Hi my name is Mark & I have been a self employed builder for the last 26 years, I am wanting to relocate to Spain, most likely the Costa del sol, in the hope of a better life although, I am fully aware that like most countries, Spain has been hit hard by the recession etc. Any advice on job prospects in Spain would be greatly appreciated, I can do most trades including carpentry, plumbing, renovations, new builds, plastering & kitchen fittings. I am trying to get a realistic view of whether this is a good idea or not as I would be bringing my partner Jules & our 3 year old daughter over with me. I am hoping to come within the next 1- 2 years I am currently trying to do a lot of research about living in Spain. We are all currently learning Spanish as I love the language & think its important to learn the country’s language if I intend to live among the Spanish people
Any advice would be great
Many thanks Mark & Jules

Its not a good time to move or a good location to move too.

The CDS is full of UK tradesmen, the CDS is a relatively small community geographically speaking.

Your around 20 yrs too late. Recently a business friend returned to the UK from the CDS, he moved 25 yrs ago and bought a sea front property and ran a construction company there.

He returned a few weeks ago due to ill health, but made a killing on the property and the business, although that did reduce in the last 5 yrs.

Many expats are using local Spanish trades as there are a lot of cowboy brits and the Spanish have learn’t that delaying work is not good, there now very quick and quality is as good as any UK trade, if not better.

You may want to consider a different country, follow the flow of new expats, Turkey etc are filling up with expats who for obvious reasons cannot communicate with the locals.

I fear the chances of building a business able to support you and your family on the CDS will be difficult without a large financial buffer and lots of time to get established.

I would concentrate more on finding a job than learning the language before coming, language will come after 2 or 3 years in Spain practising (and I mean practising!) many Brits come to Spain and never speak a word of Spanish, because it’s so easy to make English speaking friends and forget about the Spanish language, except of course for the essential (“una ca?a por favor” and “Gracias”) as I have said to other people on this forum, depending on your financial issues, come to Spain on holiday and get a feeling of the place, make friends and ask for their experience, but the construction panorama and other linked trades in Spain is bad at this moment.

But hey! if you like Spain, you like Spain… (but first get first hand advice)

Hi Mark,

Building here in Spain has somewhat dried up after a law was passed to halt any new planning permissions for the time being. With that in mind there are so many builders here already all competing for any work. I’d suggest rethinking your job strategy and considering if there’s something else you could do here to earn money instead.