Day 71 "Peseta Pats"

Spanish Practices

Monday and day 71, and a few tips about buying a property here in Spain and what you need to do as a Brit, before January 2020.

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Day 71 Peseta Pats

Monday of week two of phase 1, we are still confused about why we have not moved to Phase 2, so I asked my Spanish neighbour from Granada.

“There are not enough beds in the Hospital, of the critical kind.” She said. It would appear one of the worries is a flood of inter-province holiday makers would risk overwhelming the hospital. I suppose the answer to that would be to add more beds.

I think all hospitals will have to re-think their ICU facilities and what is required to look after and keep alive patients with Covid19.

Monday is accounts day, and Chris is going through the Community payments for our Estate, he is the joint Treasurer. If you live in an Urbanised Estate or a block of flats you will have what amounts to a resident’s association with the power to collect fees and make decisions about any building work and maintenance.

A kind of mix of Management Company and Residents Association. We have a President, Vice President, Treasurer and hold a regular annual meeting where you can vote on passing budgets and plans for building and maintenance.

For the fee you get to live in a block of flats or development that might have community facilities like a pool. The land will be, well should be, legalised for urban development. There should be services like electricity and water available, sewerage.

Roads and public gardens are maintained along with shared thing like lifts. When the visitors to Spain return it is worth considering living in an organised development like this, if you want to be closer to the coast or near or in a town.

If you are looking for solitude, it is a lot cheaper, in some ways or can be a lot more expensive if you find there is no water supply or electricity, or the electricity is not powerful enough to turn a toaster on. That can all mean expensive utility costs or having solar power. Access roads here can be owned by other landowners, so you need to check you can actually tar over a road.

Look out for Canadas – the protected goat tracks, you can’t change those very easily and they are usually no more than a dirt track, that might lead to your new rustic house.

We are now only a few weeks from the tourists returning back to Spain, some will be keen to look at coming here to live, even though Spain has suffered a great deal with the Covid19 virus, it still remains a beautiful place to live, with many places enjoying mild winters and hot sunny summers.

The pace of life here is slower, particularly here in Andalucia, it makes for an attractive retirement option. The process for Brits to live in Spain will be a little more complicated in the New Year, but people from all over the world come and settle here.

It just might mean the end of the Peseta Pat’s – those Brits who came here thinking it might be a cheap place to retire to – I guess it depends on how you put a value on lifestyle.

It is possible to live on a budget here, just as it is possible back in the UK, but truthfully we find the cost of living is much the same as it was back in Britain, you might pay less council tax, but you will pay more income tax, alcohol costs are lower but eating out is now only slightly cheaper than the UK in many of the tourist places.

If you are considering a move to Spain, try to avoid thinking about living the dream, but living the reality, be honest with yourself about how big a change it is to jump from one country to another.

Monday in phase 1, there is a bit more traffic about, below us I can hear the familiar sound of banging, crashing and drilling as our neighbours are having a new metal gate put in.

I am off to the opticians a six o’clock appointment, but when I looked at the ticket it said 4 o’clock so we rocked up at 4 to discover that Claudia had a ticket that said six o’clock but written in the diary in biro she was 4pm and I was 6pm – have you lost the will to live yet. Thought so. Suffice to say there was a lot of ballet dancing mask wearing social distancing, I was allowed to remove my mask to see what my new glasses would look like san mask. Two weeks and some more glasses to drop to the tiled floor and break.

If you are serious about coming to live in Spain, as a top tip get here as soon as the Alarma – what the Spanish call the Lockdown is over and you can fly, get your NIE, rent a property with a tenancy agreement, then apply for your Residency card. Once you have the Green card it will give you protected rights and an easy transition to the new T.I.E. card for British citizens in Spain. Oh and don’t confuse citizenship for residency. You can be a British citizen and reside in Spain.

Becoming a Spanish citizen is a whole different thing the being able to live, work and retire here. The clock is ticking down to January.

The clock is also ticking down to the end of the Spanish Lockdown it might come quicker than sooner, there is a lot of pressure for the Spanish Government to keep up with the timescale of Italy and Greece, it is an interesting that the Lockdown was put on a short hiatus as the Government worried about the economy, and in reality it is the economy that is again driving the end of the Alarma in Spain.