The unknown

Hi everyone

This is my first ever post.  I live in Aberdeenshire Scotland just now.  My boyfriend works in the oil indisty in Africa.  If he stays in this country longer than 6 months he will be taxed alot of money.

So we are planning on renting in Spain.  We have been on holiday in the Los Boliches area and loved it there, however we did not like Fungurola very much.  Please excuse my spelling.

I really like living in small towns wilth enough shops, not looking for busy city's.  Can anyone please tell me where has been your best experiences?

We plan to rent and travel Spain before we make any drastic desicion on buying in Spain.

Spain to me is not far from home and want to experience a new life and make a new start, so any useful information please share

many thanks

Kelly

From Kelly’s post I understood  she may think living in Spain would avoid :-

QUOTE  If he stays in this country longer than 6 months he will be taxed a lot of money.

If that was her intention,  I thought, informing her of the tax position in Spain, might save her going a long way down a road,  which she might not choose do if she understood the tax situation in Spain (i.e. that the tax situation might be worse in Spain than in UK)

PS Having spent several days trying to do the non-residents tax returns for my son and his wife, i am absolutely   p..... d   off with the Hacianda !!!!

I don't know what to say.... apart from tax sucks :( haha

Tax is the fuel to run to country.  Without it nothing happens.

 Now i dont pretend to know how it works but......

We sell a good percentage of our property to oil workers,both offshore and landbased workers that work in Africa etc etc...

I have never delved too much into the bones of it but they have all told us that if they say they live in Spain then they pay significantly less tax than if they are domicile in the UK.

I think that is what the original poster was asking??

 It depends on what you are looking for. I personally prefer it a bit inland, not to far, within striking distance to the sea but far enough to be away from the hustle and bustle of main tourism. We got ourselves a place in Arcos, lively enough but mainly spanish. Not to far to Jerez or Cadiz or for that matter about 1 1/2 hours from Gibraltar, 1 to Seville. Could not recommend it more and there is a lot going on but it is not a step away from the beach. So, that's my plug for the day.

Regards and good luck.

 My boyfriend works in the oil indisty in Africa.  If he stays in this country longer than 6 months he will be taxed alot of money.

So we are planning on renting in Spain.

Thats how i read it!!

sorry if i mis understood...

 And welcome to eye on spain, Kelly!

Duquesa

Its very British with British speaking people and english food.
Everyone has British Sky tv as well.

I know a few people that work on the rigs in Africa and they live in duquesa or benahavis but the ones that bought their houses in benahavis many years ago spend their time in Duquesa.

I have lived in or around Duquesa/Manilva/Sotogrande/Estepona for almost a decade and would highly advise a week in Duquesa before you make a decision.

Estepona is nice but its a bit spanishified

Sotogrande dies in the winter.

Duquesa is year round and has a microclimate so the weather is very consistent.

Very close to gibraltar and a perfect place to land and avoid any culture shock.

If you feel you want to be move to somewhere more Spanish after you have settled and got the hang of living in a `foreign` country there are many spanish places round it to move to, but as you have not indicated you are looking for the spanish way of life or spanish culture it seems like a good choice for you.

Thank you very much Cove Robert.

Mungry thank you so so much for this info.... wow such a help.  I may need to find oiut some more info on Duquesa and do my research.  Is it a busy place? I don't like busy busy places as I will never feel relaxed.

Any more info would be much appreciated

THANK YOU!!

 Duquesa is actually quite nice BUT I personally could not stand it for more than a week. It's marina is lovely and one can have a good time siiting there in a Cafe or Bar or Restaurant but that's about it. It's not Spain, it's some kind of enclave. If that is what one is looking for it's perfect.

And one pays tourist prices.

The prices have come down a lot in Duquesa since the recession so things are much cheaper.

Sure its england in the sun, but based on the origional posters questions or reasons for wishing to be in spain it has to be a good choice.

Most of the Rig workers i know work one month on and off so suggesting living in the campo and surrounding yourself with spanish people to `experience to spanish lifestyle` dosent seem like a good fit as she could be alone for half the year.

Is it busy?

Depends which street you live on i guess.

If you live in the port yes it is but if you live on one of the urbanisations then not really.

Sotogrande is also an option which is a bit more spanish than Duquesa.
But you pay a premium for everything in Sotogrande.
If you research sotogrande dont be put off by the houses that are 5000 euros a month.
There are plenty of reasonable apartments for 850 euros a month.

xxxkellyxxx it all depends on your reasons and intentions for moving.

The way Cave Robert describes Duquesa as an enclave is somewhat right but this is not a negative thing.
Wherever the english have been since the colonial times they have created enclaves such as Happy Valley in Kenya, India, Hong Kong, Gibraltar.

It is rediculously english to the point when spanish people try and order a drink the english bar staff in the english owned bars dont understand them.
Is this a good or bad thing?
For me and millions of people over the last few decades that have settled or passed though Duquesa its a good thing because i want that but for some people its a bad thing because they want to immersed in the spanish lifestyle and their vision of a perfect life is eating olives and playing at being spanish.

Depending on what you want.
In my opinion First visit for a week should be Duquesa which is a 15 minite drive from Sotogrande and a 40 minite drive from Gibraltar (where the monkeys are)
Second week could be somewhere uber spanish so you can compare what you want.