Ignoring some of the comments, I have read the original post several times now and can't really see the point. Is camposol saying there are only 2 types of people, those on huge pensions/investments in their 50s and the poor old age pensioner?
I'm sure there are many, many more that come somewhere in between. Those who have saved or paid into pension funds to make sure they will be comfortable in their senior years. Nowhere near the mega-rich with money to burn nor down at the other end with only a pension coming in. In fact, the BBC showed in a report some time ago that, although there are something like 800,000 Brits living in Spain, only about 20% are 65 or over so that rather puts the mainly OAPs living out their lives in the sun into context.
We started coming here some 13 years ago, bought our current house 6 years ago and moved here permanently 3 years ago. There were always those with the villas surrounded by high walls and those living in small flats sharing facilities. I don't think anything has changed drastically over those years.
What has changed are several whammies producing an almost perfect storm. UK mismanagement of the economy leading to the ever decreasing value of the pound. A single pension of £105 a week 6 or 7 years ago would have been worth around €160 a week or €8300 a year. Not so long ago, the pension of £110 was the same in euros (yes, it's going up) so only about €5,550 a year and even at the current rates are a couple of thousand a year less in euros than 7 or 8 years ago.(approximate figures, don't comment on my maths). Quite a big drop of 50 euro a week if you are only on the basic.
The abysmal returns of interest on savings. Again, flog your house in UK and have 100K left over would have given you around £5,000 a year, now about £1500 a year so another big drop. On just those two things, a drop of almost €6000 a year without actually doing anything.
I do take slight umbrage at people "slinking" back home. The drastic drop in income will have contributed but those who retired at 65 in those 13 years will now be 78 so it is only natural they want to be back near the family. Nothing to do with slinking at all.
The same with the super rich spending all their money just because they can and moving into residential care when they get older. I very much doubt if there are any of those around except for the odd C list celebrity or crook, as there always has been.
Then in the British press at the beginning of the week it was shown that a retired person in UK would need £10,387 a year for basic living. That figure only included about £30 a week for food shopping. Those on the very basic state pension going back to UK will have to go onto benefits just to get the basic living costs. Benefits that are not payable to them in Spain.
No, I think the majority of people in Spain do not, and never have, come into the bracket of the mega-rich who light cigars with €20 euro notes nor the poor pensioner eking out a living on MDDs and tap water. The majority will have made provisions for the extras in life and ensured they had some backing before moving over. Anyone with just a basic pension moving to any country would have to be a little naive to think they could live a holiday life in the sun on that.
So, next topic. Does it seem right that only the billionaires can now afford their own Caribbean island? Now out of the reach of the common or garden millionaire who are being forced to stay in 5* hotels rather than having their own bit of real estate. Life just isn't fair, is it?