Last updated on December 13, 2015
Since 1995, more than 760,000 emigrants have left the dreary shores of the United Kingdom for a new life in sunny Spain. However, things are not quite as bright for British expats as they were 10 years ago.
According to recently released statistics however, the Spanish dream is not quite the paradise people once believed it could be, and Brits are leaving the mediterranean country faster than they arrived. In 2013, over 85,000 chose to leave their Spanish ‘casa’ and return to the colder climes of Britain with town hall registrars recording a 23 per cent drop in expats across spain since January 2013. Along with the British, many emigrants from other European countries have been jumping ship, the German and French expatriate communities have dropped by 23.6 per cent and 12.7 per cent respectively, with only the Chinese reporting an increased presence in the country.
As far as regional variations go, English-language Spanish newspaper The Olive Press are reporting that 20,000 Brits want to leave the Costa del Sol alone. Across other areas that have a significant population of expat Brits, experts believe that there could be over 50,000 others hoping to return home. However, this is only an estimate and it would not be surprising if the true figures were significantly higher. The numbers of people who have already left may have been dampened by the current rock bottom prices in the Spanish real estate market with many people unable to find a willing buyer for their property.
But why are British expats becoming disenchanted with their lives in the Spanish sun? What could possibly be making all these people want to leave a place with such warm weather, blue skies and beautiful sea?
There are, as is often common with this type of question, multiple factors causing the mass exodus.
The continuing effects of the eurozone crisis are certainly some of the main reasons Brits are leaving in droves. A shrinking jobs market, with unemployment now standing at an incredibly high 26 per cent (the highest in Europe), and a slump in real estate value that has seen prices hit their lowest point since before the crash of 2007 mean that many simply cannot wait to get out of the country. Combined with the new cuts that historically only affected local firms but have recently been applied to international businesses and so are now also crippling foreign companies and entrepreneurs, it is no real surprise that many feel like the country is currently not a good place to reside.
In all fairness, with your typical British homeowner in Spain being retired pensioners, a lot of expats remain relatively unaffected by the crisis. With a pension to live off, and a mortgage fully paid off, the positives of a home in the sun probably outweigh any negatives caused by the economy, in fact, with the comparatively low prices of consumer goods in Spain, the country remains an attractive expat location.
John Grimmington, a 65 year old retiree living in Marbella says that whilst many of his neighbours have returned home, he and his family are still enjoying their life in the sun. “My wife Catherine and I have been living here since 2001 and in that time we have seen many British expats arrive, set up home, and then leave 5 years later due to the economic conditions. Some of our closest friends here have recently left and it is sad to see them return to England because of financial reasons when we know they would much prefer to stay.”
John is optimistic about the future however, and he believes the British will return once the crisis has blown over. “We know a couple of people who work in the property market and they have assured us that whilst prices are lower now than they have been for a long time, they are unlikely to fall much more and should begin to rise again within the next 18 months or so. Once the market is back on track, hopefully people will begin to return, it’s always nice to have a lot of British faces about.”
Bradley Shore is an avid travel and real estate blogger; he has been writing and travelling since leaving university and enjoys it very much, recently he has been writing articles for clients such as AltaVista property investment, he would one day like to have his own blog.
Be First to Comment