Raising our family on the Costa del Sol is by far the best decision I have ever made. Our children are bilingual and they spend most of the year outside, and that is a childhood I could never have given them back in Ireland.

However, there are a handful of things I wish somebody had sat me down and told me in my early days here. So that is what I am doing for you today.

Ten years on, and after helping hundreds of international families make the same move, these are the six truths I see play out again and again.

You’ll hear:

✔ Something that happens with your children in the first year that catches nearly every parent off guard

✔ The assumption almost everyone makes about school fees here and why it’s wrong.

✔ The one number thing you need to know before you come as a family that we wish we knew earlier.

✔ What a normal week actually looks like once the holiday feeling wears off

✔ How will your kids learn Spanish and what that looked like for us

✔ The mistake I made in my own first two years here thatI have not talked about it on the podcast before.

If you are working out whether this coast fits your family:

📘 Take the FREE Location Quiz, 30 seconds: https://wlcostaproperties-quiz.netlify.app/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=quiz

📞 Book a call with us: https://calendly.com/warner-wlcostaproperties/property-consultation?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=consult_call

Enjoying the Podcast? Leave Us a Review!

We know life is busy, but if you’ve been loving the podcast, we’d really appreciate it if you could take just a minute to leave us a review.

Tell us:

✔ What’s been your favourite episode?

✔ What’s the most helpful tip you’ve learned?

✔ What do you want to hear more about?

Every review helps us reach more people just like you who are dreaming of a new life in Spain.

Just head over to Apple Podcasts, hit the rating, and drop us a quick review.

Of all the questions we get asked, and we get asked a lot of them, this one comes up again and again.

Will I make friends out there? Will I fit in? Will I have somebody to actually go for a coffee with?

Because you could live in the most beautiful apartment in the world, and if you do not have a community around you, you will still feel like this was not the right move.

So this week Sandra sits down with Ali Meehan, founder of Costa Women, a community of women living in and moving to Spain that now spans the Costa del Sol, Gran Canaria and Mallorca. Ali arrived in 2002 as a remote worker, before anyone called it that, and for a long time the only person she saw apart from her husband was the courier man. She joined a book club to fix it. That book club became Costa Women.

You’ll hear:

✔ The real reason why finding your community and making friends is so important

✔ Ali’s own first years in Spain as a remote worker in 2022

✔ Why Costa Women was born and who it’s for

✔ The myth that everyone who moves here ends up in the bars and what is actually happening now

✔ How to start building your community months before you get on the plane

✔ How to find the right group and community for you

✔ What your first few weeks should look like, and the mistake that turns a move into a long holiday

✔ What has changed about who is moving to Spain, and why

✔ The negative press about Spain, and the reality on the ground

✔ The fastest ways into the language and the culture

Find Ali and Costa Women

Costa Women is a community for women already living in Spain and for women still thinking about it. Local groups, business networking, book clubs, an annual conference and an online space, all of it built by women who have made this exact move.

Costa Women: https://costawomen.com/

Costa Women Business Growth: https://costawomen.com/businesses/growth/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CostaWomen/

Ali on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alimeehanspain/

And when you are ready to work out where in Spain you actually fit:

📘 Take the Location Quiz: https://wlcostaproperties-quiz.netlify.app/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=quiz

or

📞 Book a call with us: https://calendly.com/warner-wlcostaproperties/property-consultation?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=consult_call

Recommended next episode: Fell in Love With the Costa del Sol This Summer and Want to Make the Move? Start Here (Episode #115)

Enjoying the Podcast? Leave Us a Review!

We know life is busy, but if you’ve been loving the podcast, we’d really appreciate it if you could take just a minute to leave us a review.

Tell us:

✔ What’s been your favourite episode?

✔ What’s the most helpful tip you’ve learned?

✔ What do you want to hear more about?

Every review helps us reach more people just like you who are dreaming of a new life in Spain.

Just head over to Apple Podcasts, hit the rating, and drop us a quick review.

You are scrolling Idealista. There is a two bedroom in Benalmadena at 350,000 euro, the terrace looks lovely, there is a bit of a sea view in the background, and you say to yourself, we could actually do this.

Here is what nobody tells you while you are sitting there scrolling. The number on the screen is not the number you pay.

So what does it actually cost to buy a property in Spain in 2026? Not the listing price, the real number.

If you are buying property in Spain, comparing Costa del Sol towns, working out a Spanish mortgage as a non resident, or just scrolling Idealista wondering whether a 350,000 euro apartment in Benalmadena is within reach, this is the honest breakdown from two people who do this every week.

In this episode we take you from the listing price to the keys in your hand: what actually gets added on top, what needs to be sitting in your bank before you book a flight, what the same money buys you in different parts of Benalmadena, and whether prices here are going to keep climbing.

You’ll hear:

✔ Why the number on the listing is not the number you pay, and exactly what gets added on top

✔ The 10 to 12% broken down: transfer tax, notary, lawyer, and why we always tell you to plan for 12

✔ The mortgage trap: why you cannot borrow the tax, and the real cash a 300,000 euro purchase needs sitting in your account

✔ What frontline beach in Benalmadena Costa costs per square metre against ten minutes back inland

✔ How to tell whether the listing you are looking at is even still available

✔ Why a property listed with four agencies is worth less, not more

✔ The full timeline from offer to keys: reservation, contrato de arras, notary, and how fast it can really go

✔ Whether prices are going to keep rising, and Warner’s honest answer

✔ The client who still has nightmares about the apartment he did not buy

If you take one thing from this episode, take the budget calculator. It is free, it is a spreadsheet with every cost already plugged in for cash buyers and mortgage buyers, and Warner has recorded a short video walking you through how to use it.

👉 Get the FREE Budget Calculator: https://wlcostaproperties.mykajabi.com/offers/eGi7pjBC/checkout

📞 Book a call with us: https://calendly.com/warner-wlcostaproperties/property-consultation?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=consult_call

📘 Not sure which town suits you yet? Take the Location Quiz: https://wlcostaproperties-quiz.netlify.app/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=quiz

Enjoying the Podcast? Leave Us a Review!

We know life is busy, but if you’ve been loving the podcast, we’d really appreciate it if you could take just a minute to leave us a review.

Tell us:

✔ What’s been your favourite episode?

✔ What’s the most helpful tip you’ve learned?

✔ What do you want to hear more about?

Every review helps us reach more people just like you who are dreaming of a new life in Spain.

Just head over to Apple Podcasts, hit the rating, and drop us a quick review.