Moving to Spain from the UK After Brexit

Moving to Spain from the UK isn't quite as simple as packing the car, crossing the Channel and deciding to stay anymore.

Brexit changed the rules for British citizens, but it certainly didn't end the dream of moving to Spain.

People from the UK are still buying homes, relocating, retiring, working and building new lives here. The difference is that a permanent move now requires a little more planning.

And that planning should start before you find the house.

Can British citizens still move to Spain after Brexit?

Yes.

But UK citizens no longer have the automatic right to live and work anywhere in the EU.

If you're planning to make Spain your permanent home, you'll need to understand which residency or visa route applies to your particular circumstances.

That will depend on things such as whether you're retiring, working, running a business, working remotely or moving with family.

There isn't one universal answer for every British person moving to Spain.

And that's why we'd be very wary of anyone who tells you:

"Don't worry. This is what my friend did."

Your friend's circumstances may be completely different from yours.

Get advice based on your situation.

Living in Spain and owning a home in Spain are different things

This is an important distinction.

You don't have to become a Spanish resident simply because you buy a property here.

Plenty of British owners have holiday or second homes on the Costa Blanca while remaining resident in the UK.

But owning a Spanish property does not automatically give you the right to live in Spain permanently.

If your plan is to spend substantially more time here or make Spain your principal home, residency and immigration rules become part of the conversation.

So before you start viewing properties, tell us what you're actually planning.

Holiday home?

Several months of the year?

Permanent relocation?

The right property may be different depending on the answer.

The 90-day rule

British visitors to Spain are generally subject to the Schengen rules that apply to non-EU nationals.

For many UK property owners, understanding how the permitted period of stay is calculated has become an important part of planning how they use their Spanish home.

Don't base something this important on what somebody told you over dinner.

Rules can change, individual circumstances vary and overstaying can have consequences.

Check the current official requirements when planning extended stays.

Which Spanish visa or residency route do you need?

That depends entirely on your circumstances.

Someone retiring to Spain may have very different requirements from someone planning to work here.

A remote worker may have another route.

A person joining a family member may have another.

And the documentation and financial requirements associated with different routes can change.

RENVIDA isn't an immigration law firm and we're not going to pretend to be one.

What we can do is help you see where immigration, property and relocation decisions overlap, and introduce you to appropriate professionals when specialist advice is needed.

Sometimes knowing who to ask is as important as knowing the answer.

Get the paperwork moving early

If there's one piece of advice we'd give anyone relocating from Britain, it's this:

Don't leave the paperwork until you've found your dream house.

Depending on your circumstances, your move may involve things such as:

• Residency or visa applications
• An NIE number
• Spanish banking arrangements
• Healthcare
• Insurance
• Tax advice
• Documentation from the UK
• Moving belongings
• Vehicles and driving requirements

Some things can be dealt with quickly.

Others cannot.

Starting early means you're far less likely to find the perfect property and then discover that something completely unrelated is holding everything up.

Buying property in Spain after Brexit

Brexit did not prevent British citizens from buying Spanish property.

The buying process itself remains perfectly accessible to UK purchasers.

What Brexit changed primarily concerns your rights as a British citizen to live and work in Spain, rather than your ability to own a Spanish home.

So it's useful to separate two questions:

Can I buy this property?

and

Can I live here in the way I'm planning to?

They are not necessarily the same question.

Think about tax before, not after, the move

Tax residency can be one of the less glamorous parts of moving abroad.

It is also one of the things you really shouldn't ignore.

Where you're tax resident, what income or assets you have and how a move affects your individual position are questions for a qualified tax professional.

We're not going to give you tax advice while showing you around a three-bedroom villa. 😂

But we are going to tell you to get it.

Preferably before the move rather than six months afterwards when someone mentions something over coffee and you suddenly panic.

Healthcare needs planning too

Don't assume that moving to Spain means simply swapping the NHS for the Spanish public healthcare system on arrival.

Your healthcare entitlement will depend upon your individual circumstances and status.

Some people may qualify for access to the public system through particular routes, while others may require private health insurance.

Again, establish what applies to you before you move.

Healthcare is far too important for guesswork.

Then there's the actual move

Once the paperwork starts making sense, the exciting bit begins.

Where do you actually want to live?

And this is where we'd encourage you not to recreate your UK property search in Spain.

Don't simply decide:

"We had four bedrooms, a detached house and a garden in Britain, so that's what we need in Spain."

Your life here may be completely different.

You may spend considerably more time outside.

You might walk into town instead of driving everywhere.

You may discover that a huge garden isn't nearly as appealing in August as it looked online in February.

Perhaps you want the beach.

Perhaps after seeing the prices near the coast you'll suddenly become extremely enthusiastic about mountain views. 😂

Give yourself permission to rethink what home means.

Try Spain in winter

If you're considering living here permanently, don't only judge an area after visiting in July and August.

Come in winter.

Go to the supermarket.

Walk around the town on a Tuesday morning.

See which restaurants and cafés are open.

Drive the roads you'll actually use.

Look at where you'd buy bread, see a doctor, meet friends or take the dog.

A place that works beautifully for a fortnight's holiday isn't automatically somewhere you'll enjoy living twelve months of the year.

Much of the Costa Blanca North has genuine year-round communities.

That's one of the reasons we love it.

You don't have to work everything out alone

Moving countries involves a lot of moving parts.

Property.

Legal work.

Residency.

Healthcare.

Tax.

Banking.

Currency.

Removals.

Cars.

And somewhere amongst all of that, you're supposed to be excited about starting a new life.

You don't need Renvida to pretend we're experts in every one of those things.

You need us to know our part extremely well, understand how the other pieces connect and help you find the right people when something falls outside it.

That's how we prefer to work.

Start with the life, then find the property

Before we send you twenty houses, we'd rather know why you're moving.

What are you hoping will be different?

Do you want to walk to restaurants?

Live beside the sea?

Have land?

Escape neighbours?

Find a community?

Bring children?

Retire?

Work from home?

Spend your mornings cycling through orange groves and your afternoons wondering why you ever owned a winter coat?

Tell us that.

Then we'll start looking for the property.

Because moving to Spain after Brexit involves more paperwork than it once did.

But the reason you're doing it probably has very little to do with paperwork at all.

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