Stemming the Tide of Costa del Sol Expat Deserters

While British and German expats are packing their bags to leave the Costa del Sol’s sunny shores, a delegation from the Spanish Tourism Board attended the Arabian Travel Market, the Middle East’s most important tourism fair, to seek new markets.
 
Not only are Middle Eastern tourists envisaged to spend nearly EUR 2,000 per day during their holidays at the Costa del Sol, the ultimate goal is to tempt them to part with even more cash and purchase luxury property in resorts like Marbella, Fuengirola or Estepona.
 
British and German Exodus

Although German tourists have returned to Mallorca in greater numbers in the first 4 months of this year, German expats are packing their Rucksack and selling up at the Costa del Sol. British people may still prefer to live at the Spanish Costas above all other destinations but that doesn’t alter the fact that all over Spain, not just at the Costa del Sol, the numbers of resident Brits and Germans are shrinking.

Around 44,000 expats have already left the Malaga province in the last twelve months after two decades of continual influx of foreign residents. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), a record 25 % decrease of British and German residents has occurred in the period January 2013 to January 2014.

Partly to blame are the economic crisis and the difficulty of finding employment, but even for those who would have been able to stay, there was no easy way to move on, for mortgages are scarce.
 
While the exodus might at first glance spell disenchantment with the Costa del Sol, it should be remembered that Marbella’s house prices have fared better than many other regions in Spain – selling up in Marbella after two decades of house price rises could mean being mortgage free elsewhere in Europe, despite Spanish house price slumps since 2007.

Out of Love or just out of Pocket?

Reasons cited for leaving Malaga province where patchy health services and other public service sectors. Excessive bureaucracies, hampering those trying to form a company and recent tax hikes have also been named. But it is also fair to say that many expats now leaving are doing so because they have reached an age where they’d rather be surrounded by their families than go into a Spanish-spoken retirement home.
 
Emerging Markets to replace the old

Although large numbers of British and German residents have already left, they are gradually being replaced by other nationalities that are discovering the delights of Marbella’s luxury properties for the first time. Now that Golden Visas are issued with a Spanish home investment of more than EUR 500,000, non-EU Scandinavians, Middle Eastern, Chinese and Russian buyers can look forward to Spanish residency.

Administrative Woes

At least on paper there seems to have been a significant drop of expats, but is this really the case or simply an administrative issue?

EU citizens living in Spain are required to renew their registration on the population register every five years. Residents from non-EU countries must do so every couple of years. When residents don’t bother with such administrative matters, they eventually fall by the wayside as far as local headcounts go.

Now Town Halls up and down the Costa del Sol have received lists from INE that show all the foreign residents who will be removed from the population register if they don’t update their registration details; they are obliged to do this by law.

A crack down on such “lapsed” foreign residents will, over time, undoubtedly be used to collect more taxes from foreign residents, who often either don’t bother removing their names from the register when they leave or else don’t go to their Town Hall because they are too old or can’t cope with the paperwork.
 
The Dream is still alive

Yet for many Brits at least the dream of a better life at the Costas is still alive. Around 13% of Brits would rather live in Spain and at least 12% want to emigrate ASAP, citing high crime rates, a broken society, nasty weather and high cost of living as their greatest gripes.

If you are thinking of buying a permanent home in Marbella or elsewhere at the Costa del Sol, be sure to deal with registration issues as soon as possible after completing your home purchase.