Anyone living in Nerja?

[lynnconnolly]

Hi all, I'm after some advise from people who live in or near Nerja. Basically, my husband and I want to move out to Nerja but just to be sure it's what we want, we're going out in January 09 to trial it for six months, and we're wondering how viable it'll be to work?

He wants to teach pc literacy and do pc repairs - this would be something like showing beginners how to use email etc., and fixing their computers - and I would like to do something along the lines of cleaning apartments etc., after holidaymakers have gone before the new ones arrive. Maybe be a keyholder for absent landlords and take general care of their property, that sort of thing.

We don't want high pressure jobs anymore - just simple earn-your-pennies-and-go jobs

Would either of those things be something we could earn money at there? Oh and it would need to be a cash in hand type thing for the six months! If we do go out permanently, we'd do the proper paperwork but it's not really worth it if we end up coming back.

Thank you for your time
Lynn

[chris(madrid)]

Originally Posted by lynnconnolly

He wants to teach pc literacy and do pc repairs - this would be something like showing beginners how to use email etc., and fixing their computers - and I would like to do something along the lines of cleaning apartments etc., after holidaymakers have gone before the new ones arrive.

Would either of those things be something we could earn money at there? Oh and it would need to be a cash in hand type thing for the six months! If we do go out permanently, we'd do the proper paperwork but it's not really worth it if we end up coming back.

SADLY I think you'll have trouble.

There are A LOT of unemployed PC folk here. Anybody who takes a PC class wants their M-Soft certificate at the end to add to the CV.

To repair PC's most folk will want a guaranty/receipt - tax receipt if it's a company. Where will you source parts? - can you source locally in Spanish - importing will be TOO costly with overheads. This is not the UK and many wholesalers WILL ONLY SUPPLY VAT registered individuals. Even with a Town Hall fiscal ID there are things we have to use a "supplier" for.

AND Spanish is a MUST if you expect to work outside the ex-pat community.

Casual labour is VERY cheap and plentiful - Cleaning - €10/hr not including travel time/expenses - and that's in Madrid - my guess is that where the unemployment is higher still - 6-8Euros. You'll be competing with 1000's of folk. The Gov is paying stranded South Americans to go home right now to relieve the issue.

The simple low stress thing is a MYTH. On the whole - You'll earn less, work longer and be expected to work extra for nothing in Spain. You'll swap rat-race stress for empty-tummy stress.

If you're coming, despite it all - Bring capital to survive the 6 months without work. You may be lucky but I think you'll need it to live on.

Spain is probably in a WORSE state than the UK - really!!!!.

[lynnconnolly]

Originally Posted by chris(madrid)

SADLY I think you'll have trouble.

There are A LOT of unemployed PC folk here. Anybody who takes a PC class wants their M-Soft certificate at the end to add to the CV.

To repair PC's most folk will want a guaranty/receipt - tax receipt if it's a company. Where will you source parts? - can you source locally in Spanish - importing will be TOO costly with overheads. This is not the UK and many wholesalers WILL ONLY SUPPLY VAT registered individuals. Even with a Town Hall fiscal ID there are things we have to use a "supplier" for.

AND Spanish is a MUST if you expect to work outside the ex-pat community.

Casual labour is VERY cheap and plentiful - Cleaning - €10/hr not including travel time/expenses - and that's in Madrid - my guess is that where the unemployment is higher still - 6-8Euros. You'll be competing with 1000's of folk. The Gov is paying stranded South Americans to go home right now to relieve the issue.

The simple low stress thing is a MYTH. On the whole - You'll earn less, work longer and be expected to work extra for nothing in Spain. You'll swap rat-race stress for empty-tummy stress.

If you're coming, despite it all - Bring capital to survive the 6 months without work. You may be lucky but I think you'll need it to live on.

Spain is probably in a WORSE state than the UK - really!!!!.

Oh jeez... bonfire considerably dampened The idea of the pc thing is in the scenario of a UK expat who wants to learn how to use email to keep in touch with home and who wants a native English person to show them how to do it and pull paper out of their printer drawer if it gets jammed and they panic... that's very simplified obviously but hopefully you'll see what I'm getting at.

Here - where he builds laptops and pc's - he does the same thing and we've found that people don't want to take their computer somewhere as they don't want to be ripped off or without it for x amount of time. Also, they don't want to call out a body from a big company as there'll be call out fees.

As to me, well I suppose I was hoping that amongst expats maybe there's some nepotism in that people with properties there might prefer to employ a fellow UK-er. Perhaps I'm completely wrong...

Thank you for your time in replying
Lynn

[jojo]

Originally Posted by lynnconnolly

As to me, well I suppose I was hoping that amongst expats maybe there's some nepotism in that people with properties there might prefer to employ a fellow UK-er. Perhaps I'm completely wrong...

Join the queue. There are 100s, if not 1000s of us expats who would love a little job meeting, greeting, cleaning and keyholding for villas etc, most people who rent out villas seem to be covered already by friends and neighbours over here. I have a friend who used to work for a private cleaning company. cleaning villas at changeover, but she was laid off at the beginning of the summer due to the severe lack of holiday makers this year. The only nepotism that exists here from what I've seen is amongst friends already here.

jo

[lynnconnolly]

Originally Posted by jojo

Join the queue. There are 100s, if not 1000s of us expats who would love a little job meeting, greeting, cleaning and keyholding for villas etc, most people who rent out villas seem to be covered already by friends and neighbours over here. I have a friend who used to work for a private cleaning company. cleaning villas at changeover, but she was laid off at the beginning of the summer due to the severe lack of holiday makers this year. The only nepotism that exists here from what I've seen is amongst friends already here.

jo

Hi Jo, oh yikes... well it sounds like we need to rethink then.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply

Lynn

[chris(madrid)]

Originally Posted by lynnconnolly

Here - where he builds laptops and pc's - he does the same thing and we've found that people don't want to take their computer somewhere as they don't want to be ripped off or without it for x amount of time. Also, they don't want to call out a body from a big company as there'll be call out fees.

As to me, well I suppose I was hoping that amongst expats maybe there's some nepotism in that people with properties there might prefer to employ a fellow UK-er. Perhaps I'm completely wrong...

Thank you for your time in replying
Lynn

Lynn - Cleaning etc - ime, the TOP MARKS go to Romanians and other East Europeans. And after probably Spaniards. Then the rest. In other sectors where maybe Spanish is more important, the South Americans maybe overtake the Spanish.

The way our diminutive Romanian lady goes through the house once a week is frankly stunning. Every Romanian I've met works hard and accepts less.

Also it is ILLEGAL TO EMPLOY A CLEANER without paying a proper salary even as a home owner. So you'll probably have to hope on finding an illegal position (it's risky for BOTH sides) or go via an agency who adds their bit. Ours is via an agency - run by a friend (who does not charge us her commission).

We've had experiences shared on here where in fact established ex-pats have become jaded about using fellow countrymen - VERY often folk use the patriotism thing to replace incompetency - Please don't think I'm referring to you. But it means you actually may need to convince folk more - not less.

PC's etc - don't get me wrong. I've been here A LONG TIME and I work with PC's too. So I don't have the need. What you're planning MAY be there amongst non resident or retired ex-pats - But to build a contact network to generate any sort of serious revenue will take 6-9 months at a guess.

Small shop rates here are NOT like the UK - and many small shops will do freebies to keep customer base. Even places like PC-City will give free advice. They also have a visible workshop in the shop - they'll change disks and such.

We are here to help - even if only help NOT to make mistakes.

[lynnconnolly]

I appreciate the advice - better to be disabused now rather than when we've burned bridges here, so thank you

[jayseabee]

Hope you don't mind me joining in. My partner and I plus my 12 year old daughter are thinking of doing exactly the same thing. We currently own 2 houses, one that we live in and another as a rental. We are thinking of selling both, infact, if we don't do soon they may well be taken from us. I have been running a business that has just collapsed. Hopefully there will be some spare change. We are thinking of coming out for a couple of years, and are working on the basis of £1000 per month as a total including rent. We should have a bit more than that as a back up, although not much, and are hoping that within that time we may find some way of earning so we can extend the stay. Do you think £1000 is enough per month, we only want a simple life. 300-400 euros per month on rent, whatever bills are essential, sipping wine in the nearest taverna, and a nice beach to lie on. Nerja seems ideal. And if anyone can tell us how to pronouce it phonetically, we would appreciate it.

[chris(madrid)]

imo 1000quid is cutting it VERY close. Actually I think it'll be insufficient. 400Euros will not get you much. Re-think. To live OK-ish I think you'll need around 2000Euros.

if I may suggest - the wine sipping thing is NOT the way to view it. You'll fall into the mire. By all means come but think about HOW you'll live. If it all goes "tits-up" you'll receive little or no help from the Spanish state if you've not contributed. FROM EXPERIENCE being unemployed here is NOT a picnic.

Welfare is a marginal concept - and the Tomn Hall where I work the "local" help is disappearing FAST as there is NO MONEY in the coffers - I had to plead for 90 Euros yesterday to get Protection Civil back on-line with ADSL.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by jayseabee

Hope you don't mind me joining in. My partner and I plus my 12 year old daughter are thinking of doing exactly the same thing. We currently own 2 houses, one that we live in and another as a rental. We are thinking of selling both, infact, if we don't do soon they may well be taken from us. I have been running a business that has just collapsed. Hopefully there will be some spare change. We are thinking of coming out for a couple of years, and are working on the basis of £1000 per month as a total including rent. We should have a bit more than that as a back up, although not much, and are hoping that within that time we may find some way of earning so we can extend the stay. Do you think £1000 is enough per month, we only want a simple life. 300-400 euros per month on rent, whatever bills are essential, sipping wine in the nearest taverna, and a nice beach to lie on. Nerja seems ideal. And if anyone can tell us how to pronouce it phonetically, we would appreciate it.

The pronounciation depends where you come from in Spain, there are a lot of regional accent. Round here in Andalusia, we pronounce it "NERKA", some say "NERHA", but never "NERJA"

As for the finances, it isnt that much cheaper than the UK - could you manage on £1,000 inc rent there?? I personally spend about 1,500 euros a month for everything EXCLUDING rent and school fees. I have two kids, 11 and 13, 3 small dogs and a car. I'm fairly careful, but not obsessive

Jo