Six years ago Sylvia and Nigel Hunt decided to plan for their retirement. So they sat down with Nigel’s public sector pension calculator and worked how much longer he would need to work.
In the light of this month’s rises in council tax, energy and water bills and internet fees to name just a few of the price hikes in the UK, she feels very much they made the right call. “We did our online research on the cost of a grocery shop, bills and taxes and worked out that he would need to carry on working until 2024,” says Sylvia, 56, who lost her job in the travel industry during the pandemic, whilst Nigel worked at the tax office.
“Our timing was worked out on the basis we’d need to spend €1,000 to €1,200 on monthly expenses for us both – if we live mortgage-free in Spain,” she says. “We did consider moving to France but whilst property prices might be similar to Spain, the cost of living was going to be dearer.”
She’s not wrong on that. According to numbeo.com, based on average levels of expenditure, the cost of living in Spain is 25% lower than the UK, excluding rent, compared to 0% with France – in other words, parity with the UK.
They project their electric bill to be around €100 a month – around half the UK average after the price cap increase in April 2025. The couple sold their home in Leeds last year and went on holiday to Spain to start looking for a home. On how to choose where Sylvia said they simply typed in their criteria into A Place in the Sun website – they wanted at least three bedrooms and a swimming pool – and investigated what came up.
“We really did not care about location – it was all about the house,” says Sylvia. “We didn’t want to be near bars and restaurants or expat communities – that is not us.”
They ended up buying a detached four-bedroom house in Caudete, near Albacete in the region of Castilla–La Mancha in central Spain, behind the Costa Blanca. It’s 40 minutes by car to Alicante airport.
Because it’s too far from the coast for many foreign buyers, prices are relatively affordable, and the Hunts paid €189,000 for the property. It was a probate sale and came fully furnished, with an Audi car. “We liked the house and just fell in love with garden,” says Sylvia, who says nearby is a garden centre and a supermarket.
The couple have just moved into the house, having met Indalo Transport, a UK-Spanish removals company, at A Place in the Sun Live exhibition in 2023 (Sylvia admits she does like to plan).
“We felt so reassured when we met Paul [Burt] face to face that we trusted the company to move our belongings over. He was super helpful and arranged the quote via video tour of our house.”
Although they didn’t take much furniture, the managed to fill a lorry or two with Nigel’s ‘boys’ toys’ – his substantial collections of model trains and cars.
“The move was easy and cost us around £6,000,” says Sylvia, who owns an Irish passport so was spared the hassle of trying to get a visa. (The Non-Lucrative Visa for retirees also has a minimum income requirement of €36,000 per year for a couple).
The couple are enjoying ‘being lazy’ in the Spanish sun. They will have friends and family to stay – they have two grown-up children and two granddaughters) but plan a pretty quiet life and have no plans to go out and find new friends in Spain.
“If we’d stayed in the UK we would have had to carry on working,” says Sylvia, reflecting on the latest rises in council tax that make it a fraction of what they were paying in Leeds.
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