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Retired UK citizens are flocking to Spain as the cost of living is “so much cheaper” than in the UK, a British couple living in Spain’s Costa del Sol has told i.
Gabrielle Taylor, 58, and her husband John Taylor, 59, moved to Riviera Del Sol, a coastal town nestled in the hills between Malaga and Marbella, four years ago.
Ms Taylor, a retired accountant from Cheshire who earned around £150,000 and John Taylor, a manager of a transport company who had a salary of around £70,000, sold their property for £550,000, buying a villa with a sea view for around the same price.
The married couple also inherited some money after the death of Mr Taylor’s mother. Ms Taylor told i: “We did the sums and thought, life is too short. We sold our property, so we’ve been quite fortunate. At the minute we’re not working, and we are going through our savings. We thought we would have to be back working by now, but it’s been so cheap we haven’t had to.”
Consumer prices including rent in the UK are about 32 per cent higher than in Spain, according to user contributed data compiled by Numbeo. The Spanish government subsidises fuel and public transport – keeping the costs of public amenities down. While wages also tend to be lower in Spain compared to Britain, many UK expats are retired or work remotely, receiving a UK pension or wage while benefiting from lower costs in Spain.
Ms Taylor says the “generous” nature of the Spanish government means “all the public amenities are so much better, and all of the infrastructure feels more efficient”.
“Our last grocery shop for the week worked out at €172 (£150) – I know in the UK it used to cost us £300. Even things like wine are cheaper, it’s €2.80 (£2.40) a bottle compared to £8 in the UK.
“The government here has made a decision to cut the cost of fuel, our energy bills are around €100-€120 (£86-£103), while my mum in the UK pays around £300-£400 a month.
“The public transport is amazing; we can travel on a bus with the Spanish equivalent of an Oyster card but cheaper. A 30-minute journey is 40 cents each way. The government here is saving people so much money, they are far more generous.”
She said a fast train from Malaga to Madrid took less than three hours and cost less than £30, far less than she used to pay travelling a shorter distance from Manchester to London.
A study commissioned by Spain’s ministry of transport found that the country has the most extensive high-speed network in the EU. Since 2021, EU member states have been obligated to open their rail markets to foreign competitors, meaning Spain’s nationalised rail company, Renfe, now has to compete with private operators, which the government says has driven down prices further.
Spain’s then transport minister, Raquel Sanchez, in 2022 claimed that competition had “reduced prices and has made high-speed trains lose their elitist nature”, increasing the “social profitability of investments” and ensuring “the right to mobility for all citizens”.
Lower caps on energy prices brought in by the Spanish government mean the country saw the largest electricity price drop in the EU in the first half of 2023 compared to January-June 2022.
“We were so fed up with nonsense in the UK. Everything there seems more difficult now. We watch the news about what’s happening in the UK and people seem to be miserable.
“In Spain, there is loads of locally sourced produce, there’s no shortages of fresh food and veg – whereas in the UK in my mum’s local Sainsbury’s, we walked in and there was hardly anything on the shelves, it was like the 70s.”
Britain’s food supply chain is facing post-Brexit border controls, while companies are having to pay more to import from the EU, and some of these additional costs can be passed on to consumers, according to trade groups.
Ms Taylor says she and her husband rushed through their decision to move to Spain because they wanted to move before the effects of Brexit kicked in.
“If we had of moved after the Brexit withdrawal agreement it would have been a lot harder because we wanted to have the option to work, and this is harder since Brexit – but we haven’t had to work yet because it’s so cheap.
“We got ‘residencia’, so we had to show private medical, money in bank, switch driving licences and pay tax here. This would have been much harder post-Brexit, we wouldn’t have been able to work and we would have had to get a digital nomad visa.”
Earlier this month, Spain’s left-wing coalition scrapped the golden visa programme, which granted residency rights to British people making large investments in property in the country.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said ending the scheme would help make access to affordable housing “a right instead of a speculative business”. Spanish authorities had argued that the scheme pushed up prices of property, benefiting wealthy foreigners over residents.
Ms Taylor, who did not use this visa scheme as she acquired temporary residence, said she was aware of “how lucky” she was and stressed that she was “incredibly grateful to Spain for letting us live here”.
