We were always going to retire here but when house prices in Devon shot up and doubled, we decided to bring our plans forward and take the plunge.

<p> If you believe in fate then our move to Spain does have the feel of destiny or if you are more pragmatic, like my husband, it is the fruit of discontent, many hours of long debate (often with red wine included) and hours of research and planning. When we first viewed Spanish property we were shown nothing we felt we wanted for a holiday home, let alone something that would make us consider a permanent move. ‘By chance’ a parental friend mentioned he owned a property on Costa Calida – “where?” was our response. Feeling we had nothing to lose we took an afternoon off and went in search of a town called Los Alcázares. </p> <p> The old fashioned, almost charmingly shabby look and feel of the place delighted us and the incredibly tranquil Mar Menor very quickly won us over. We found a townhouse which met all our requirements and as we explored the area more we realised we had struck gold. Indeed we had many holidays, short breaks and even our honeymoon in that house. As we were spending more and more time in Spain we got a good insight into local business and our own career experience helped us spot a potential opportunity of our own. We began working in the property market on a very small scale and found we really enjoyed providing people with a truly professional way to find a property in such a lovely area. While our Spanish business was in its infancy we still worked in the UK, embroiled in corporate life. However the more time we spent in Spain on business the more we recognised that our UK careers were not providing us with enough satisfaction in return for the rounds of endless meetings, conference calls and long distance journeys. Our main source of satisfaction was coming from applying our experience to help people within our Spanish venture. We were at our happiest sitting in our supermarket bar listening to the locals chat or discovering new places in the region. We talked about living in Spain endlessly, but it seemed like it would and could only be talk. Our next Spanish property purchase was an unplanned but unanimous decision made completely with our hearts. We were chatting with a colleague who mentioned houses had been released that very day with fantastic views of the Mar Menor in a quiet Spanish village. Ten minutes later we had arrived at the site, plans in hand. In that moment we could already feel the sea breeze on the terrace, see our long walks on the beach and taste the tapas at the local bar. Our heads soon dosed us with reality when we had to work out if we could actually buy the house and ask our solicitor to check if it was legally sound, which to our relief it was and we could! At first we still saw this solely as a second home, but we had the final push towards our move when the company we worked for started voluntary downsizing, finally presenting us with the opportunity to leave and run our business full time. It was a difficult decision involving lots of business planning, number crunching and soul searching as we knew moving to Spain was the only option if we wanted to expand the business properly. Yes if felt daunting, but also completely right. Since then we have of course had our ups and downs. But we’ve never had so many happy and memorable days. We’ve gone shopping for Christmas sprouts and come back with a dog, seen an eighty year old man fly a loop in the sky and watched our clients fall in love with this part of Spain, just as we have. It’s not one thing that makes us love living here, it really is a big cooking pot filled with local characters, family culture, great activities, history, scenery, sunshine (!), great food and drink and a completely sane but at the same time crazy attitude to life. </p>