Expats heading home says London Mortgage Broker, London Mortgage Advice Tuesday, 19th May 2009

Britons are reluctantly taking the decision to return to Britain from Spain.

Many are saying that they cannot make it work any more financially and that although would love to stay, things are so hard there that they cannot last any longer.

Their Spanish dream over.

With the low value of the pound, the end of Spain’s decade-long building bonanza and the global financial meltdown have conspired to make Britain a more attractive place to many expatriates, despite the deepening recession at home.

And the Spanish sunshine and way of life cannot hide the dire recession into which Spain is falling. Unemployment stands at 17.4 per cent — more than double the European average — and more than four million people are out of work. The property market, which had employed large numbers of Britons in southern Spain, is stagnant. No new homes have been built for four months by any big developer.

Whilst the sun is nice but it doesn’t pay your bills. And opportunities are very thin on the ground there.

In England there are still more opportunities and you have the support of family and friends. Applying for state benefits in Spain might prove difficult for many British expatriates, many of whom speak little Spanish. If you want to get help from the authorities you have to wade through red tape.

Official figures do not exist for how many are heading home. The British Embassy estimates that one million Britons live at least part of the year in Spain.

And for those hunting for jobs in Britain, the idea of swapping the Spanish sun to start again in the gloom of Britain in recession may seem strange. However, many returning expatriates say that although things are tough in Britain, competing for jobs with Spaniards who have the advantage of the language and family contacts often makes it harder in Spain.