Property For Sale In Spain in the Right Locations
life in Spain
Life in Spain: now!
Feb 27th
LIFE IN SPAIN
A few days ago I was sent a link to one of the most hysterical articles about Spain and expats in Spain that I have seen for a long time. Sadly, it was from one of the major UK tabloids and, equally sadly, seemed to give an impression totally at odds to what I had written a few days previously about life in Spain.
Of course, as anyone who keeps up with this Blog will know, I have been nothing if not a Cassandra when it comes to the Spanish economy and the Spanish property market. For five years I have been banging on about how (and why) a crisis would occur, the consequences of that crisis and how long any recovery from it would take.
However, at the same time, I have never missed an opportunity to emphasise how good life in Spain can be – nor what benefits Spain has offered (and continues to offer) to either those people coming here to live permanently or just for their holidays. For me to have done otherwise would have been pretty odd, frankly.
I say ‘pretty odd’ because my family have happily lived in Spain, permanently, for the past eight years. Meanwhile, the vast majority of expats that I know would state the same thing, namely that they enjoy their life in Spain and that their move here has been a success on a range of different levels.
Of course, there are people who have found that their life in Spain has not worked for them. Indeed, some have been ruined by their move here. This has often been due to a poor property purchase (both in terms of location and inherent flaws in their property), unrealistic expectations or an inability to earn a viable income.
Certainly, Spain is not a paradise and there is no getting away from the fact that there are problems associated with living in Spain. Equally, it is true to say that moving to Spain (see my book on the subject) must be done with exceptional care to make sure that, once here, life in Spain works for you. Make a mistake and buy an illegal property, for example, and all your happy dreams will quickly shatter.
The same is true for any illusions about making a living in Spain easily – particularly during the current ferocious economic crisis. As I have written in ‘The Secrets to Working and Making a Living in Spain’ you have to be cautious about the prospects for making a secure income. It can be done but the days of ‘strolling’ into Spain and easily picking up well paid work have long gone. That is not to say that you cannot make money here – but that you have to be pretty canny, well prepared, risk averse and have a viable ‘Plan B’.
In my experience there is a common denominator amongst the people I know who have moved to Spain permanently and who continue to enjoy life here. This is that they are invariably people with realistic expectations and sound finances – who bought their properties in Spain with infinite care and attention to detail.
So, if you are planning to live in Spain then know what you are doing – well before you come here. Plan carefully, have realistic expectations about what life in Spain will really be like and, for Heavens sake, buy any property very carefully – indeed, with far greater care than you would do in your own country.
One thing is for sure – Spain can provide a wonderful quality of life. It does for many people and, if you exercise care, it will do for you. So, do not take too much notice of hysterical gloom and doom articles. Their stories may be true for some people but the silent (and contented) majority of expats here are likely to be looking on amazed at what is quoted…
RELEVANT INFORMATION
The Secrets to Working and Making a Living in Spain
Spanish culture: alive, vibrant and the best reason for coming to Spain
Bargain property for sale in Spain
CULTURE SPAIN:Smoking ban in Spain for 2011
Dec 30th
SMOKING IN SPAIN
Lots of predictions will be made over the next couple of days about what will happen in Spain over 2011. Some predictions will, obviously, be right, whilst others will probably turn out to be pure lunacy. However, I think that I can make one prediction that will be accurate – namely that the smoking ban in Spain will change life in Spain.
Probably for the better!
I say ‘probably for the better’ because, like most people, I worry that the smoking ban in Spain will adversely affect the bars and cafes in Spain, which are likely to lose significant business. This is the last thing that they need when many are clinging onto life by a thread, due to the current economic crisis.
Of course, one of the great delights about life in Spain is the profusion of cafes and bars. They are everywhere. In fact, it is often hard to find areas (apart from new estates) where you cannot easily find a bar for a coffee or hard drink – virtually whatever the hour of the day.
Indeed, I think that it would be no exaggeration to say that the bars and cafes of Spain are an inherent part of the day to day living culture of Spain and a vital part of the wonderful sociability of the country.
Certainly having a coffee in a bar or cafe is cheap (in North European terms) and an unusual pleasure. Indeed, I have never known a cafe or bar where I have been hurried by the staff – even if I have ordered no more than a single drink, whilst spending an hour reading one of their free newspapers. This is in direct contrast to my experience of Northern Europe and the US, where bars and cafes are normally only in high street areas and virtually ‘industrial’ in their unrelaxing, urgent turnover of customers.
Meanwhile, it is common for the Spanish to actually take their own food into a cafe and eat it there – only buying their drinks from the bar owner. This would indicate that many cafes probably barely subsist economically and will have trouble making up their income from any loss of smoking customers through (say) selling more meals. Indeed, I fear that many bars and cafes will, sadly, be vulnerable to any turn down in business and close. If (as is likely), this happens then, to my mind, real harm will be done to the overall quality of day to day life in Spain – for both the Spanish themselves and foreigners.
Unfortunately, the downside with Spanish bars (let alone the restaurants) is that it is virtually impossible to escape smokers. As these make up a significant part of the Spanish population, most bars and restaurants are wreathed in smoke. This is far from pleasant and off-putting to anyone from the US or Northern Europe, where smoking bans have been in place for some years now.
I need hardly add that the well proven dangers of smoking justify a smoking ban in Spain and that it was only a matter of time before it occurred. As I have written before, the threat of a full-on smoking ban in Spain has been hanging over the country since the previous rather weak law passed in 2005.
In any event, as of the 2nd of January 2011 everything is set to change – with smoking to be banned in all ‘enclosed spaces of public or collective use’.
So, as a non-smoker, you will be able to breathe a sigh of relief when you come to Spain! I just hope that along with this sigh of relief there will not, as I suspect, also be a groan at the disappearance of many much loved cafes and bars…
RELEVANT INFO: Smoking ban in Spain – too drastic by half! and A really tough smoking ban in Spain or not
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