Why Europeans move to Spain

SPAIN is a melting pot of nationals from different countries and due to its membership of the European Union, attracts residents from the 26 members as well as other countries as well.

Each week, we plan to speak to a European who has made the decision to settle here and for this, the first of an ongoing series we spoke to Jitka Faull from the Czech Republic who now lives between Estepona and Marbella.

Jitka moved to Spain with her English partner after they spent time in both London and then Florida but when they experienced problems with securing their green cards, decided to move back to Europe.

“What we wanted was somewhere that was warm but within easy travelling distance of both London and Prague, so we settled on the Costa del Sol which has the added bonus of an extended European expat community” she explained.

Adding “I love it here and although a I work hard, there is such a lot to do and I enjoy cycling, golf, padel and working out as well as the gastronomy and just being with the many friends we have made.”

Jitka spent several years working with different real estate agents but branched out and set up her own agency Centrum Marbella which caters mainly for Czech and Slovak clients who want to own property in Spain and feel comfortable dealing with someone who speaks their language.

“Naturally I miss my family but I can say for sure that I don’t miss commuting and now have a really wide range of friends particularly from Spain, UK, Czech Republic, Belgium and Sweden so I am really glad we made the move.”

When asked if there is anything Jitka doesn’t enjoy in Spain, the very quick answer was bureaucracy!  “Even though I still have a Czech passport and am entitled to live and work here, I still wasted so much time organising my residency and whenever I thought everything was complete, yet another document was required.

“Now I wanted to change my registered address for the business and that’s yet another saga!”

Spanish is not always an easy language to learn so how did Jitka cope as she now has very good and understandable conversational skills. “I was lucky, I met a very good, patient teacher who was born in Gibraltar but spoke castellano rather than llanito and she prepared me with all of the basics and then I just made myself speak Spanish until I am pleased to say I get by very well.

This is the response of just one happy settler in the country who finds little to complain about and much to praise.