Dealing with the pain in Spain (From Bournemouth Echo)

Dealing with the pain in Spain

7:00am Monday 4th August 2008 in

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THE dream of a relaxing and carefree life in the Spanish sunshine seems to be turning sour for an awful lot of people.

John and Irene Jones and Andy Mahoney and his family are two just examples but there are hundreds if not thousands of others.

Owning a property on one of the Costas now appears to be fraught with problems as these two families have found out.

They both face financial ruin, one because their property may have been built illegally and the other because the authorities want to bulldoze their home for a motorway.

But it isn't just the issue of buying a home and finding out all is not what it seemed - even with assurances from estate agents, developers and local politicians.

Other ex-pats, especially those on fixed incomes, are struggling with the dramatic fall in the value of the Euro and with changes to the Spanish healthcare system which is not as accessible to non-citizens as it once was. In one region, free health facilities have been withdrawn for overseas residents. Even getting there and back is no longer that cheap as airlines are forced to ramp up fares in the face of rising fuel costs.

As an Age Concern spokesman says in our special report today, retiring abroad can be a great experience. But it rarely becomes just a permanent holiday and the pitfalls are becoming ever more apparent. Only a couple of weeks ago, a survey reckoned this country offers the worst quality of life in Europe. I guess it depends where you live but take a look a proper look at the beauty of the New Forest, Purbeck or the Dorset coastline. I know where I'd rather see out my days.