‘The UK in the sun’: Brits quit the coast for real Spain

This isn’t a new trend but it’s happening.

British expatriates are moving to the interior of Spain, where they can enjoy a more relaxed Mediterranean lifestyle.

It is important to note that her story does not stand alone.

The Brit who abandoned Mijas: “All of my neighbours are Brits!”

Peter Moreve (78) was driven by the same disillusionment to leave Mijas Costa. A coastal town located between Malaga & Marbella in which he has lived since retiring in 2006, Mijas Costa is a small coastal village situated between Malaga & Marbella.

The time he moved to London was because he wanted better weather, and a more relaxed pace of living. Two decades later, however, his lifestyle was overshadowed as a growing number of Brits moved to the area.

Mijas has approximately 93,000 residents, of which 40 percent are foreigners. Most of them are British.

All my neighbours are British. It wasn’t Spain, but England in the sunshine. “I wanted to live there, but I didn’t enjoy living with Brits,” he said. The i Paper.

He moved close to Cordoba. “I want to live in Spain”

He meant it. Moreve moved in 2018 to Lucena. A town of 43,000 residents, 67 kilometres away from Cordoba where few foreigners live.

“If I am living in a country I want to feel like I am a part,” he said.

Moreve, despite having lived in Spain nearly 20 years and knowing Spanish, admitted that his skills were not sufficient to pass the citizenship test.

He said that his love for Spanish Culture remains unchanged: “I like Spaniards, because they accept you as you are at first glance. “They talk about you behind their backs, like Britons,” he joked.

Moreve, a divorced father of two sons who are now adults, values the sense he has in France. He never felt that way in England. “I like the fact that when you go into a shop, everyone says ‘Hi’,” he said. He believes that Spaniards are “less judgmental and more accepting than Brits”.

The rush for a more ‘Spanish’ Spain

Spain’s authorities have identified a new trend that echoes Peter Moreve’s and Anne Trust’s opinions: foreigners are showing a growing interest for inland areas.

More and more expatriates are moving to places like Toledo, Salamanca or Avila in Extremadura. They are leaving the touristy areas where they settled years ago.

These regions have fewer tourists and are more representative of Spanish culture and tradition. And many expatriates are feeling the pull of a quieter, more ‘Spanish’ Spain.

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