Emily Chapman decided to move abroad for a life in the sun and found it is much cheaper than the UK too
Emily Chapman, 48, moved from Kent to Spain in 2017 with her partner, Darren who is a DJ. Initially the couple lived in Ibiza, then they bought a house in Valencia. Now they divide their time between Ibiza and Valencia. Here is how their Spanish life (and costs) compare with their old live in the UK.
Moving here was an easy decision, particularly as I’ve always travelled as much as I can. As soon as our youngest son (Kane, who is now 23) finished school, we were off – we joke that his last day was on the Friday and by the Monday we had our bags packed and were on the plane.
We sold our house in Maidstone, Kent in 2017 for £330,000. I was 41 at the time and I just couldn’t take the gloom of the UK any longer. It just felt increasingly like a grind – the traffic, the rain, the grey.
Initially we rented in Ibiza – I would have bought straight away but my partner is much more cautious. We paid €1,200 a month for our apartment by the sea and lived there for about three and a half years. We then went to buy somewhere on the island – a three-bedroom apartment in a gated community. I loved it; the cost was €420,000. But then we got gazumped. It left a bitter taste in my husband’s mouth and he started researching properties on the mainland.
He then became obsessed about how much more we could get from our money in Valencia, which is only a 20-minute plane ride away. So we started going to Valencia for weekends away, looking at properties and the value was incredible. When we would stop off for lunch, we would see how much cheaper it was at cafes and restaurants. One time we stopped at the local café in the village we ended up buying our home in. Found 30 minutes outside of Valencia city, we both had a bocadillo sandwich, an orange juice and a coffee and the bill came to €7 in total. You couldn’t get one coffee for that amount in some places in Ibiza!
We ended up buying our house three years ago in a village called Real de Montroi. It has eight bedrooms and five bathrooms. We paid €210,000 for it, which worked out at the time as £180,000 plus tax.
I run my business in Ibiza – it’s called the Tribe Travel Company – and spend my time moving between there and Valencia. Darren spends more time in Valencia than me. Come winter, I travel to other countries. Kane comes over most weekends for the summer: he says that even factoring in the plane fare, it’s cheaper than a night out in London.
Despite having a big house, the most our electricity bill has ever been – and it does get cold in winter in Valencia, you need the heating on – is €180 a month. And in the summer, it’s less than €100. For a good food shop for my husband and I for the week, I spend around €50. I have noticed an increase in prices in recent years, but it’s nowhere near what it is in the UK.
I also notice when I go to the UK how mass-produced the food is. When you go to Tesco’s to buy a red pepper, all the red peppers are exactly the same shade of red and they are all the same size and shape. But when you go to the supermarket in Spain, no pepper is the same colour as the one next to it – some are very deep reds, and they are a variety of shapes and sizes. The quality is so much better.
We eat out pretty regularly, and go to the local restaurants and have the menu of the day. You get three courses and a wine, and usually pay €10 each, sometimes €15. And we are talking about three courses of good fresh food.
I used to work in digital media back in the UK, but now I run a boat chartering company in Ibiza. I started it during Covid, which happened soon after we moved to Ibiza. We were living in a beautiful two-bedroom apartment right by the sea – you couldn’t wish to be living in a better location during lockdown. And I could see that once travelling restrictions eased, people were going to get on a plane to Ibiza as quick as they could. I started the private charter business with my business partner. When people could travel to Ibiza, but the clubs weren’t open because of restrictions, the only place people could party were on the boats. So we were part of this boom of private boat charters in Ibiza that has carried on to this day. Last summer was our busiest season yet.
In the UK society grooms us to want the best of everything – have the best car, the best house. In Europe it’s more of a rental market – you don’t spend all your money on your home in the same way. There is a real focus on quality of life here: no one cares what cares you drive, what job you do, what brand you are wearing. It really is about living. In Spain, people work to live, whereas in the UK people live to work – and it’s two very different cultures.
As told to Jessie Hewitson