7 Best Places to Live in Spain for British Expats

Spain has been the British retirement fantasy for 40 years and counting.

The numbers back it up: there are still well over 300,000 Brits registered as residents in Spain, making it one of the biggest British communities anywhere outside the English-speaking world.

It still goes without saying… things have changed since Brexit…

According to Spain's Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), the British were the largest decrease of any major foreign nationality during 2023, dropping by 11,635 people, or 4.1% in a single year.

(Romanians and Bulgarians fell too, but only the Brits had Brexit and a pile of new paperwork as a side serving.)

Which means two things are true at once. Spain is still one of the most popular British expat destinations in the world. And the post-Brexit shake-out is real, the soft-life landings are getting harder, and the Brits who stay are increasingly the ones who properly thought it through.

So if you're in the second camp, actually planning a move rather than fantasising about sunshine and cocktails over a Sunday roast, the question that matters is where.

Because Spain is geographically massive, climatically split into about four different countries, and the right answer for a 62-year-old retired teacher is obviously very different from the right answer for a 35-year-old freelance designer with a toddler.

Here are the seven Spanish destinations that British expats hold dear to their hearts…

1. The Costa del Sol (Málaga province)

Was it ever in doubt?!

Marbella, Fuengirola, Mijas, Estepona, Nerja - the strip of coast running west from Málaga is the spiritual home of the British retiree.

Around 74,000 Britons live in Málaga province; the second-biggest concentration in the country.

The climate here is arguably the best on the Spanish mainland (over 300 days of sun a year is not marketing fluff).

You’ve got Málaga airport, which runs direct flights to almost every UK airport you've heard of. The British infrastructure (pubs showing the football, fish-and-chip shops, English-speaking GPs, international schools) is so embedded that some towns barely feel Spanish at all.

Fuengirola is 45% foreign-born.

Benahavís is 64%, with Brits the single largest group.

If your fantasy of moving to Spain involves actually integrating with Spanish people, the Costa del Sol is probably not even on your radar at all. You'll be living among Brits, ordering from British staff, drinking with British friends, and (probably) never quite needing the language.

Property prices have also gone properly silly in the prime spots.

Marbella town centre now competes with Surrey(!) on a per-square-metre basis. The bargain hunt has moved inland to places like Coín or Alhaurín el Grande, both of which have substantial British populations and a tenth of the gloss.

Best for: retirees who want maximum sun, minimum culture shock… and don't mind that their neighbours might be from Romford.

2. The Costa Blanca (Alicante province)

This is the biggest British hub in Spain.

Alicante province is home to roughly 99,000 registered British residents, and the towns where they cluster (Torrevieja, Orihuela Costa, Jávea, Dénia, Benidorm) have been quietly absorbing Brits since the 1970s.

Torrevieja alone was the fastest-growing city in Spain by relative population growth in 2023, at 6.7%.

A lot of that growth is foreign.

The town has a Sainsbury's, a Costa Coffee, and signs in English on the motorway exits.

Make of that what you will!

The Costa Blanca's appeal versus the Costa del Sol is straightforwardly financial.

And by that, we mean:

Property is cheaper. Restaurants are cheaper. The climate is almost identical. The British community is even bigger, and you'll find specialist services for British expats (gestores, accountants, removal firms, even funeral directors) that simply don't exist on the same scale anywhere else in Spain.

The trade-off to all this is that the most British towns can feel a bit like a Spanish version of Bognor - with palm trees. Benidorm is Benidorm. Torrevieja's old town has charm; the surrounding urbanizaciones generally don't.

If you want the postcard Spain of old whitewashed villages and fishermen mending nets, you'll need to head north to Jávea or Dénia, where the prices climb and the Brits get a bit more well-heeled.

Best for: anyone who wants Spain on a budget, an instant social network.

3. Mallorca (the Balearics)

Mallorca is considered the upscale destination by many expats.

Around 25,000 Brits live across the Balearic Islands, most of them on Mallorca, and the island has been quietly turning into a trendy and favoured spot for British professionals and entrepreneurs who want sun without the bingo-hall connotations of certain Costa del Sol postcodes.

Palma, the capital, is one of the loveliest small cities in Europe.

The old town is walkable. There's a proper international school scene. Direct flights to London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham run year-round. And the British community is more eclectic here - there's the yacht-and-villa crowd around Puerto Andratx, the families in Santa Catalina, the digital nomads crashing in Palma centre.

Honestly, if money is no object, Mallorca is one of the most pleasant places in Spain to be British.

But that’s a big if.

Property in the prime western and southwest stretches now rivals central London on a price-per-square-metre basis.

Winter, while milder than the UK, is properly winter… December and January aren't beach months, the rentals empty out, and a real sense of loneliness can creep in if you haven't made local friends.

The weirdest stat we could find about Mallorca is this: between 2014 and 2024, the number of British residents taking Spanish citizenship on the islands rose 842%, from 7 to 66. Tiny absolute numbers, yes.

But it tells a story - the Brits who go to Mallorca tend to actually commit.

Best for: higher-income families and professionals who want an authentic slice of Spain

4. Tenerife and the Canary Islands

A different proposition entirely.

The Canaries sit off the coast of Africa, three hours by plane from the UK, and run on subtropical rules - meaning average winter highs of 20-22°C and the ability to swim outside in January.

If you’ve ever tried to holiday there during the winter school holidays, you’ll know exactly what this can do to prices!

For Brits who specifically want to escape British winter rather than just upgrade their summer, the Canaries are the only Spanish answer that fully delivers on the promise.

Tenerife has the biggest British community, with strongholds in the south around Los Cristianos, Costa Adeje and Las Américas. Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura have smaller but well-established scenes.

The economy runs almost entirely on tourism, which is both the appeal (cheap flights, English everywhere) and the downside to being based here full-time (it's a service economy and pay is poor).

The Canaries have one extra wrinkle worth knowing about: they sit outside the EU VAT area and have their own lower-rate sales tax (IGIC, around 7%).

Cars, electronics and other big-ticket household goods are noticeably cheaper here than on the Spanish mainland.

Cost of living overall is lower than the Costa del Sol or Mallorca.

Keep in mind though, the Canaries are remote. Visiting family in the UK is a 4-hour flight rather than 2-2.5. And obviously, returning to mainland Spain is a flight, not a drive. Some find that the "always summer" climate appeals less than you'd expect once you actually live in it - would you miss the seasons?

Best for: anyone whose top priority is escaping the UK winter, full stop.

5. Murcia and the Mar Menor

The Costa Cálida (Murcia's stretch of coast around the Mar Menor lagoon) is the budget alternative most British buyers miss… until you’ve already committed to Alicante or Málaga and discovered the prices!

Murcia province has roughly 17,000 British residents, concentrated in resort developments around Los Alcázares, San Javier and Camposol.

Property is cheaper than the Costa Blanca for similar climate and proximity to a coast.

Murcia city itself is an authentic working Spanish city of 460,000 people. It's not an expat bubble by any means. There's a local economy and very low cost of living by Spanish standards.

British infrastructure is thinner here. This translates to fewer English-speaking specialists and far fewer expat-aimed amenities.

The bargain-priced developments built during the property boom (Camposol is the famous one) had a long and ugly story with planning legality, water shortages and value collapses. Some have recovered. Some… still haven't.

The Mar Menor itself, the inland saltwater lagoon that draws a lot of buyers here, has had serious environmental problems with agricultural pollution. A revival plan is being actioned, but it’s still very much a work in progress.

Best for: Brits wanting the Costa Blanca lifestyle on a smaller budget, who are willing to accept a slightly less polished British infrastructure.

6. Valencia

Probably the most underrated answer to the "where in Spain?" question.

Valencia is Spain's third city, sits midway between Barcelona and the Costa Blanca, and has spent the last decade quietly becoming one of the best-rated places to live in Europe according to repeated InterNations Expat Insider surveys.

So what does it have going for it?

Well, it’s big enough to have a proper city economy and culture (1.5 million in the metro area, a Michelin-star scene, a top-flight football club, a serious port). And yet it’s small enough to walk or cycle anywhere. The beach is in the city. The cost of living is roughly half what you'd pay in Barcelona for the same lifestyle.

And direct flights to most UK cities run year-round…

In short: it has a LOT going for it.

For working-age British expats, particularly remote workers and freelancers running foreign-source businesses, Valencia is increasingly… the answer.

The Spanish digital nomad visa, introduced in 2023, has made the legal route easier for under-65s with foreign-source income. Valencia's tech scene is small but gaining traction, and the city is actively courting expat workers in a way that, say, Madrid is not.

If we had to pick out some downsides… the summer heat is brutal. July and August in Valencia can hit 38°C with humidity that absolutely flattens you. Catalan-speaking neighbours up north sometimes look down on Valencia's Valenciano dialect, which gets old fast.

And while the British community here is real, it's small (a few thousand) compared to the Costa del Sol or Costa Blanca, so you'll need to put effort into building a social life - it won’t arrive in your villa automatically.

Best for: working-age Brits, families with young kids, and remote workers who want a real city with a real beach.

7. Madrid

A city of glamour and pomp… but relatively few Brits, by comparison…

Madrid has only around 10,000 British residents, a mere fraction of what Alicante or Málaga have, but for a specific kind of Brit… it's still worth considering.

If you actually want to work in Spain, properly, in a corporate environment with a salary that maps to your UK earnings, Madrid is more or less the only option besides Barcelona. It's where many of the big multinationals are, where the headhunters look first, and where English-language jobs in finance, consulting, tech and media exist in decent numbers.

Banking, insurance, big four firms, embassies - they are all heavily concentrated here.

It's also a magnificent city.

The food scene is the best in Spain by a clear margin. The museums are world-class without the queues you get in London or Paris. Public transport is very good.

And while Madrid sits inland with no beach, it has six months of mild weather, two months of brutal heat, and a fortnight of mid-winter cold that occasionally produces snow.

Property prices in central Madrid have also been rising very fast in recent times, three times faster than those in Barca.

Central rents are now 60-70% of London's, which would have been unthinkable five years ago.

As for the British community, it’s mostly small and dispersed, so you'll be making Spanish friends or you'll be lonely. Keep in mind also that summer in Madrid is a public health event; the locals literally evacuate for August!

Best for: working-age professionals who want a career in Spain, not a retirement.

Before you pick… the unsexy bits

Ready to take the plunge?

Here are a few practical things worth knowing, whichever of the seven locations in Spain you fancy…

The non-lucrative visa, which is the standard route for non-working Brits post-Brexit, currently requires you to prove an income of €28,800/year for a single applicant, plus €7,200 per dependent.

That's roughly £24,500 + £6,100, indexed to Spain's IPREM and updated annually.

Spain's Golden Visa route closed in April 2025… so the property-investment shortcut no longer exists.

The 90/180 Schengen rule applies to British tourists post-Brexit. If you're planning to live in your Spanish property "part-time", the maximum legal stay without residency is 90 days in any rolling 180.

(The maths catches a lot of UK property owners out!)

UK State Pensions are paid in full in Spain and increase annually under the reciprocal agreement, unlike in some "frozen pension" countries. The double taxation treaty between the UK and Spain means you generally won't pay tax twice on the same income, but Spanish tax residency is triggered at 183 days, so plan accordingly.

Ultimately, the right place in Spain isn't really a question of which town has the nicest beach. It's a question of who you are, what you can afford, and how much actual integration into Spanish life you want.

Be honest about that and the shortlist usually narrows itself.