Moving to Alicante In 2021

May I suggest you wait until the requirements for post Brexit have been agreed before seeking info.   

I say that because at present no one knows for certain what will happen so the best we could do is ‘best guess' which will not be a basis for you to make decisions

Regards. John

Thank you for the advice John. Do you live in Alicante now?

No,  I have lived on costa del Sol for 34 years

You still on the Costa del sol then now John?
I understand completely what you mean with post Brexit issues and the current covid issues too.
Can you suggest any good areas in Alicante to look at for properties, family areas?

Hello Adlingtonfamily81,

Welcome on Expat.Com.

I would advice you to create an advert in the Housing in Alicante section.

And you may as well get some information by reading Accommodation in Spain.

Good luck

Cheryl
Expat.Com Team.

There will most likely be considerable changes after the transition period from what exist now.   That will mean groups of people from uk who can now live here mat not be able to.   

At present an OAP is sufficient íncome.  Non EU nations need around 27,000 pa income.  Also S1 medical arrangements may not apply, especially to new applicants. 

Also the income tax for non tax residents on letting holiday properties will increase considerably as it will be 24% on gross income, no allowances for any expenses !   

That will render letting, to help cover out going's, as many do now, impractical and will leave almost no net income.

Hi Cheryl,
I think I've done that, was approved this morning.

Yeah I'll do that and see what information I can find.

Thanks

Craig

Hello
I haven't moved to Spain yet but planing. What I can say to help is that try to learn Spanish language because it only makes sense. Generally speaking Spanish people are helpful and knowing their language is a positive.
In regard to Brexit, even if UK government doesn't want to extend the deadline of Dec 2020, it is more likely that Spanish government may agree to it. That is my view anyway.

Hols
Have you tried the website /app Idealista for properties? It's got the largest coverage in the country. Definitely a good starting point to get a flavour on how the market is like, which is what I did before moving to Madrid just a year ago. It was extremely helpful!

Best of luck!

We found our apartment online via idealista as well.  Although there may be some estate agents with a list of available rentals, we ended up dealing with a different agent for every apartment we looked at. As I recall, all the agents had a working grasp of English, though.

I can certainly put you in touch with the agent for the apartment we finally chose, but I'd suggest starting with idealista to get a sense of what's available in your price range. We moved to Alicante from the US, so our immigration requirements were different than yours. Sorry I can't offer any advice in that area.

Rentals are typically either long term (annual and automatically renewable for another two years) or short term (between Sept/Oct to April/May). Many owners reserve the summer months to over-charge tourists, so don't expect any bargains in June, July or August.

Alicante is a great place to live, though. I'm sure you can find something that will work out well for you.

Restaurant Doc,

Can I ask how easy it was for you to get your paperwork done?  I am a retired military and my wife, kids and I are planning in retiring in Alicante. My main concern is schools for my kids.  I have a 9 and 14 yr old and would like to get info about schools.  If anyone can help me out, I will appreciated. Thanks

Gonzopr1 --

Assuming you're coming from the US, I can certainly tell you everything we ran into before and after we went expat in Alicante back in 2018. As a start, please tell me where are you in the visa process. What consulate are you using? Suprisingly, each consulate has slightly different requirements for a visa , so documentation that might work in Boston won't work in San Francisco.

It would be my pleasure to assist you through the steps both in the US and in Alicante. There's no "Moving to Alicante for Dummies" book yet and few people you can ask if you don't speak Spanish, so it's been definitely an trial and error exercise. I've still got a lot to learn (including Spanish!) but at least now I know how to avoid the larger potholes.

It will probably be faster to communicate directly rather than through the expat website. This offer may get censored out, but you can find my email address on the Restaurant Doctor website.

As to education, my wife and I are retired with no kids, so that's the one area I never personally had to deal with. I can tell you Alicante is basically a Spanish city ... as opposed to expat enclaves like Benidorm, Malaga and, I suppose, the area of Cadiz around the US Naval Base where English will be more commonly spoken on the street.

Local public schools in Alicante will teach in Spanish. That may or may not be a problem for the kids, although they usually pick up languages far faster than adults. The best English-speaking private education in the area is Kings College, the British School of Alicante <https://alicante.kingscollegeschools.org/>, located just south of the city. If that won't work for you I can ask around.

Hope this helps. I look forward to your next round of questions.

Bill

For Alicante try this Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/spainexpats/

Whoops, try this one https://m.facebook.com/groups/142725252593333?view=info

Tough to get the copy/paste right from my phone sometimes .