‘We moved to Spain – I was brainwashed to believe life was better in London’

Some use the digital nomad visa instead. According to official figures, a total of 7,368 non-EU nationals received the visa in the first ten months after it became available.

It is a misconception that Brexit has killed the dream of living in Spain. The number of Britons officially registered as living in Spain has risen from 276,089 in 2017 (the year after the referendum) to 284,037 in 2023, according to the Padron registry.

In the first half of 2024, the British were still the largest group of foreign buyers in Spain, followed by the Germans and the Italians, according to the latest figures from the Spanish notaries association.

This is unlikely to change. According to a recent report from Currencies Direct, Spain is the country most Britons would want to move to. The top reasons for leaving among those surveyed were better quality of life, cost of living and weather, although recent catastrophic flooding may make buyers think twice about certain areas.

Telegraph Money has spoken to four families who have grown tired of Britain and moved to Spain in search of a new life.

‘People here seem to be happier here.”

Faced with the need to move to an EU financial center after Brexit, Bo Bene and her stockbroker husband, James, decided to move to Madrid, where they had just bought a house. Although she is a British resident, having a Hungarian passport made the move easier.

“We loved living in Wapping, East London, and we didn’t want to live in Paris or Frankfurt, so Spain seemed like a no-brainer,” says Bene, 33, a former model and actor.

“The sunshine, the quality of life, the cheaper school fees – Madrid is perfect, apart from the fact that it’s not on the coast,” she says.