Natalie Milan and her partner Karl moved to the Costa Del Sol last year after years of longing to swap London for the Mediterranean.
The couple, originally from Australia, first bought a holiday home – a €220,000 (£192,000) apartment in Spain’s Andalusia region – a decade ago, and had been visiting ever since.
“Every time we came, we would come back to London, and you’d face the weather, and the seasonal affective disorder,” said Natalie, 42.
The interior designer said: “Taxes in the UK are rising and everything was becoming more and more expensive, and we just felt like we were just working harder and harder.
“It’s not that, that was a bad thing. But as you get older, you kind of just want to take a slower pace of life.”
The couple had a one-bedroom flat in Fulham, south west London, that they had bought for around £650,000.
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But with Karl able to work remotely and his father now living in Spain, they came across a business opportunity in 2024 that enabled them to leave their home in the capital and relocate to Spain full-time.
They now run property management franchise, Pass the Keys Benalmádena and Fuengirola, from the Costa Del Sol.
They say they cost of living for the quality of life they get in Spain is incomparable.
They own a five-bedroom house in the coastal town of Mijas that cost less than €800,000 (£700,000), which is only slightly more than their one-bedroom in Fulham.
But the costs of other things – particularly hospitality – are far cheaper too, which Natalie says makes the quality of life better.
“We’ve got a little local restaurant, for example, that we might go to rather than cooking sometimes. We might head there twice a week. You can get a nice pork entrecôte –pork’s big over here – with vegetables and quite a few glasses of wine. You’re looking at €55 (£48) all in for two of us,” she says.
She says that the long work days in London, with Karl working in finance, coupled with commuting time and cost are also something they don’t face in Spain.
“We were working in offices. We were kind of in that corporate world where half the time you’re out working at your office and then the commute after that makes it such a long day.
“By the time you get home, sometimes you just really can’t be bothered doing anything outside of work. You don’t get that quality of life balance which you do in Spain, where we can be members of sports clubs and do that after work.”
New figures suggest thousands of Brits every year are moving abroad, as Natalie and Karl did.
An estimated 252,000 Britons left the UK in the year to June 2025, according to figures published last week by the Office for National Statistics.
For those considering a move abroad, Natalie says there are things that have to be considered in terms of visas.
She admits that she is lucky as she had a Spanish grandmother so it is easier for her to get citizenship, which is a process she is doing at the moment.
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“In terms of the business, that setup actually has been quite simple. We had researched things, we’ve worked with lawyers in the past, and I think having a good lawyer was crucial,” she says.
She says that though they are trying to learn Spanish currently, this shouldn’t be seen as a barrier for those who are not multilingual.
“It’s sad to say, but there’s just so much English speaking down here, so we can kind of get away with it. But yes, we do need to learn Spanish,” she admits.
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