Estimated 1 million Brits now living in Spain

An estimated 1 million Brits now live in Spain – and after decades of Little England mentality, there are signs that the expatriates are integrating at last into the Spanish way of life.

Graham Forster may have come to Spain partly in search of the sun, but sea and sand can’t have had too much to do with it. The pretty Andalusian village where he has settled is a 40-minute drive from the coast – or would have been had I been able to find the winding road to it on my map.

Eschewing the concrete costas and looking inland, the 49-year-old Liverpudlian watchmaker found a perfect place to settle in Álora, a whitewashed village in the shadow of an ancient hilltop castle. “I wanted the Spanish lifestyle, rather than Little England in the sun,” he explains, taking a rest from fixing clocks in the afternoon heat.

Five years ago, he moved here with his family and enrolled his son Jonathan and daughter Jessica in the local school. After four years of lessons and considerable help from his neighbours, Forster felt that his Spanish was good enough to open his own shop, which serves Brits and Spaniards in equal measure. “This is it now,” he says decisively. “We’re staying here for good.”

Álora is one of dozens of remote Spanish villages where Britons have settled in recent years. Far removed from the British enclaves on the coast, many of these latest settlers are becoming involved with their adopted villages to an extent their predecessors never dreamt of. But it is a slow and uncertain process with a looming catch: the more of their compatriots arrive, the harder it will be to integrate.

Even so, the latest and most intrepid wave of Britons to settle in Spain is challenging deeply-ingrained stereotypes of the dreaded “Brit abroad”. For a start, they aren’t all pensioners. “I think the traditional image of the retired Brit coming to live in the sun is diminishing,” says Bruce McIntyre, the British consul in Málaga. “The normal person who used to come here and live on their state pension can’t now afford to do so.”

Instead, he sees younger people moving over with their families, often entrepreneurial types with successful businesses in the UK. In short, the sort of person who is more likely to make a go of Spanish life, and not just wanting to live out their final years in the sunshine.

“I think the newer generation are integrating more,” McIntyre says, looking at his assistant for confirmation. “Yes, a lot of them are intermarrying,” agrees Rosslyn Crotty, who has lived in the region for 30 years. “There still is a lot of Brit-marrying-Brit. But there are also a lot marrying Spanish nationals now.” It is impossible to say with any certainty how many British live in Spain. Most do not register with their local authorities, often for fear of attracting the attention of the tax-man. That said, the estimates are huge – and growing at an impressive pace.

The UK Foreign Office works under the assumption that more than 1 million Britons are living most or all of the year in Spain – a huge number in a country of 45 million people. In dozens of towns and villages across the sunny south and west of the country, Britons now outnumber Spanish residents by a wide margin.

Recent surveys suggest that there is no shortage of others willing to make the move. In 2005, an average of 2,000 people moved away permanently from the UK each week, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research. Spain was the most-popular destination after Australia.

The latest official figures reveal that 315,000 Britons are registered with their local Spanish authority, giving them the right to vote in local elections. That figure is rising by 15 to 20 per cent a year. For the first time, Spanish politicians are starting to court the British vote in local elections. In places such as Majorca and Alicante province, Britons are themselves being elected as local officials; one town has even had a British deputy mayor.

Karen O’Reilly, a British anthropologist, conducted a now-famous study into The British on the Costa del Sol. During her fieldwork in Fuengirola 15 years ago, she found that the British and Spanish hardly mixed at all. “If you could draw it,” she says, “you’d have a Venn diagram with very little overlap.” On recent trips, however, she has begun to notice tentative signs of change. “People are now becoming more involved in the Spanish economy,” she says. “They are learning little bits of Spanish. It’s not a massive sea-change, but it is changing.”

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Trends in Overseas Retirement

A number of surveys over the last few months indicate a rising trend toward retirement overseas.

Over half of Brits plan to retire overseas. A customer survey compiled by Insure4Retirement.co.uk indicates that over half of all Britons hope to retire abroad. The telephone survey, conducted between October 2006 and February 2007 this year, polled a sample group of 1,022 participants resident in the United Kingdom and aged over 50. With Spain, France and Canada cited as the most popular retirement destinations, the single biggest worry for retirees (40% of those polled) is concern about maintaining a secure income. This was followed by the spiralling cost of healthcare and fear of hospital waiting lists.

Or is it two fifths? Research undertaken by GfK financial for Bank of Scotland International, from a representative sample of 1,321 surveyed between 24th and 30th April 2007, found that 42% are interested in buying property abroad or moving abroad. Respondents ranked Australia in the top spot with 10%, followed by New Zealand at 9%. America and Canada were joint third with 7% each. France topped the European destinations with 6% of people wanted to move there, followed by Spain at 5%.

Data from the ONS shows that one million Britons have retired abroad over the last decade – with Spain out on top with 74,433 pensioners moving there since 1996. This is followed by France (which attracted 34,051 pensioners), Italy (32,795) and Portugal (6,165). This leaves 703,900 who have retired to other parts of the world.

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Retiring to Spain 'easier than ever'

Increasing numbers of Britons are looking into investing in an Overseas Property as the process of retiring to the sun has become ‘easier, cheaper and more attractive’, it has been reported.

According to the Property Investment service provider for the over-50s, Saga Overseas Homes, Spain remains the number one choice for British retirees looking to relocate due to a number of factors, including price and practicality.

Commenting on the trend, Chris Simmonds, managing director of Saga Overseas Homes, said: “Growth in the UK housing market has generated a lot of equity for homeowners, and despite the similar boom in Spain, many people are finding that their money still goes a lot further on the Mediterranean coast, and they can have a new and idyllic home in the sun.”

In addition, Mr Simmons revealed that the growth in cheap flights from the UK and the strong ex-pat communities within Spain make the country the ideal choice for people looking to retire abroad but are nervous about living in a distant and foreign land.

Recently, HSBC signalled its confidence in the continuing strength and popularity of the Spanish property market, with the bank launching a bi-lingual service for Brits looking to invest in the country.

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