Living in Spain for non Spaniards Good/Not so good?

Just moved back to Hungary after 3.5 years living in Gandia, near Valencia. Some years back, over 7 years in Barcelona.
Several points:
If you are young, then choose a city, as the provinces are just that... provincial.
Rent, as prices still have a long way to fall.
When you do buy, only go for "urbanized", other wise the local government will charge you for installing things like pavements and street lighting. As V4 Media says, check property legality, and then check again. For example, any changes made to the property ie swimming pool or extension added without proper planning permission will only come to light after you have bought...and you will be obliged to pay a fine and/or knock it down.
Do not buy/rent any where with "shared" facilities (like a swimming pool for all the residents) as in these hard times they will not contribute to the upkeep costs (Spanish peeps have a lot of face)...and you will have to pay their share or watch said facilities fall into disrepair.
Get a bike!
Speak Spanish and/or learn (your life will be much fuller).
Over 180 days residence means that you pay tax on your world-wide income.
Stay well away from sad old expats (with the fall of the UK £ vs Euro they are struggling and become a bit bitter). They do not integrate and still believe everything they read in the Daily Mail.

Fantastic weather, food and sea. Peeps are mad, emotional, loud and tell it as it is. Seize the day and get your lardy arse over there.

hehe lol nice replies here and sure it is a good time to buy, there is many people who cant pay, banks are getting their properties and selling very underpriced, dont know how to say better in english. first germans, then russians, and now nobody is building it there, so prices are low! as far as i know from my few months living there

oh and btw man, vamos! i have been in calpe, near alicante, and it was nice there but still much tourism, now i want to move there again in one or two months, and want to go near tarifa, where is many young people cause of that kitesurfing, no big hotels hundred kilometers around, it is on the cross of ocean, sea, africa and europe, and i believe and hope in the summer it will be not so hot there. but, if we can talk at least about it, i have no limits so i am opened to move anywhere. but, its up on you, as stefan said, my alco switcher works well maybe see you there!

living in barcelona since the summer, not looked back.

good weather, good food, better looking women than in the UK.

i cant afford to live in spain...

About the same as living in France no doubt

I life for about 7 years on one of the Balearic Islands.

First off the Costa Blanca isn't warm all year round, you get cold winters, not freezing but not beach weather, if you want that then look at the canaries.

The trouble with gated stuff is it's built out of town usually, so you depend on transport to get anywhere, you've also got the problem that if it's in a resort a lot of people just have it as a holiday home, so most of the time it's deserted.

If an urbanization has a lot of flats for sale, then no one may be paying the community fees, cause probably the developer has shut down the company he set up to build the place so he can't get sued.

Best thing to do is rent for a while, see if you like it.

If you can afford it, Barcelona is the best city to live in in Spain. But it's bastardly expensive compared to everywhere else.

Depends where you live, I could get a 50mb line in Alicante with ono.
Now I live up a mountain in a village of 30 people so only get 6mb. Can get 42mb mobile connection though if I really needed it.

How's the visa situation there for long term?

Kind of a bitch, and when you add their love for paperwork you are in for a treat.

I never had to deal with Visa issues as I am a citizen but the people I knew who did had a really hard time and like almost every process in Spain it takes ages.

http://www.maec.es/en/MenuPpal/Consu...nas/visas.aspx

I lived in Barcelona and Sevilla, of the two I will keep Barcelona even with the sucky weather in the winter (The summer there more than makes up for it). The south just gets too ridiculously hot for my taste.

I do agree with the people that have recommended renting, as I think property prices will still fall farther and it is a nice way to see if you actually like the place.

Judging by the amount of Russians pouring in, it can't be that difficult.
I get in cause of the EU and I'm married to a Basque.

I have much faster internet then i ever had in the US , 50Mb down 10Mb up at home, and double that in the office. It's great.

Si no hablas espanol, ni pensar vivir alli.

Yeah you wont need a visa.

Also, silly of you to even suggest that everyone in Spain actually goes through the regular Visa process and not just staying there as illegal inmigrants, specially when in Spain if you live there for 3 years under irregular status but manage not to get caught, the government rewards you with resindecy (Its called "Arraigo Social").

If you want to live in SPAIN, there are only two places to stay, Barcelona or MADRID.

The big cities are great. The rest is shit.

Sure, the beaches are nice, but they are for tourists, not for people who want to live and specially for an adult webmaster. And the rest of the cities are not for an adult webmaster. Everything is closed pass 10 pm. It sucks so much.

Oh and properties in SPAIN are still damn expensive, because the spaniards don't want to sell them low. It's much different from USA, where properties that were 600K are now 100K (damn I still remember a post in another forum from TIM from Skintraffic [is he still in the business?] posting his house he bought at 650K pre crisis, and then 1 year later it was 100K.. ouch)... Well, that didn't happen in SPAIN still... And I don't know if that will happen, because spaniards are harder to lower the price of properties.

Anyway, If I had to choose in Europe, I would never live in SPAIN, even though I speak perfect spanish and have european passport. I would choose GERMANY. That is the perfect country to live. I love GERMANY so much. The ideal country in this world.