.
Mainly I would know the Dorset area, (I have some long-time friends who live there, and indeed she also moved back to the U.K. years ago after living practically all her life up to then in Spain), and of course I know London.
I understand too your feelings about your good tenants. Is there any chance they might be up for buying your house?
It is sometimes good on these serious occasions, I feel, to sit down with someone, preferably not an interested party, and have a brainstorming session. Different ideas and approaches can come out, and might be helpful.
Back in the U.K. you will probably find it necessary to get involved in some form of leisure or sport club, or some association, or group. There are interesting (and not so interesting) people everywhere. I never cease to be amazed at the number of activities in which people back home get themselves involved.
You will no doubt want to pick up again with old friends you had before moving to Spain.
Again good luck with everything
Patricia
We have also made some great friends here, I?m out most days and just pop the children in the pushchair and take a walk, usually down to the beach, stop for coffee on a terrace along the way and often find there are great things going on, just people out doing their thing. I think about a typical day (not in the summer) in the UK, what would I do? We live in a large town in Berkshire, I could walk down the river, go to the park. For a coffee I would have to walk into town, along a pretty dirty grotty road often with junkies, drunks and young chavs nearer town and end up at a starbucks for an expensive awful coffee, that thought doesn?t fill me with joy and I wonder if I would bother. We spend lots of time at the beach and the city park and Parc Guell, and love the outside. There are great affordable restaurants here and going out in the UK is expensive, so I worry that we would be stuck in all the time. The streets are so clean here and where we are in the UK it?s nowhere close. I know it may seem like small things but we moved here because we knew we would get a better quality of life and we do have that and the thought of losing it makes me very teary to be honest. BUT do we need to give it up so we can get to Australia quicker? I think we have to, I just need to get my head around it.
If we do go back it wouldn?t be until August time so we can give our tenants a good deal of notice, they are so lovely and love living in our house I feel very guilty about the thought of asking them to move out. That way we would also get one last summer here. It all seems such a big decision, whatever we finally decide we have to make sure it?s the right choice, I don?t want to have regrets.
You are approaching this in a highly logical manner plus Campana has made some very valid observations.
Regarding Australia, I am sure you have factored in the very high cost of living. Still OZ is an awesome country with great long term prospects for a young family.
Yep we have factored in the cost of living in Australia and we’ll be ok. We have been planning on going there for the last 4 years but Barcelona was something we wanted to do first. We would have to go back to the UK anyway for at least 6 months to a year before we went, we already knew that so we would be bringing that forward.
Unfortunately the town we are in in the UK all the independant coffee shops have closed so there is only starbucks and costa coffees now, the town is far from beautiful and we have no doubts that living back there would be very difficult. The weather is incomparable to here. We were back for 4 months last year and you wouldn’t have known it was summer. Here it’s hot, sunny and the beach is just down the road. I feel totally torn. I have to keep reminding myself of the end result… Getting to Australia quicker, and while we are getting on with organising it how to make life the best for the children. At this age they don’t care which country they are in, so it’s mine and my husbands lifestyle that would be going.
I have already looked into playgroups and swimming and there are lots of things going on in our area so that is good. My husband and I like to keep fit and the local gym which is over ?130 cheaper a month in the UK has great equipment and also a creche. We also do regular London days where there is an abundance of free things to do.
Train fares are so expensive in the UK though, so we would have to factor that in for days out. It would also cost us ?160 a month for my husband to get to work on the train, here he uses the bicing bikes (30 euros a year) or the metro (9 euros a week)
A friends daughter was recently rushed to hospital here and the care is nowhere near that of the NHS, and I am sure that if anything were to happen with the children we would much rather be in the UK where we are confident that the NHS would do their best. Our experience of the healthcare here is not good, and even health professionals have said to us they are 20 years behind the UK. Again that is not too huge an issue for us but when you factor in having children it changes everything.
Mobile phones are generally cheaper in the UK, but there we would also have council tax, electric & water bills. Here we pay 50 euros a month in with our rent for all electric & water.
Baby thing are super expensive here, just 1 babygrow (and a horrible one at that) will set you back 10 euros, a pair of shoes (not fitted) will cost upwards of 50 euros and when you have two to think about thats a lot of money, and there is really no way to sell on things they have grown out of. In the UK we have ebay. We have found already we save hundreds and hundreds of pounds by buying on ebay and every 2 months getting everything shipped over here. In the UK I have a TAMBA discount card which will save us a lot on shoes once they start walking.
Hmm as you can probably tell from my rambling post I am still swinging from one side to the other, or maybe I’m just trying to convince myself…
Forgot something… Patricia, yes we have thought about our tenants buying the house, thats how I got it, my landlord sold it to me many years ago, so that has been in our minds, but we would have to go back to the UK anyway for 6 months prior to moving to Australia. The area we are in houses have still been selling so we’re not overly worried about that and because the mortgage is so low (I’ve had it a long time) it makes sense for us to be in the house and sell it when we are ready. I keep an eye on house prices and sold in our area and also regulary check on housepricecrash to see whats happening with the market and I think we’ll be ok for selling it in 18months-2years and walking away with enough for a deposit on a house in Australia.
Well, you certainly have a lot to think about, but as Andrea 007 commented, you are approaching the matter in a logical fashion. It will be a wrench for you, I know, to leave Barcelona. But life being the odd and unpredictable thing it is you never know if one day you might be back in Spain.
You are right to continue viewing al the pros and cons, while keeping an eye on your goal to get to Australia.
You are quite right that many things are now quite expensive in Spain, and then again, some things, like transport, are expensive in the U.K. I suppose it all balances out.
I think London is probably not that far from where you would be in Berks. So I can see you doing lots of days out there. The city does have a lot to offer. Heavens! This week, and it’s February and I see it is 17?C in London. Much like M?laga….
Anyhow, do keep writing and telling us how you get on.
All the best
Patricia
Unfortunately the town we are in in the UK all the independant coffee shops have closed so there is only starbucks and costa coffees now, the town is far from beautiful and we have no doubts that living back there would be very difficult. The weather is incomparable to here. We were back for 4 months last year and you wouldn?t have known it was summer. Here it?s hot, sunny and the beach is just down the road. I feel totally torn. I have to keep reminding myself of the end result? Getting to Australia quicker, and while we are getting on with organising it how to make life the best for the children. At this age they don?t care which country they are in, so it?s mine and my husbands lifestyle that would be going.
I have already looked into playgroups and swimming and there are lots of things going on in our area so that is good. My husband and I like to keep fit and the local gym which is over ?130 cheaper a month in the UK has great equipment and also a creche. We also do regular London days where there is an abundance of free things to do.
Train fares are so expensive in the UK though, so we would have to factor that in for days out. It would also cost us ?160 a month for my husband to get to work on the train, here he uses the bicing bikes (30 euros a year) or the metro (9 euros a week)
A friends daughter was recently rushed to hospital here and the care is nowhere near that of the NHS, and I am sure that if anything were to happen with the children we would much rather be in the UK where we are confident that the NHS would do their best. Our experience of the healthcare here is not good, and even health professionals have said to us they are 20 years behind the UK. Again that is not too huge an issue for us but when you factor in having children it changes everything.
Mobile phones are generally cheaper in the UK, but there we would also have council tax, electric & water bills. Here we pay 50 euros a month in with our rent for all electric & water.
Baby thing are super expensive here, just 1 babygrow (and a horrible one at that) will set you back 10 euros, a pair of shoes (not fitted) will cost upwards of 50 euros and when you have two to think about thats a lot of money, and there is really no way to sell on things they have grown out of. In the UK we have ebay. We have found already we save hundreds and hundreds of pounds by buying on ebay and every 2 months getting everything shipped over here. In the UK I have a TAMBA discount card which will save us a lot on shoes once they start walking.
Hmm as you can probably tell from my rambling post I am still swinging from one side to the other, or maybe I?m just trying to convince myself?
Forgot something? Patricia, yes we have thought about our tenants buying the house, thats how I got it, my landlord sold it to me many years ago, so that has been in our minds, but we would have to go back to the UK anyway for 6 months prior to moving to Australia. The area we are in houses have still been selling so we?re not overly worried about that and because the mortgage is so low (I?ve had it a long time) it makes sense for us to be in the house and sell it when we are ready. I keep an eye on house prices and sold in our area and also regulary check on housepricecrash to see whats happening with the market and I think we?ll be ok for
