Euro Rate over last three years

January 2007                1.50687 EUR

June 2007                    1.48036 EUR

December 2007           1.38419 EUR

January 2008                1.3386 EUR

June 2008                    1.26366 EUR

December 2008           1.09921 EUR

January 2009                1.08962 EUR

June 2009                    1.1674 EUR

December 2009           1.11153 EUR

The list above gives the average Euro rate against the pound over the last three years. As you can see in January 2007 one pound bought 1.50 Euros. In December 2009 one pound bought 1.11 Euros.

In the area I live in, which I call “Little Brittan” it means a lot. Most of the people in the area are British and they rely upon pensions and savings from the UK. Many, like us, move money across on a regular basis. So far it cost one-third more since January 2007 to live in Spain.

To the locals, both Spanish and British it means less to go around, villas cost more to buy to a Brit, so prices are dropping. Restaurants and bars are closing as people stay in more (a bottle of wine is 5 Euros in a bar, same wine 2 euros from a super market). Establishments that close lay off the staff, usually Brits, and they leave. Less people less money more places close down. This is the cycle we are now encountering in Spain.

The Spanish who rushed to the booming building industry are now unemployed as builders shut up shop leaving property half finished. Areas of land marked out with roads but no housing. Some Spanish ‘builders’ have returned to farming displacing eastern Europeans who filled their places. They get paid less, so less money in the economy.

The eastern Europeans are not returning home but try to get unemployment benefit here in Spain, no where near as easy as in the UK. So lots of charity organisations supply food parcels.

Spain is not over the worst. It’s to come.