A family who left the UK to pursue their dream of living in Spain have returned home and have warned living abroad isn’t always as idyllic as it sounds.
Janie Garner, husband Leighton and their 11-year-old twins Mimi and James, left their home in Wymondham, Norfolk in July last year and moved to Mijas in Malaga, Spain, where they had enjoyed many holidays, describing it at one time as their “happy place”.
However, Janie, 45, now admits that they soon realised the reality of going away on holiday and escaping from the everyday stresses of life was very different from living there all year round due to a range of factors including Brexit and a poorly built home.
“In theory, leaving the UK to live in Spain sounds lovely and like the ultimate dream,” Janie told i. “But in reality, it’s not that simple and in the year we lived out there, we realised that for us, Spain is a holiday, not for living.
“I want to warn people not to sell up and put all their eggs in one basket by moving to Spain, only to realise too late that they have made a mistake.
“I am so glad we ended up trying it first instead of making permanent and irreversible changes as actually living in Spain is not for us.
“I am so thankful we still had our UK house and life to go back to as if we had sold up, it could have had devastating consequences.”
Janie, who also has three adult daughters living in the UK, told i that she and her husband bought a holiday apartment in Mijas in Costa del Sol in July 2022 and enjoyed some wonderful family holidays there.
“One day, Leighton said: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to live here?’ and I thought, well actually, we could and then we started to make our dream a reality.”
The couple, who run their own medical company selling ophthalmology day surgery trollies, realised they could run their business from anywhere. They decided Leighton would return to the UK every six weeks to see clients and touch base with the factory.
Janie decided she would take a step back from their company and set up a property management company in Spain instead, helping people to manage their holiday apartments.
“I wanted to actually work out in Spain and get to meet and know people and have a proper Spanish life,” she explained.
With their twins being in their last year of primary school, they realised it wouldn’t be too disruptive for them and they enrolled them in an international school in Spain, where they say they have thrived educationally during the year they have been out there.
Initially, the family planned to sell their five-bedroom home in Norfolk and buy a place in Spain. However, Janie says by chance, the sale fell through at the last minute.
“We had decided to throw caution to the wind and sell up and buy a family home in Spain,” she said. “We had actually sold our house and someone put a reserve on it. He was a cash buyer and wanted to buy all our furniture too so it seemed perfect and was almost a done deal.
“But then as we were very close to the exchange date, the buyer told us he was sorry, but he was no longer in a position to buy it and it all fell through.
“Luckily, we hadn’t put a deposit down on a place in Spain so we decided to rent our UK home out and live in our holiday apartment in Spain.”
Janie says their holiday apartment has two bedrooms with a pullout couch and wasn’t ideal for them, their two children and their two dogs. So when they moved out there, it felt cramped and they didn’t feel happy.
Believing this was down to their home space being downsized, they decided to rent a bigger place more suitable for them as a family and found a five-bedroom villa with a swimming pool to rent, with a view to buying it after two years.
“We moved into the villa in December and thought that it was the answer to making us happy in Spain. But from the moment we closed the door to the villa, everything felt totally wrong and me and my husband just looked at each other and were crying thinking: ‘What have we done?’” Janie said.
Janie explained that they had a series of disasters when they moved into the Spanish villa, which didn’t help matters – such as problems with the plumbing and electrics and then after a blockage, discovering they were sitting on a septic tank.
“In Spain, there’s a lot of dodgy jobs and everything is done on a ‘make do’ basis,” said Janie. “The whole villa just needed taking down and rebuilding.”
However, she says it wasn’t just the series of home problems that made them realise they made a mistake leaving the UK, but lots of different factors – particularly after it sunk in that living in Spain was completely different to going there on holiday.
She added: “I think we maybe got confused because we’d always felt very happy in Spain as a family on holiday and doing things like going out for dinner, going to the beach and meeting friends.
“Life is very busy and full of obstacles and challenges but when you go on holiday, you get that happy vibe and can leave everything behind and take a breather.
“I think we mistook that feeling and thought we needed to go and live in Spain because we’re really happy over there and everything is so much better and slower but when you’re actually living here, it’s a completely different ballgame.”
Janie, who originates from Germany and has a German passport, says there was no issue with her or their twins living in Spain as she has freedom of movement. However, with her husband being British, he had to go through a lot of red tape and bureaucracy and despite proving their savings and income, his application for residency was denied.
Janie says she knew they could appeal and would have been successful after jumping through all the hoops, but she says they just decided enough was enough and it was a sign they should return to the UK.
“The whole process was getting ridiculous and we just felt like second class citizens,” she said. “Even though we were coming to Spain and giving our money and livelihood, we were made to feel like a burden and it just felt so rude. There are so many people who don’t realise what Brexit has done.
“We also experienced abuse from some people who told us to go back home to our own country and that didn’t make us feel very welcome.”
Janie adds that even though people say the cost of living in Spain is cheaper, in reality, they found themselves spending more as the lifestyle is very different. She said: “You end up spending more because it is a completely different lifestyle and if you want to see people, you have to go out for dinner or a drink and socialise and it all adds up. The winter months are completely different and everything is dead.”
The family made the decision to return to the UK and have just got back home. “We are so happy to be back. It might be raining, but we appreciate everything around us.
“We don’t want anyone to think that moving to Spain is a dream and that you can do it easily and for them to give up everything they’ve worked hard for and see it gone in a flash,” Janie said.
“I spoke to one man out here who gave up everything, sold his home in the UK and bought a beautiful home in Spain. But because of the red tape, he is not allowed to live here and can only stay 90 out of 180 days, so he then has to go back to the UK and rent somewhere there. But he thought it would be so easy to sell up and move here.
“Leaving the UK and moving to Spain is not all it is cracked up to be and we are so happy to be back at our base.
“Our children will be starting secondary school in the UK in September and are very happy to see their friends and we are just enjoying doing normal things.
“But we still love Spain and are looking forward to going back there on holidays and appreciate it as a tourist.”