Is this possible?

Concise answer, Thanks Marcliff.

So whats the tax situation if you sell a UK property, as that would be another worry.

suppose one bought a UK property 25 yrs ago for 30k, and its now worth 160k, UK capital gains may not apply, but will CG be payable in Spain?

Im still living an working in the UK, but plan on moving over next september if all goes well.

phil

Obviously something you would have to look into before moving over. Depends on your circumstances, of course.
Sell it before coming over and before becoming resident then it shouldn't apply depending on what time of year you sell it. Become a resident in Spain and it is no longer your primary residence so would be liable for CGT as a second home.
Best to contact a solicitor and explain your circumstances. They would be able to better advise you on the best time to sell etc.
Just remember, though, property in UK has risen considerably over the past several years where it hasn't in Spain. If you move back to UK sometime in the future, would you be able to afford property there?
We sold our house in UK a couple of months before moving over and taking up residency purely because we'd had a bad experience with renting (cost a fortune to redo the house out after some supposedly professional couple had rented it for 3 years). We sold for £140,000 which was about 20k over the average house price in our area. Now, just 7 years later, the same property is more like £200,000 in UK. Our Spanish property at €190,000 (£131,000 at the time) is now going for as little as €135,000 (£120,000 ish at today's rates). I doubt if we could afford to move back to UK now (not that I'd want to).
Look into renting but getting an extremely good agent to look after it and rent it. Get some good recommendations and not rely on the advertising blurb. Ours said they were good and charged 12.5% of the rent but doubt if they ever visited the place in all that time. You'll at least have somewhere to go if the situation changes.

Back to the original point of the thread. I know two couples where one has, unfortunately, passed away, one lady in her late 60s and one gent in his early 70s. In both cases, neither had taken out residency despite living here most of the year. It wasn't classed as their primary home and cost the surviving spouse a lot of money in both cases. As residents, they wouldn't have had any CGT or inheritance tax to pay due to the allowances in this region plus both over 65 and owning for over 3 years so nothing to pay. As non-residents, none of this applied and both were hit very heavily for taxes. In the wife's case it was over half the value of all the assets including the house and car.
Just something to think about as I know we all think we are immortal and neither of the two I know had any serious, known medical conditions.

Our Spanish tax advisor said, "DON'T sell your property in the UK, Capital Gains Tax here is expensive!" Now that we're fiscal residents in Spain, our worldwide assets are declared and taxed here, rather than in the UK and the allowances are not as generous here in Spain. As Marcliff correctly pointed out, the risk of being caught isn't worth it - the fines are punitive. As the British Consul made clear in her recent visits to the area regarding Brexit, "Get yourself legal!": see page 20 of http://www.costablancapeople.com/read-o ... 2-2622018/