Moving to Spain (Retired)

Champagne Sally

Looking for any advice or tips from people

My father is in his 70's and moving to Spain in a couple of months. He's thinking of Alicante or maybe Salou. He's been to both resorts plenty of times and likes them both.

He has a newly renewed EHIC and know that he will need to register as a resident in the local town hall as soon as he has a rent agreement with landlord. With this document then he will have to attend local police station with "tramites de NIE" for NIE Number.

He has his own income from pensions so is financially independent.


He has Alicante as first choice because he believes accommodation will be easier to find there. He will spend a few weeks "on holidays" while he looks around at properties.

Can anyone tell me if there is anything else important he (or me) needs to do.

Thanks a million

Gamb!t

Champagne Sally wrote: »

Looking for any advice or tips from people

My father is in his 70's and moving to Spain in a couple of months. He's thinking of Alicante or maybe Salou. He's been to both resorts plenty of times and likes them both.

He has a newly renewed EHIC and know that he will need to register as a resident in the local town hall as soon as he has a rent agreement with landlord. With this document then he will have to attend local police station with "tramites de NIE" for NIE Number.

He has his own income from pensions so is financially independent.


He has Alicante as first choice because he believes accommodation will be easier to find there. He will spend a few weeks "on holidays" while he looks around at properties.

Can anyone tell me if there is anything else important he (or me) needs to do.

Thanks a million

Open to correction but I think he would have to be living there over 6 months to get his residency.

There is probably face book groups for expats living in Alicante that might be able to offer good advice also.

One thing I would check is if its easy to get a long term rental as I over looked this when we moved to France.Seasonable places tend to only offer short term rentals and rent it out during the summer.There is places available but are a bit tricky to find.

Champagne Sally

Yes sorry I should have said 3 months for residency.

Thank you for the tip on long term rentals. I'll look further into this.

I thought despite recent changes that Portugal was more expat friendly to those with a respectable income...but of course it isn't the same Country.

Tigerandahalf

Just read an article today that Portugal is increasing its zero tax rate on pension income from 0% to 10% owing to pressure from fellow EU countries especially the Nordic ones. Still eligible for 0% upto the end of March.

Jim2007

Champagne Sally wrote: »

He has a newly renewed EHIC and know that he will need to register as a resident in the local town hall as soon as he has a rent agreement with landlord.

You need to check out exactly what will be covered by the EHIC card in Spain once he is resident. There may be a gap because he will not receive a pension for Spain. I know that both Switzerland and the UK operate an additional cover for people retiring to Spain because the EHIC card is considered not enough.

Champagne Sally

Jim2007 wrote: »

You need to check out exactly what will be covered by the EHIC card in Spain once he is resident. There may be a gap because he will not receive a pension for Spain. I know that both Switzerland and the UK operate an additional cover for people retiring to Spain because the EHIC card is considered not enough.

Thank you Jim, I will definitely look into this. There’s a lot more to this than I first thought, he initially plans to go for a year so yes health coverage is a must. Pension arrangements and taxation is another matter too but wonder should we wait 3 months before doing anything about that.