Want to move to Gibraltar from Ireland

Just found this one and thought it merited a response as throwaway put a lot of time and effort into the original post.

Hi, my wife and I are thinking about moving to La Linea next May with the hope of finding employment in Gibraltar. We would be grateful for any advice on the following topics. How is the job situation? I work as a credit controller & my wife in Early Childhood and Education.

We have two dogs and would need a house with a decent size garden. How much is the monthly rent on a house, average price of bills etc.

What is the transport system like between La Linea and the Rock?

Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks

Mark & Megan

Hello Mark,

I've been living in La Linea and working in Gibraltar for the last 3 months. I thought I would share some information with you, something that usually is not told when you come here. I'll try to be as objective as possible and lay out advantages and disadvantages of this place.

If you travel along the coast from the border of Portugal to the border of France - every town is beautiful and nice... except La Linea (and Algeciras). Most likely this is the ugliest place in Spain.

That's not far off the mark although I don't dislike Algeciras. Just for the sake of accuracy, there are some rather unpleasant plastic cities in Almeria, that are quite ugly and also Barbate on the Cadiz coast is pretty squalid and grey.

It's unsafe and anti-social - not the place you would want to have a family with children growing up. I don't know the exact reason, but it could be that the locals here limit themselves to smuggling cigarettes from Gibraltar instead of taking up a meaningful constructive occupation and pay taxes to their town (which is basically bankrupt). You will see crowds of Spanish people going to Gib and back, carrying small black trash bags with a carton of cigs every day.

Flawed and inaccurate arguments.  What meaningful constructive occupations are available in La Linea?  Particularly when the town council didn't pay their employees for months?  There are no jobs in economically deprived parts of Spain.  La Linea is one of them, that's why they try and use the Gibraltar issue to manipulate the Spanish system.

Some people smuggle just to survive.  Some people, like our previous neighbours in the UK, and their daughters who weren't even old enough to smoke, were quite happy to smuggle fags out of gib just for extra cash.  They weren't trying to survive or avoid a meaningful constructive occupation - they had reasonable civil service jobs. 

Then there are pensioners who do it on their day trips on the coach and stash them in their trolleys.  Or the apparently affluent couples who say the trip down the coast is worth it to Gib for what they make on the smuggled fags.  I don't smoke and I don't condone smuggling.  I also don't accept that there are enough jobs kicking around in La Linea for people who want them.

The place is poor, ugly and devoid of any significant culture.

Yes.

Renting a place for living. La Linea is basically composed of four neighborhoods: Centro, San Bernardo, Los Junquillos and La Atunara. Stay away from Junquillos and Atunara - these places are ghettos that look like third world shanty towns. The only place worth considering is the center of town, around Calle Real, Calle Isabel la Catolica or Calle Aurora. They are about 10 mins away from the Gib frontier (on foot) and the environment is not run down (actually quite nice). The price for a 1-2 bedroom apartment here is expensive - about 500 euros per month, due to low supply (small town) and high demand (many Gib workers live here). And you will not get a parking spot/garage, community pool or patio with that (as opposed to other neighboring towns for the same price). The price of bills are insignificant. You would only pay a few euros for water and electricity here. There are no heating systems. The internet connection is expensive though (expect to pay between 40 and 50 EUR a month).

Good info on the La Linea areas.  But 500€ a month is not expensive.  It is not a few euros for water and electricity.  Both have standing charges, and leccy bills are every month, water every two.  It is cheaper than Gib though.  Telefonica internet connection charges are a rip off. Gibtel is much cheaper.  Telefonica is a great company when you want to buy stuff from them - but when you try cancelling a service, they are a nightmare.  Beware of Telefonica.

I'm not sure if you can rent a house here in La Linea. And landlords usually don't allow to keep pets in the apartments (but I guess it can be arranged). Renting in Gibraltar makes no sense - the rent is about 3-4 times more expensive than in Spain and the quality is the same.

No.  The rent is not 3-4 times more expensive. That is wrong.  That implies, based on the figures above of 500€, that Gib rents are £1500-2000 a month. They are not.  You can pay that if you choose, but you can get rentals from a similar amount if you look hard enough.  Otherwise you can certainly rent easily for £700 or so.

Another way of living & working here is to rent a house in a neighboring town. Estepona is the closest town with significant population and it is 40 km away from Gibraltar. But if you're willing to live in a small quiet boring town, there are many options much closer. But you have to own a car to travel here daily. Public transport system in Spain is unreliable and basically nonexistant.

I think public transport in Spain is good and cheap.  It is by no means unreliable and certainly not non-existant.  The service from La Linea to Algeciras runs every 40 mins and costs around 2€.  The service to Estepona is less frequent, and the local bus takes ages - but it does go through the small towns.  The directo takes about 45 mins. 

Oh, and you cannot drive a car with a foreign registration (except the first few months) and the car prices in Spain are ridiculously high.

Yes.

The usual routine for commuters is to drive to La Linea, leave the car somewhere near the frontier and then cross the border on foot and walk to your work or take a bus. Gibraltar bus ticket is quite cheap - 60p single, 90p return.

Gone up now due to the change in bus routes. £1 one way from memory, maybe £1.50 return?

There is no such thing as "transport system" between Gibraltar and La Linea.

Given that they are next to each other, there doesn't need to be one.

Driving into Gibraltar with a car makes no sense, except if you are willing to waste 1-2 hours a day in the long lines and traffic jams going in and out of that place. And when you get to Gibraltar - there's no parking space!

That's true also.  Far too many people can't get out of their cars and either walk, cycle, bus, to their place of work.

The weather. If you expect sunny days all year around you will be disappointed. Half of the year is hot and dry and the other half is warm, humid and very rainy. It's not uncommon to have 10 rainy days in a row in winters and it really can get quite depressing. Gibraltar rock itself is a very cloudy place due to some interesting phenomena ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levant_%28wind%29 ), so it is common to spend your working day under the clouds and get back home to the sunny Spain on foot.

There are more sunny days here than not.  Ten rainy days in a row??????  It's gloriously clear today incidentally and beautifully sunny. No cloud, no rain.

The positive side? Well, there are a few of them.

The wages in Gibraltar are much higher than in Spain, so if you work in Gibraltar and live in Spain, you are in an advantageous financial position.

Actually there are jobs in Gib where there aren't any in Spain. Slightly different issue.

With the virtually equivalent euro to pound rate, the previous financial advantages have virtually disappeared for cross-border workers apart from some cheaper costs living in Spain.  You don't benefit from some of the Gib tax advantages. Or get the schooling if you have children. Or become part of the local community.

You would live in south Spain and all the interesting places to visit are relatively near. So you can travel and see new places quite often and thus escape the insanity here.

Insanity is relative. We know many people who rarely leave Gib. We know others who can't wait to leave on a Friday, taking their money, earned in Gibraltar to spend in Spain. What does Gibraltar see of that money??  The same places you can visit from Andalucia are just as easy to visit from gib.

La Linea is down to earth genuinely Spanish town. It's not a tourist town like Marbella or Torremolinos that usually are centered around catering to tourists. There are many good tapas bars in La Linea with much higher quality food and lower prices than in the "tourist" towns. Night life is not bad here and people are generally friendly.

The truth is most Spanish towns are the same at the end of the day when you spend long enough in them.  You can find good cheap food in Marbella and Torremolinos.  I disliked Torremolinos when I first went, but later, when I had to go more often, I started to like it, found out where to eat, shop etc etc - hell they even had a laundrette!!

Sorry I cannot comment on the job situation in financial and education sectors because I work in a different industry. The biggest employers of foreign workers in Gibraltar are online gaming companies. There are some jobs in construction and bunkering. But other than that, I cannot think of anything else. Gibraltar economy seems to be based on the sale of untaxed tobacco.

Bit unfair re the tobacco comment.  Tourism, CAT2 income, construction I think. There may be others.

As someone who has lived in both Gib and Spain, I thought this was a really thoughtful post.  Living in La Linea would not be my choice, but I enjoy living in Gib.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them.

And, you dont need a house and garden with two dogs.  Plenty of people live in flats with 1, 2, 3 or even 4 or 5 dogs.  We have a large dog and live in a small one bed flat.