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Returnees form Spain face bleak futures due to house price crash
| Published: | 29 Apr at 6 PM |
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Tens of thousands of UK expats in Spain returning home after losing money on their retirement villa sales are telling tales of etirement dreams turned into nightmares.
The 2008 financial crash was the beginning of an undreamed of nightmare scenario for UK expats across the world as their investments failed and their pensions were affected. Thousands in Spain, however, are living in even more misery as the country’s economic chaos and property price crash has wrecked the value of their dream homes.
One such retired couple, the Puddicomes, had been living near Malaga in their £250,000 villa for 13 years, enjoying the lifestyle and their escape from British winters. With their pension hammered by the exchange rate and worries about their health as they grew older, the couple decided to move back to the UK to regain access to the National Health Service.
Having placed their villa on the market at £206,000, they received no offers, and reducing it again didn’t help. Finally, it was sold for a mere £71,500, just enough to buy a former council house in their home town of Plymouth.
According to Mr Puddicome, the couple consider themselves lucky to have been able to afford anything, as friends of theirs still in Spain can’t give their homes away and prices are still falling due to an oversupply of property in the region.The dramatic rise in UK property prices has meant that, even if a sale is made, its owners may have been priced out of the market in their home country.
Holiday homes owned by British residents are also being sold up due to Spain’s ongoing problems as well as the country’s sharp rise in the cost of living. The increases, many believe, are simply to raise revenue rather than to facilitate the installation of improved services.
The 2008 financial crash was the beginning of an undreamed of nightmare scenario for UK expats across the world as their investments failed and their pensions were affected. Thousands in Spain, however, are living in even more misery as the country’s economic chaos and property price crash has wrecked the value of their dream homes.
One such retired couple, the Puddicomes, had been living near Malaga in their £250,000 villa for 13 years, enjoying the lifestyle and their escape from British winters. With their pension hammered by the exchange rate and worries about their health as they grew older, the couple decided to move back to the UK to regain access to the National Health Service.
Having placed their villa on the market at £206,000, they received no offers, and reducing it again didn’t help. Finally, it was sold for a mere £71,500, just enough to buy a former council house in their home town of Plymouth.
According to Mr Puddicome, the couple consider themselves lucky to have been able to afford anything, as friends of theirs still in Spain can’t give their homes away and prices are still falling due to an oversupply of property in the region.The dramatic rise in UK property prices has meant that, even if a sale is made, its owners may have been priced out of the market in their home country.
Holiday homes owned by British residents are also being sold up due to Spain’s ongoing problems as well as the country’s sharp rise in the cost of living. The increases, many believe, are simply to raise revenue rather than to facilitate the installation of improved services.
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