Costs Of Living In Spain 2024

One of the most frequently asked questions on many of the on-line Spanish Residency websites, as well as numerous Spanish ‘Expat Forums’, is “How Much Does It Actually Cost To Live In Spain ?” This, seemingly straightforward question is, in reality, a pretty difficult one to answer, for there are just so many variables e.g. Whereabouts, geographically speaking, do you actually want to choose to live, North, South, East or West ?’, By the coast or inland ?’, In a Large City, Town or in a smaller Village ?’ 🤷‍♂️ I am guessing though that most people who are asking this question are just looking for more of a ‘rough’ idea, something to give them a starting point, and so in this ramble, I may, hopefully at least, be able to provide some ‘real time’ general cost of living examples, that may provide some, if perhaps not all, answers to that question.

I will just say, for those of you reading this who may want to know more about the actual initial Visa and Residency Processes, Procedures and Costs, this is quite a separate subject to what I am covering in this particular ramble, but I have already covered those particular subject’s in previous blog rambles. So, and just for clarification, this particular ramble is only in relation to the day to day ‘general costs of living’, once you have obtained your residency and are actually living here in Spain on a full-time basis.

We have, as most regular reader’s of my rambles will already be aware, been living here in Spain on a permanent basis since June 2023, however, here in Spain the Spanish ‘Financial and Tax’ year’s run from 1st Jan – 31st Dec, as opposed to the UK, where we used to live, where the financial year ran from Apr – Mar. So we could not, in our initial six months of living here in Spain, actually conduct an accurate annual financial breakdown for 2023. So, as we have now just completed our first full financial year of living in Spain, I am going to share with you what it cost ‘us’ to live here in the 2024 financial year.

When viewing the Spreadsheet (that I have published below) just remember that it is specific to what it has actually cost Shazza and I, to live here, in our ‘apartment’ within a gated residential community located within the ‘Province’ of Malaga, and the Municipality of ‘Manilva’. Other’s choosing to come to retire in Spain may in fact choose a different geographical location, in a different property type and of course have different lifestyle requirements. These costs are not intended to be used as a direct cost of living comparison with the UK, or indeed any other country, basically because we have not owned, or rented, a property in the UK for over 11 years now and so we have no accurate knowledge of the comparable UK living costs or those in any other country 🤷‍♂️ That said, I have provided on the spreadsheet the ‘actual’ real time costs to us in Euros(€), on both an Annual & Monthly basis and then, more so for my UK reader’s, in separate columns, I have also converted those Euro(€) costs back into UK Sterling(£). For those of you who live in other Countries, outside of the Eurozone, obviously you just need to use the current conversion rate of your own country against the Euro, if you want to do your own cost comparisons. The costs shown in each column are the ‘actual costs’, as in they are not estimates or just my hypothetical budget allocations for each category, and for ease I have rounded them up, or down, as appropriate to the nearest Euro. Additionally, you will see that I have shown monthly costs, although practically we do not physically have to pay some of these bills on a monthly basis, e.g. Electricity is billed bi-monthly, Water is billed quarterly, Communal and Bank charges are billed quarterly, Insurances (Home and Car) are billed annually etc. etc.

You will also note, by their absence, when viewing the spreadsheet, that I have not included ‘our costs’ that are associated to our normal monthly expenditure on ‘Groceries’ or our ‘Personal Expenditure’. That is simply because what ‘we’ spend within those categories will more than likely be different to anybody else’s 🤷‍♂️ Other residents, whether they be single, a couple or a family, will have their own budgets and expenditures for these two particular categories and will also be very much dependent on individual disposable incomes and preferred lifestyles e.g. Do you prefer to purchase home-branded products (where available) rather than Spanish equivalents ? Does your grocery budget include beer, wine, spirits ? Do you prefer to eat out on a frequent basis ? Do you have hobbies that entail payment of subscriptions ? (Golf, Bowls, Tennis, Padel (like Tennis but different) Swimming, Gymnasiums, Walking Clubs, Social Groups etc. etc.) But, and for some sort of general guidance really, Shazza and I allocate a monthly Grocery budget that is the same as it would have been if we were still in the UK, obviously we do review it on an annual basis and make changes to it if, or when it is necessary, but worthy of note perhaps is that we have not increased, or decreased, our grocery budget in the whole of the eighteen months that we have been living here. Additionally, we have just recently sat down and conducted our financial budget review for the coming year (2025) and Shazza tells me that, currently at least, she can still manage within the same grocery budget that we have had for the last two year’s 👍 Of course, we have no idea how expensive, or economical, groceries are in other countries (USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Asia, Scandinavia etc. etc.) so you may find groceries here either, more expensive, or much cheaper, than in your own ‘home’ country 🤷‍♂️ Generally speaking though, unless your lifestyle will be completely different here in Spain, to what you currently enjoy in your home country, then you can use your own current budgets as a guide for both the ‘General Groceries’ and ‘Personal Expenditure’ categories when living over here in Spain.

We own our property here outright, so we have no Mortgage or Rental payments to budget for. The other important factor when considering your costs to live here in Spain is whether you need to cover the costs of ‘Private Healthcare’. We are fortunate that the UK and Spain have a reciprocal state health agreement, which means that we, as ‘UK State Pensioners’, get ‘free’ access to the Spanish State Medical Healthcare facilities (but not Dental care), so we do not have to pay for Private Medical Healthcare. I will also go into a little more detail on some of the other category costs a little later, but first, it’s time to put some meat on the bone for you………………………

Now just to provide some additional information about those categories and costs:

Annual Communal Charge

Size does matter in Spain, specifically when it comes to the size of properties (the footprint) and not all Apartments in our particular complex are the same size, they can be 1, 2 or 3 bedrooms, Living/Dining/Kitchen/Bedrooms/Bathrooms vary in size, there are ground floor apartments with garden/patio areas so they do not pay for costs associated to the cleaning/servicing of the lifts (Elevators). The more ‘generic costs’ that all residents in our small community have to pay towards encompass a Landscape/General Handyman contractor who, on a daily basis, maintains all the external areas (Pool, Gardens, Lighting). We have a contract cleaner who, on a weekly basis, maintains all of the general internal communal areas in each Block, e.g. stairwells, glazed areas and the lifts. The communal charge also covers all of the ‘mandatory’ annual Servicing and Inspections e.g. Electronic Security Gate & Security Cameras, Pool Health & Safety, Lifts, Fire Extinguishers & Emergency Lighting. There is a charge included for external usage of Water and Electricity (Pool, Garden and internal Community Lighting). There is a quarterly charge to a local external maintenance Authority (MACRO) for costs associated to the external Refuse Collection Areas, Roads and Pavement Cleaning and maintenance, Maintenance of external Grass and Shrub areas and Maintenance and Serviceability of the public Street Lighting. Finally, the whole external areas of the complex buildings, and the general Internal communal areas, get re-decorated every 5 years. All of these costs are included in the Annual Communal Charge which is reviewed, and budgets agreed, each year at the Residents Annual General Meeting (There has been no increase, or reductions, in the last 3 years). These charges can, and do, vary between different residential complexes, the neighbouring gated residential communities set their own Communal Charges and they are of course dependent on what facilities those communities provide. So other than the cost of the property that you may wish to purchase, you should also ask the Estate Agent, or Solicitor, the question about annual Communal Charges 👍

Council Tax

Basically this is paid Annually, directly by us, to the local Municipal Council for things such as Police, Fire Service, Main Roads and Lighting and General Maintenace of all public areas in our particular Municipality.

Buildings & Contents Insurance

Unlike the UK, where the ‘majority’ of Apartments are generally purchased on a ‘Leashold’ basis, meaning that, whilst people own the actual property (the bricks ‘n’ mortar) they do not own the land that it is built upon, therefore they have to pay the ‘Land Owner’ an annual ‘Ground Rent’ and for Private apartment complexes possibly also a ‘Service Charge’ to maintain the external areas. Here in Spain, we actually purchased our property with part ownership of the ‘Freehold’, meaning, we own a share of the land that it is built upon so, each property owner has to legally have Building Insurance Cover, as well as the usual Insurance cover for personal contents (although that element is not mandatory but advisable).

Electricity/Water Charges

Self explanatory really. We are on both Mains Electricty & Water. Each Apartment has its own water and electric usage meters. We are not connected to Mains Gas. Worthy of note: Some rural properties, mainly older ones, have no connections to either Mains Water, Electricity or Gas (Water is supplied from Wells, Electricity provided by Solar Panels and/or Wind Turbines and gas via bottles) although they can pay to be connected to ‘mains’ facilities where it is available.

Bank Service Charges

It is very common out here in Spain for the majority of Banks to make a charge to personal account holder’s, for processing and administrating your accounts (Their may be just one or two that do not). These charges can be reduced, but it is dependent on each individual banking institution. There are several conditions that need to be met to receive the discounted charge e.g. a minimum amount that has to be credit into the account each month and, at least two products purchased through the bank (Home Insurance, Health Insurance, Car Insurance etc.) We do not purchase any additional products through the bank, which is a personal decision, but we do still receive a 66.6% reduction on the annual charges 👍 The Bank Charges for our particular Bank are taken quarterly, although this year they gave us, what I am assuming was a Christmas Bonus, as they refunded the final ‘quarterly charge’ 👍

Home Telephone/Wifi/TV Subscription

Again, this is pretty straight forward, we do have a home telephone so their is of course a line rental charge for that, but the service provider we use, also provides us with our home WiFi connectivity and a selection of Spanish, and some English speaking, TV Programmes, there is no TV Licence Fee payable in Spain but we do pay a separate subscription to obtain some specific TV and Internet Channels (Amazon Firestick). Worth noting is that with our home landline, all outgoing telephone calls to numbers ‘within Spain’ are ‘Free’ (My favourite word 🤭)

Mobile Phones

Shazza and I have our own individual mobile phones. We use a service provider in Spain. Our contracts include 50Gb Data per month ‘within Spain‘, that data allowance is reduced slightly for ‘roaming’ outside of Spain and within Europe (Including UK). All calls and Texts are ‘Free’ within the usage allowance.

Car Maintenance

This covers all ‘Routine’ Maintenace and parts. You will note a ‘0’ amount shown in this category for 2024, that is because both the maintenance schedule, and the ITV Testing (MOT), are conducted bi-annually and neither are due until later in 2025, so there were no associated costs in 2024.

Car tax

This is paid to our local ‘Municipal Council’ on an annual basis and, compared to the Car Tax payable in the UK, it is ridiculously cheap here 😲

Car Insurance

In Spain, it is the vehicle that is insured and not the driver. Therefore, there are no charges for additional driver’s, but they must have the consent of the owner to drive the vehicle, be over 18 year’s old and hold the appropriate licence. Our particular vehicle insurance automatically includes Breakdown & Recovery Assistance within Europe (Including UK), although outside of Spain this cover is only valid for a total of 90 days in any one Insurance year. There are no excess charges for glass replacement.

Fuel (Diesel)

Of course, this will vary, year on year and be dependent very much on our usage. The cost shown for 2024 includes ‘all’ of our road trips as well as our normal daily/weekly domestic use.

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So there you have it, I hope that the above information and explanations have provided ‘some’ beneficial information for those of you that require it, but, do bear in mind what I stated earlier, this annual statement, of ‘our’ 2024 costs does not account for Groceries, Personal Expenditure or, for this year at least, no Car Maintenance costs.

From my own perspective and, to be totally open and honest with you, I have absolutely no idea on how much it would cost us to now live a ‘comparative’ lifestyle back in the UK, so I cannot do any sort of realistic comparison study 🤷‍♂️ I will leave that up to you to do if you so wish. From a purely personal perspective though, Shazza and I find it quite economical to live here, in our particular area of Spain and, something that we cannot put a price on is our overall quality of life, the generally good all year climate, and the generally very relaxed way of daily life, is, for us personally, very much better than it was in the UK, although, once the honeymoon period has worn off, it can take some time to get used to this very much slower pace of Spanish life.

There are of course, as with all aspects of life, some compromises that do have to be made, the language barrier being the main one, however, in popular tourist areas, that is not generally a major issue and can only become a little problematic when dealing with ‘Officialdom’, although there are always solutions e.g. ‘Google Translate’, Interpreters, Solicitors and even friends and neighbours 😉 Combined with the ‘potential’ language barrier problems are the wheels of Bureaucracy themselves, which believe me, do grind very very slowly here, not just for ‘Expats’ but even for the local Spanish inhabitants, and that can be extremely frustrating at times. Then of course there can be the problem, for some, with the physical distance from extended family members but, in all honesty, this should be part of the planning and preparation discussions ‘before’ taking the leap into emigrating to any new country 🤷‍♂️ However, modern communication technology in Spain is excellent and we can keep in touch with family and friends located all around the globe.

So, until my next ramble……………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena