Relocation at Spain One Stop
The one stop shop for your relocation to Spain.
On this page you will find info on :
Banks and Cashpoints | Builders | Cars | Computers
Chemist |Creepy Crawlies | DIY | Electricty | Gas | Jobs |
Cars
If you need a car here in Spain and you probably will, the best thing to do is buy one here. To do this you must be resident and have an identity card to prove you live here. Second hand cars hold their value and can be quite expensive, but importing your own can be a nightmare.
If you must bring your car with you you will need to seek a gestor (pronounced hestor) This is the person that can help you through the process, taking you through the paper-work in the right order, This is most important as, here in Spain the rubber stamp rules.
For any information on this and other legal matters get : You and the Law in Spain by David Searl. This book is invaluable. Try to get the most up to date version because the law changes each day. This book is available in our book shop.
Please note .
Comercial vehicles cannot be changed and registered on Spanish number plates.
Chemist
The Chemist shop or Farmacia.
Much the same as the U.K. but you can buy just about anything over the counter without a prescription. In the larger towns and cities they are clamping down on this and will only supply antibiotics etc with a doctors prescription.
Computers
Buying a P.C in spain.
Computers here are a little cheaper than in the U.K. and it seems like a good idea to buy one here. Unless you intend to use your own operating system from the U.K. or you can speak fluent Spanish. DONT ! Buy one.
Nearly all P.C.'s that we have seen in Spain come preloaded with the operating system in SPANISH and you cannot change it to English. When we bought our p.c. we were told we could change it to English. We could not. Even complaining to the company who made it, had no effect. We eventualy had to buy an operating system from England for 200 pounds to make it work in English.
All my research on the internet to change the language pointed to getting an English version of the o/s.
Again.
DON'T DO IT ! ! ! ! ! IT GETS EXPENSIVE.
Creepy Crawlies
Scolopendra or giant centipede These are found in southern spain and have a nasty bite. I know this from personal experience. They like to live in dark places and you often find them as you demolish old buildings. Sometimes found in the house especially in bathrooms. Do not touch. If you do get bitten seek medical advice.
We always keep a small box in the house just in case we get any unwelcome insects. How you get them in the box is up to you. P.s Take Care they move like lightning.
DIY
DIY is starting to take off here in Spain and there are a few stores that specialize in diy products, Leroy Merlin and AKI both of which are similar to B&Q. Prices in these stores are quite good but plaster cement and building materials are expensive and you would be better off buying these things fron a builders yard. For example a 15 k sack of cappa fina (fine plaster) in a diy store costs approx 29.00 e in a builders yard 3.50 e . Shop around you can save a fortune. The ferreteria ( ironmonger) is the best place to get most things for diy, they sell almost everything you will need. Try to learn the Spanish terms for the things you need, as you usually have to ask.
Electricity
All of Spain has the same voltage as the U.K. give or take a few volts. 220 v The only difference is that it is supplied with a choice of the number of kilowatts 6 12 or more depending on your reqirements. The higher the number of kilowatts the more expensive per unit it becomes.
All your electrical appliances from the U.K. will work here. All you need to do is change the plug.
Electricity in Spain is expensive compared with all the other services. Here you get billed every 2 Months.
If you are building a new house you will get what is called a "builders supply" This you don't pay for. Once the house is finished the electric company then install a meter and you start paying from this point.
If you are going to live in the middle of nowhere then get a generator as backup. Sometimes when it rains here the power will go off for some time. This is due to water getting into open junction boxes. The electric company here don't seem to care and leave cables and conections open to the elements.
Gas
Only large Towns and Cities have natural gas. If you live in the countryside and want to use gas, butane in bottles is available but you must have a contract with the gas supplier. Suppliers will not give you a contract until they inspect your appliances to make sure they are safe.
Gas boilers here are quite efficient and inexpensive to run. A bottle of butane costs at the time of writing 11.60 euros and is about the same size as a bottle of calor gas in the U.K. 35 kilo.
Changing a bottle can be tricky until you get used to it because the connections are fiddly.
Gas appliances from the U.K. will work here but you must change the regulator. The U.K. regulators do not fit the Spanish butane bottles.
Mosquitos
Mosquitos are little B******s you can't see them you can't hear them and you don't feel them bite you until its too late.
They breed in still water and there is a lot of this about in the countryside because of uncovered water deposits.
They become a problem after the sun goes down until dawn.
There are various products on the market that claim to stop them biting, but hardly any are effective. However, we have found a product from Avon called Skin so Soft which prevents them from biting. There is a whole range of Skin so Soft products and all work well against this horrible insect.
We have found that if you live in the Countryside you have more of a problem with mosquitos, especially if you live in close proximity to a polytunnel (invernadero) than if you live near the coast.
Phone
In the countryside land line telephones are few and far between. If the house you are thinking of buying does not have a phone ask where the nearest phone line is. Even if it is close by, expect to wait a long time to be conected, this can take sometimes up to two years and repeated calls to telefonica. If you don't want to wait this long for what I can only discribe as a C**p service. There is an alternitive, we have been conected to a high frequency radio phone which means we also have broadband internet access. The company is called Iberbanda and the web address www.iberbanda.es . This only takes a couple of weeks and the service is good. A prepaid phone card is also a good Idea, they cost 5 euros and it's a bit inconvenient dialing an 18 figure number before the number you want, but you get up to 3hrs talk time to the U.K. to a land line, and approx 22 mins to a mobile in the U.K. It dosen't even show up on your bill as a call.
Post Office
In most small Towns and Villages the Post Office (Correos) is only open for a short time in the mornings Mon to Fri. In the Village near us it is open from 8:30 to 10:30
If you need to post a parcel surprise surprise the post office is where you need to go. There are post boxes but they are few and far between.
If you need Stamps you have to go to the Estanco (tobacconist).
Shopping
Supermarkets are much the same as in the U.K. but there are not many brand names you will recognise. If you like savoury pastries and pies the choice is very limited. Nearly all pastries here are sweet. The sliced prepacked bread also has a lot of sugar content.
If you want the brands you are used to in the U.K. you will pay more because of the import duty. You will also have to travel to find a shop that stocks what you need. We have found that the supermarket, Super Sol who have shops all over Spain, stock a lot of U.K. brand names. But be warned they are expensive.
There are also lots of british shops springing up at the moment, where you can buy the things you are used to. I shall try to get the addresses and include them here.
Buying anything that needs consumables to work e.g. vacuum cleaners need dust bags. Check that the store you buy the goods from, stock the things you will need to use it. More often than not the stores do not hold these items in stock, or you have to go to another shop to get what you need. If they dont hold it in stock, ask where you can get it from. If they don't know Don't Buy It .
Siesta.
Shopping can be difficult if you have not planned in advance where you need to go and what you need. The opening hours take a little while to get used to. Most of the large Supermarkets open at 10:00 am and close at 9:00 pm Most of the smaller shops as a rule open at approx 9:00 am and close for siesta between 1:30 / 2:00 until 4:30/ 5:00 and then close at 8:00 pm
Shopping in Spain, you must inspect everything you buy. There seems to be no real quality control. The number of times we have bought things that we have found to be defective, I have lost count of. After being used to the price of things in the U.K. you will think you are getting a real bargain but check and check again .
Money back guarantee on goods in the larger stores is for 15 days after you buy. You must have the receipt. Anything after 15 days you usually have to wait for servicio tecnico ( A man with a screwdriver and a hammer) to come and repair it "Manana" (tomorrow, the day after or never) or Lunes (Monday) problem is they don't tell you which one.
T.V.
If you have sat t.v in the U.K. and you are relocating to Southern Spain, bring the decoder with you. Decoders or set top boxes call them what you like, can cost you up to 500 euros here. Make sure you also bring the Sky card and you will get all free to view channels.Without the card you will not be able to watch itv or channel 4.
The sat dish you have is probably no good here unless it is a big one 1.3 m. A large dish is nessesary, As we are on the edge of the satalite footprint.
Water
If you are thinking of buying a property in the countryside (Campo) then don't just assume because it has a bathroom and kitchen,with things called taps,that water comes out of them. Lots of properties in the countryside come with a water right which will entitle you to so many hours a month or week. Ours where we live, is three hours per month. This does not sound much but it is 10 litres per second. When we bought this house we were told it had a water right. But we had nowhere to store it. We had to have a water deposit built at considarable cost. Even though we had the water right with the house, we still have to pay for the water that we have each month. This is not a much money about 15 euros a month. We assumed that because we had the right, the water was free. Nobody told us. This caused us a small problem.
Always ask before you buy a property about, water and deposits and the quality of the water. Mostly in the countryside you will be supplied agricultural water this is fine for washing but do not drink it. We buy bottled water to drink.
The picture below is of a water deposit in the early stages of construction.
If you have found the property that you want and it has no water right or water connected, all is not lost. You may be able to have a bore hole drilled for water. In nearly all mountainous areas you will find water. This process costs approx 60 euros per meter, and there are occasions where a depth of 100m or more is required to find water. You will then need a pump to extract the water. The cost of pumps vary depending on the amount of water per second you have in your well, the cost can be anything from 350 euros too 1800 euros.
Weather in Southern Spain.
We have approx 320 days of sunshine in a Year. July August and September are the hottest months where tempertures can exceed 100 degrees in the shade. The climate in southern Spain is not always as warm as you might think. In the winter the temperature can drop to close to freezing. Snow is not a regular occurrance on the south coast but it can happen. We are fortunate because we live south of the mountain range that separates the southern coast of Spain almost along the whole width of the country. This protects us from the worst of the weather. In the winter only 20 k inland it is nearly always 5 degrees cooler and often drops below freezing.
Banks and Cashpoints | Builders | Cars | Computers
Chemist |Creepy Crawlies | DIY | Electricty | Gas |
