Spain is a popular destination to retire for Brits, the warm weather, cuisine and high standard of living has attracted over 8.6 million people to retire here.

The most popular areas in Spain to retire include, Alicante and Javea in Costa Blancas well as Mallorca, Madrid and the Costa del Sol.

Living in large cities like Madrid will much more expensive than the small towns and make living in retirement more of a challenge.

Visas

You will have to acquire a residence permit to stay in Spain for longer than 3 months.

The retirement visa needed will be a non-lucrative visa or a non-profit residence permit which will allow you to stay in the country without performing any economic activity.

The non-profit residence visa allows you to legally live in Spain for one year before having to renew for 2 more years twice. Doing this will allow you to then obtain permanent residence to live there for 5 more years before you can then obtain Spanish citizenship.

You will have to apply for your visa by submitting it to the Spanish consulate in your country and it usually takes around 3 months to be accepted.

 

The cost

For your application to be accepted you will need to show proof that you have EUR28,000 coming in each year. You can show proof through bank statements or any official documents you receive to show this.

You will be able to bring any children under the age of 18 but will have to prove you have a further EUR7,000 per child.

Your income can consist of a state pension, rental properties, private pension or any other income as a retiree.