New to the area - Page 2

Thanks Rick, again another helpful bit of info we didn't know about.

We will register on the Padron asap

The Padron is official for permanent residents only, when I was selling properties from inspection trips in the late 90s and early 2000s the town halls would willingly except people on the Padron.

I am not completely sure of the rules now but I have been correct regarding this subject in the past, saying they now only accept permanent residents not holiday/second home owners.

You could always check with San Javier town hall at their email.  I have always found them very helpful do a copy on a translator of what you want to say and also send the english version, It is sometimes helpful to apologise for not having a good command of the Spanish language in the mail.

[email protected]

The Padrón is so that the central government knows what the permanent resident population of each municipality is. It is for permanent residents and not second home-owners or other long-term tourists. Some Ayuntamientos have been allowing non-residents to sign onto the Padrón but this is now being actively discouraged as it is basically a falsification of the figures.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.es/faq/register-on-the-padron-before-residency-or-not-plus-faqs/

https://murciatoday.com/how-to-sign-on-to-the-municipal-padron-in-spain-padr%C3%B3n_120900-a.html

In addition to the other living expenses if you want/need WiFi it’s €25 per month.

That's excellent advice from Rich T but bear in mind that he is located in Lorca. You will rarely if ever get below zero on the coast here but yes, you will need heat in the winter months. Best of luck with your move, I'm sure you'll love it.

Hi Ann

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Appreciated

Hello BobbyB

I am staying in Santiago de la Ribera for a while before trying towns around and north of Alicante to see which area to opt for, having recently retired. So my feedback is not on living costs but ambience

Originally I was going to stay in Los Alcazares but was deterred by some of the feedback on the highish proportion of non-Spanish residents. So chose SdlR because it seemed to be closer to a true Spanish environment which is what I sought

And I am so pleased I chose this place - it has been friendly, welcoming and with a real Spanish ethos. This means that in my personal opinion a few sentences of Spanish are highly recommended if you want to get the most out of the services, particularly now out of season when so much is not open. You can improve on your Spanish once you are in situ

Without those few sentences I would have struggled at the brilliant bike shop near the garage, and at the wonderful coffee and cake cafe in the High Street. My landlord also speaks no English and it was important to understand about mundane issues such as rubbish collections and gas cylinders

Duolingo has been choice to grasp those early useful phrases but of course there are many others available

Hello Nickdb

Im so happy to hear this positive comment. I've been passing in & out of different forums & in general terms the negativity is tiresome.

You sir are a breath of fresh air!

We are over in Ribera in 3 weeks time for a 3 day flying visit.

Cant wait!

(just to clarify, the poor comments were not about SDLR but the surrounding area)

And just to add: having relied on my car in England for the last 45 years it is a breath of fresh air here to walk to the local shops and cafes, cycle to Aldi, Lidl and Mercadona and travel by bargain-priced coach to Alicante and Murcia

So as I look at different areas the single biggest questions are: what balance do I want between living in a true Spanish town and living in one that has, for example a 25% expat community, and how do I feel about towns that have so many holiday apartments that they are largely deserted in the winter? If these are important questions for you then a good amount of research needs undertaking before you invest - websites like this are a good way to get the true facts

When staying in a town with a large proportion of holiday apartments and second homes on the Costa del Sol in March 2020 I was the only resident in a group of 20 properties - not great. As a working Spanish town SdlR avoids this problem albeit a number of cafes and beach bars have very limited opening hours/days at the moment

That's good advice. We own a property here but are not residents, and were advised not to apply for a Padrón. In any case the authorities already know what funds to allocate for infrastructure etc. since you pay property tax as well as non resident tax. They know you're there. 

The only time we had an issue was when we were between properties having sold one and in the process of buying another. We were buying a car and were told we needed a Padrón to complete the sale. We wound up buying it in our daughter's name as she has a Padrón. Subsequently we changed it back to our names but it cost us around €480 to do that.  You can offer deeds of a property to prove your address if you don't have a Padrón but we didn't have the deeds at that time so had to take the route we took. When we lived in Catalunya we bought cars over the 16 years we were there with no need for either a Padrón or deeds.