
Our house-hunting took about two hours!
Hertfordshire couple Sean and Karen Amos say they were off looking at apartments in Villamartín just 20 minutes after walking into the HomeEspaña office in La Zenia
People in Spain just love eating out. The fantastic Mediterranean climate of course encourages this long-standing custom, but can everybody afford a gourmet lifestyle in Spain?
Looking at the latest figures from Data Analyst numbeo.com, the answer is most certainly “yes”.
This article takes a look at a full day of eating out in Spain, what you get, how much it costs and how prices compare to the UK and Germany.
So, picture this. It’s 9am on Saturday morning and the sun is out, so you put on your flip-flops, a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, grab your sunglasses and head down to the local terrace café to start your weekend in Spain. You order a standard breakfast, comprising an orange juice, a toasted baguette with tomato and olive oil and a café con leche and this will cost you between €4.00 and €5.00. Meanwhile, a cappuccino alone would cost £3.50 in the UK and €3.20 in Germany, according to numbeo.com.
Following Spanish tradition, our next window for some socialising is “el almuerzo” or brunch. This can be any time between 10am and 1pm really. This is the time to have some tapas, a “bocadiillo” (baguette sandwich) and a nice cold beer or two to wash it all down. And that beer will cost you only €2.50, which is more than 100% less than in the UK and 60% less than in Germany. Even imported brands are more than 50% and 20% cheaper in Spain than in the UK and Germany respectively…
Moving on to lunch, which is not normally until 2:30-3:00pm (probably due to how much you ate for brunch!), we can order a “menú del día” (set three-course menu of the day) for €12.00 per person, 44.2% less than in the UK.
And finally, if you want to go out for dinner to a mid-range restaurant to wine and dine, a three-course meal will only cost you €45 for two people, compared to £60.00 in the UK and €60.00 in Germany.
It is also worth taking into account that the prices above are averages, so if you avoid tourist hot-spots and beachside bars and cafés, prices are even cheaper. Furthermore, you can try your hand at making some Spanish food and tapas at home without breaking the bank, as groceries are nearly 20% cheaper in Spain than in the UK and 31% cheaper than in Germany.
So, if you do fancy a gourmet lifestyle, but never thought you could afford it, think again. In Spain this is not a dream, but the norm.
Once again, the answer is “yes”.
While apartments in town and city centres are 64.8% cheaper in Spain than in the UK and more than 100% cheaper than in Germany, you might even want to consider buying an apartment just outside the centre where prices drop below €2.000/m2 on average (96.2% less than in the UK and 135.7% less than in Germany according to numbeo.com).
And don’t worry too much about getting into the centre, because transport prices are also much lower in Spain than in the UK or Germany.
By way of example, a short taxi ride in Spain is 30% cheaper than in the UK and a whopping 80% cheaper than in Germany.
Hertfordshire couple Sean and Karen Amos say they were off looking at apartments in Villamartín just 20 minutes after walking into the HomeEspaña office in La Zenia
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