Valencia Property Blog

Are you ready for a heavily political post? If you are a Brexit supporter or a MAGA Wingnut then you may want to look away now, don't read on, just walk on by. You don't need to make a comment that this guy is a commie pinko or a Remoaner who can't accept that they lost... you can just leave now. Luckily we don't get clients like that anyway so I'm not going to offend many of our future clients.

The truth is we are so busy we don't really get the chance to ask this question to those of you who aren't here already or in our pipeline of clients for the next few months but it's really time to ask the question. In a world of YOLO (You only live once) and INNTW (If not now then when?) what are you waiting for? And yes, this is yet another post aimed at Americans and Brits but it applies to other nationalities to a lesser extent. We have told you about the various Visas you can get for living here, we have told you about the cost of living comparisons and more. We need to ask again though, when are you coming to join us?

Why do we say this though? Let's take a quick look at the various things that are happening Stateside and the UK in their two horse race to be the country that can really totally ruin themselves first, and then ask "What is it that is holding you back?"

The USA. WTF Is Going On?

We look on at the US aghast in general from other countries. The soap opera of Stormy Daniels' uninspiring one night stand (yeah that bloke), the gun violence, the descent into Fascism (Banning and burning books, ejecting elected officials from Tennessee, the defenestration of Twitter by a sociopathic billionaire narcissist, the increasingly deranged right wing media, and yes we are looking at you Fox News as you knew you were lying about the election being stolen but still repeated the lie and supported the liar)

It's all gone a bit Pete Tong hasn't it!

When the Orange one lost his second election (because let's face it, the only reason he won the first one is because in the USA "Land votes" as opposed to people, the popular vote was lost in 2016 too but electoral college votes count more just to please States where no one lives or even wants to live) anyway as I was saying, when the Orange one lost the election many of you thought that a bit of sanity would return, and maybe a little bit has, not enough though.

The losers have gone on a state by state rampage. We could list the egregious acts committed by States but let's just say Florida, Gerrymandering, Tennessee, school shootings increasing even more, the rights of minority groups being eviscerated and that all enveloping fear of what is about to happen rising up within you.

If you were planning to be here then why are you not booking your flights and why aren't we planning your move now?

As we've said before Spain isn't perfect but it's a lot less imperfect and those intangibles you can't put a price on like feeling safe when you leave your home and even feeling safe in your home don't have a cost... or rather they do, and that is often a lot less than the States.

I was speaking with one of our American clients last week and they told me something that I hadn't really thought of before and it actually inspired me to write this post.

They said that people in the USA cannot stop working because they lose their employer funded healthcare and they can never retire for the same reasons as their healthcare costs would rocket.

They had managed to retire 12 years before their official retirement age in the States because they moved their location to Spain and their pre-retirement income was enough to fund a very comfortable lifestyle here, not excessive just comfortable. They didn't need to earn bucketloads of money because they no longer had bucketloads of ongoing costs. They were off the hamster wheel, mortgageless and happy.

Do you understand that feeling yet?

Onto Brexit Britain... Oh Dear

Enjoying your new freedoms in Global Britain yet? Oh no, it's almost impossible to get off the Island and when you do then you stand in the huge snaking non-EU queue when you get to the Continent.

So, can we list the last few weeks in the UK or would that require extra installments of the blog every day this week? Shall we start with the queues to leave the Island, the continual Banana Republic levels of corruption in the Government, sh*t in the rivers and on the beaches, prisoner barges to hold refugees (Makes you proud doesn't it), increased racial hatred, a government stoking that hatred by specifically and wrongly targetting the Pakistani community for grooming underage kids for sex, Tory MPs so desperate to feather their own nests that they are continually caught in stings where they peddle influence for cash, three unelected Prime Ministers out of the last four, all more venal and incompetent than the last (Well maybe not, it's hard to top that serial grifter Johnson) and empty shelves more and more common as EU drivers are refusing to go to the UK as they know it's more hassle than it's worth, a useless trade deal worth 0.08% of GDP with regions on the other side of the World when as everyone knows most trade is locally geographically located...?

What's left that was good? Even Liverpool FC have gone massively downhill but if you're an Arsenal fan you'll be happy ;-) OK I'll give you James O'Brien, Attenbrough, the Goes Wrong Show and the like, there is some really good stuff. But when we visit and viewing things from abroad and meeting people who come here sick and tired of the gaslighting, the corruption and the hate, things aren't getting better, they are getting considerably worse.

They've Made it Difficult But...

We know the UK government has made it more difficult for you to move to Europe, especially young people who may not have the right to live, work and even love throughout the EU as they previously did have but there is still hope. The New Digital Nomad Visa is a beacon for many of you. It gives you the opportunity to get out. And doing it young before the ties of marriage, children and responsibility make it more difficult is better. You may even be able to get by in 90 days blocks twice a year with the normal Schengen Visa to start with if you work it well with your employer. It could be a cheaper way of living too.

And you know what the worst part is? It doesn't look like it's going to get any better soon. Sunlit uplands my *rse. Even when the Tories fall to their currently inevitable humiliating and crushing election defeat it's too late as they are performing a scorched Earth policy tying the hands of any incoming government. And the Labour party are too scared by the ever dwindling nativist Brexit supporters that they won't revisit that particular poison well for at least a generation. And would Europe have the UK back? I know what I would say if I were Europe, but then again I hold grudges, Europe might be more practical.

The Steps You Need To Take

You need to get your ducks in a row and get everything ready for the move. Start the process of getting the paperwork together, contact us to help you with the steps you may need to take, let us know exactly what you are looking for and tell us when to start looking for you. We can get everything prepared at this end from Health Insurance to legal representation to bank account opening and more. Now you need to do your bit and make that decision.

The last few weeks have been the last straw for some of our incoming American and UK clients. When's your last straw? We look forward to hearing from you as it shouldn't be too long.

Tip of the Week

No property of the week this week as we have been too busy to list much. However, here's this week's tip. It's getting to that time of year when people coming here to look for property will be completing around June or July time.

The suggestion is that even if completion is in June that if they have sold their property this year then they should wait to come and actually live in Spain until after the first week in July. Why? Because you need to spend more than six months in Spain after getting residency to become a tax resident in a calendar year and this avoids you being a tax resident for 2023.

This is important if you made a considerable capital gain on your property sold in the country you are coming from during the first half of the year. You could be in line for a hefty tax bill if you arrived and took residency in the same first half of the year.

Americans Fleeing to Valencia

Just like last week we decided to include this video as it shows what those who have already made the move had in their minds when they came here. David and Patrick were our clients and we also did their modernisation which you can see in the video.