‘We moved to Spain – I was brainwashed to believe life was better in London’

Young Britons relocate to the Continent to chase warmer weather and a better quality of life

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With its mild winters and laid-back lifestyle, Spain has long been a favourite place for British retirees. Many have headed for the Costas for their holiday resort feel and plentiful homes.
Yet now many younger people are heading to Spain for very different reasons – to set up a business, to reduce their living costs, or to make the most of the sunshine.
“The remote working trend of the pandemic has kept going and we are seeing many people thinking, ‘Why not work from Spain?’” says Barend Hart, of agent Lucas Fox.
“Successful people are coming to Spain to set up new businesses and seeking a cosmopolitan city. Historically that was Barcelona, but now it’s increasingly Madrid.”
It’s in the cities where many non-EU investors have purchased apartments to get a golden visa – giving them residency and work rights with an investment of at least €500,000 (£414,000). Yet the Spanish government has moved closer to ending the controversial scheme blamed for overheating property prices – January looks likely.
Some are using the digital nomad visa instead. A total of 7,368 non-EU nationals have been granted the visa in the first 10 months of its availability, according to official figures.
It’s a misconception that Brexit killed the dream of living in Spain. The number of Britons officially registered as living in Spain increased from 276,089 in 2017 (the year after the referendum), to 284,037 in 2023, according to the padrón registry.
Equally, the British were still the biggest group of foreign buyers in Spain in the first half of 2024, followed by the Germans and the Italians, according to the latest figures released by the Spanish notaries’ association.
This is unlikely to change. Spain is the country most Britons would like to move to, according to a recent report by Currencies Direct. The top reasons for leaving among those surveyed were a better quality of life, cost of living and the weather, though the recent catastrophic flooding may make buyers think twice about certain areas.
Telegraph Money has spoken to four families who have tired of Britain and gone to Spain in search of a new life.
Faced with the need to move to an EU financial hub after Brexit, Bo Bene and her stockbroker husband, James, decided to move to Madrid, where they’ve just bought a home. Although she is a British resident, having a Hungarian passport made the move easier.
“We had loved living in Wapping, east London, and we didn’t want to live in Paris or Frankfurt, so Spain seemed a no-brainer,” says Bene, 33, a former model and actor.
“The sunshine, quality of life, cheaper school fees – Madrid is perfect apart from the fact it’s not on the coast,” she says.
Two months ago, the couple had their second child, and with their daughter Isabella now two, schooling was a consideration when choosing where to live.
“We first rented in Salamanca as it’s very central but decided to buy in Somosaguas, as it’s good for the British schools – like the British Council where the Real Madrid players send their children.
“It’s only 15 minutes out of the centre. In London it seemed to take so long to get anywhere, but in Madrid it’s easy to get to places.”
Whilst their seven-bedroom villa with a pool is being renovated, they are renting another apartment in the upmarket district of La Moraleja, which is the Hampstead of Madrid.
“Nursery and school fees are so much cheaper. I feel I was almost brainwashed to believe it was a better life in London. l can breathe again without the traffic and crowds. Plus people here seem happier here, and less aggressive.
“But I do miss Waitrose, Boots and English sausages.”
Karen and Tim Jordan decided to move their family to the Orihuela Costa from Wirral, Merseyside, in August – mainly due to the weather and “dismay at life in the UK”.
After holidaying there for many years, Spain came out top for accessibility, climate and affordability.
“We weren’t young, we weren’t old, and just fancied a new adventure,” says Karen, 52, who used to work in an independent school in the UK. “We had a window of opportunity with the children’s schooling, so we thought why not?”
With their oldest child at university, their 18-year-old and 12-year-old twins moved over to Spain with them. Finding the right schools involved multiple research trips and taster days. 
They have moved using a non-lucrative visa, which does not allow working, so the family can live on dividends taken from Tim’s driving school business, which is viewed as passive income. They are renting while waiting for their UK home sale to complete.
Aside from missing friends and family, Tim, 59, says the hardest thing is the red tape once you arrive – such as organising the residency card, registering proof of residence, exchanging your driving licence, buying a car, learning about Spain’s car tax rules and MOT.
“But school fees are substantially lower than the UK, and the children have settled in really well,” Tim adds.
Meanwhile, it was an outdoorsy lifestyle for her two small children that persuaded Helen Coutts, and her husband, Denzil, to move to Mallorca two years ago from Bath.
“I had given up my job as an osteopath to spend time with the children and we just wanted a better life balance,” says Helen, 38. “So with the weather being a big factor, we decided to try things out in Mallorca by renting. Things are going well – so we are now looking to buy a home.”
They are another couple with the benefit of an EU passport between them – Denzil has German ancestry – and they loved the idea of having the Tramontana mountains close by for hiking and biking. 
Denzil, 43, a former carpenter on West End productions, has found work refurbishing hotels, villas and in furniture design.
“I underestimated how much time it would take to build up a social life here,” says Helen. “We are slowly knitting together the strands of a new life: building a home, settling the children – aged four and seven – into school, finding favourite coffee places, getting to grips with different tax systems.
“Familiarity with everything takes time.”
Edward and Claire Baker also took the plunge and moved to Galicia from Deal, in Kent, this summer. The increasingly popular north west corner of “Green Spain” offers verdant national parks of thermal springs and woods that are a world away – and much more affordable – than the Costas in the south and east.
“Battered physically and mentally by our military careers we sought a simpler, stress-free life, living mortgage-free with some land,” says Claire, 45, who was seriously injured on a military exercise.
“Ed’s father lives in the south of Spain but with summers getting too hot there now, he suggested we try Galicia. We came and explored and fell in love with this area close to the Portuguese border – it feels quite magical.”
A traditional four-bedroom stone house with 1,500 sqaure meters of land in Muinos cost them €140,000 and they moved over with their two cats in June. 
Since 2020, Claire has been running a business compliance company so was able to apply for a digital nomad visa, being able to bring Ed, 53, who is taking a career break from security, as her spouse.
“It was granted within eight days,” she says of the three-year visa. “Covid helped my business move online so I now work on Teams and fly back a few times a year.”
“Stepping straight out into a national park feels very restorative and healing – just what we needed,” she adds. 
“There’s definitely a language barrier and we are both very tall so we do stick out a bit. Families who live nearby give us vegetables. I wish we could communicate better with our lovely neighbours, but we are working on that.”
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