DeeTee - you are very wise to be concerned about your parents` plan to retire to Spain. Many people have gone along this road only to find themselves trapped in a nightmare. Equally for others their dreams are realised.
Some friends of mine retired to Spain around 15 years ago purchasing a yet to be built villa (bungalow) in Torrevieja on the Costa Blanca which seems to be the area that many UK emigrants choose.
They encountered a problem at the outset when the sale of their property in England and the completion of their villa were separated by about 6 months which meant moving in with one of the children and husband for that period. This was because they could not afford to rent a place as all their money was tied up in the new property. As you can imagine this caused some difficulties albeit of a temporary nature.
The villa itself is beautiful with 2 bed-rooms, a large garden and its own swimming pool. They have had 15 great years out there marred, however, by two burglaries.
Because of this they and many other people have steel bars fixed to the outside of all the windows and steel shutters to protect the outside doors. This makes it a little prison-like for my taste not to mention an escape hazard in the event of fire but there we are.
There is an immense amount of building of villas and apartments going on in the Torrevieja area. Indeed the sky-line is littered with giant cranes. Every available space appears to be being covered. This means that the wonderful view of the sea or the mountains to the north-west which may have been what clinched your chosen location may suddenly be hidden behind yet another supermarket.
My friends are now elderly and in poor health and this is a concern. They have had to leave their villa and move to a small apartment because they can no longer manage to look after the garden and swimming pool and can`t really afford to pay anyone to do it all for them. I do not know what facilities exist in Spain for the long-term care of elderly people but I would say that this is something potential emigrants ought to check out because for many this is going to be a one-way ticket. With the massive escalation of property prices in the UK a lot of people would be hard pressed to return to the UK and enjoy the same standard of living they had in Spain.
Anyway enough of my rambling. I wish your parents well in whatever they choose to do.
