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MAP: The towns in Alicante with zero British residents

No province in Spain has more British residents than Alicante. But believe it not there are some towns and villages with no Brits at all, albeit not many. But if you are interested to know where they are or become the first British resident to move in then read on.

Published: 6 June 2019 16:31 CEST
MAP: The towns in Alicante with zero British residents
The village of Benasau, in the Sierra de la Serrella. Photo: Rodriguillo/Wikimedia Commons
Of all the provinces in Spain, none is home to more British nationals than Alicante, where some 69,289 Brits officially reside, according to the Spanish government’s national statistics organization, the INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas).
 
The province’s sunny weather and the white sand beaches of the Costa Blanca draw so many Brits in such high concentrations that it can sometimes feel as if one has stumbled into a sort of Little Britain in the sun.
 
Legendary tourist destination Benidorm and its 2,322 British residents (though this only includes those who are registered) is only the tip of the iceberg.
 
 
The town  of Orihuela, with its coastal housing development, is home to a whopping 9,393 UK nationals. In the town of Llíber, they make up almost half (44%) of the population.
 
But believe it or not, there are still 4 villages in Alicante without a single British resident. If you're trying to escape your fellow Brits but still enjoy that sunny Alicante weather, then look no further…
 
 
Benasau
 
Tucked into the Sierra de la Serrella is the village of Benasau and its 156 residents, making it the most populous of the English-free municipalities in Alicante. It is home to the Torre del Palacio, ancient home of the Barons of Finestrat, and the recently restored Iglesia Parroquial de San Pedro.
 
 
Benifallim
 
Not only are there no British residents in Benifallim, there are no foreign residents, period. This town of 108 – mostly Valencian speakers – lies just 7 km to the Southeast of Benasau, and is known for its castle overlooking the surrounding farmland and the Palacio of the Marquis de Montortal, today home to the local town hall.
 
 
The castle of Benifallim (left) overlooking the village (right). Photo: Galopax/Wikipedia Commons

Benillup

 
With only 94 inhabitants, the smallest of the British-free villages calls itself “the smallest big town in the world”. Another Valencian-speaking municipality, it is dominated by its bell tower, dedicated to the town’s patron saints, Llorenç and Águeda.

 
Photo: Joanbanjo/Wikimedia Commons
 
Facheca
 
Located in the Seta river valley, Facheca (Fageca in Valencian) just breaks the 100 mark in terms of population. On the outskirts of town are the remains of the Torre del Pla de la Casa, the highest-altitude castle in Alicante.
 
 
Photo: Juanbanjo/Wikimedia Commons
 
And there are a few with less than 10….
 
In all, there are 23 towns with less than 10 British residents, so it is possible to find places to live in Alicante without feeling that you’re surrounded by Brits. Of course, of these 23, none of them are on the coast.
 
The majority are in the mountains to east of the Sierra Mariola, with a few further inland to the west as well.
 
The exception and most populous town is Granja de Rocamora, with 2,489 residents, only 3 of whom are British. It’s located in the South, just northeast of Orihuela and only half an hour from the coast by car.
 
For a full list of Alicante’s municipalities with fewer than 10 British residents, see below:
 
Alcoleja – 2
Cañada – 2
Penàguila – 2
L’Alqueria d'Asnar – 3
Famorca – 3
Granja de Rocamora – 3
Gorga – 4
El Campo de Mirra/Camp de Mirra – 5
Beneixama – 6
Beniardá – 6
Alfafara – 7
Almudaina – 7
Beniarrés – 7
Benifato – 7
Benimassot – 7
Quatretondeta – 7
La Vall d'Alcalà – 7
La Vall d'Ebo – 7
Tollos – 8
 
 
 
 
 
by Edward O'Reilly
 

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MONEY

Rampant branch closures and job cuts help Spain’s banks post huge earnings

Spain’s biggest banks this week reported huge profits in 2021 and cheered their return to recovery post-Covid, but ruthless cost-cutting in the form of thousands of layoffs, hundreds of branch closures and the removal of many ATMs have left customers in Spain suffering, in this latest example of ‘Capitalismo 2.0’. 

Published: 3 February 2022 13:34 CET
A man withdraws cash from a Santander branch in Madrid.
More than 3,500 Santander workers lost their jobs in Spain in 2021 and a further 2,000 more employees working for Santander across Europe were also laid off. Photo: PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP

Spanish banking giant Santander on Wednesday said it has bounced back from the pandemic as it returned to profit last year, beating analyst expectations and exceeding its pre-COVID earnings.

Likewise, Spain’s second-largest bank BBVA said on Thursday that it saw a strong rebound in 2021 following the Covid crisis, tripling its net profits thanks to a recovery in business activity.

It’s a similar story for Unicaja (€137 million profit in 2021), Caixabank (€5.2 billion profit thanks to merge with Bankia), Sabadell (€530 million profit last year), Abanca (€323 million profit) and all of Spain’s other main banks.

This may be promising news for Spain’s banking sector, but their profits have come at a cost for many of their employees and customers. 

In 2021, 19,000 bank employees lost their jobs, almost all through state-approved ERE layoffs, meant for companies struggling financially.

BBVA employees protest against layoffs in May 2021 in Madrid. Spain’s second-largest bank BBVA is looking to shed 3,800 jobs, affecting 16 percent of its staff, in a move denounced by unions as “scandalous”. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)

Around 11 percent of bank branches in Spain have also been closed down in 2021 as part of Spanish banks’ attempts to cut costs, even though they’ve agreed to pay just under €5 billion in compensation.

Rampant branch closures have in turn resulted in 2,200 ATMs being removed since the Covid-19 pandemic began, even though the use of cajeros automáticos went up by 20 percent in 2021.

There are now 48,300 ATMs in Spain, levels not seen since 2001.

READ MORE:

Apart from losses caused by the coronavirus crisis, Spain’s financial institutions have justified the lay-offs, branch closures and ATM removals under the premise that there was already a shift to online banking taking place among customers. 

But the problem has been around for longer in a country with stark population differences between the cities and so-called ‘Empty Spain’, with rural communities and elderly people bearing the brunt of it. 

 

Caixabank laid off almost 6,500 workers in the first sixth months of 2021. Photo: ANDER GILLENEA/AFP

Just this month, a 78-year-old Valencian man has than collected 400,000+ signatures in an online petition calling for Spanish banks to offer face-to-face customer service that’s “humane” to elderly people, spurring the Bank of Spain and even Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to publicly say they would address the problem.

READ MORE: ‘I’m old, not stupid’ – How one Spanish senior is demanding face-to-face bank service

It’s worth noting that between 2008 and 2019, Spain had the highest number of branch closures and bank job cuts in Europe, with 48 percent of its branches shuttered compared with a bloc-wide average of 31 percent.

Below is more detailed information on how Santander and BBVA, Spain’s two biggest banks, have reported their huge profits in 2021.

Santander

Driven by a strong performance in the United States and Britain, the bank booked a net profit of €8.1 billion in 2021, close to a 12-year high. 

It was a huge improvement from 2020 when the pandemic hit and the bank suffered a net loss of €8.7 billion after it was forced to write down the value of several of its branches, particularly in the UK. It was also higher than 2019, when the bank posted a net profit of €6.5 billion.

Analysts from FactSet were expecting profits of €7.9 billion. 

“Our 2021 results demonstrate once again the value of our scale and presence across both developed and developing markets, with attributable profit 25 per cent higher than pre-COVID levels in 2019,” said chief executive Ana Botin in a statement.

Net banking income, the equivalent to turnover, also increased, reaching €33.4 billion, compared to €31.9 billion in 2020. This dynamic was made possible by a strong increase in customer numbers, with the group now counting almost 153 million customers worldwide. 

“We have added five million new customers in the last 12 months alone,” said Botin.

Santander performed particularly well in Europe and North America, with profits doubling in constant euros compared to 2020. In the UK, where Santander has a strong presence, current profit even “quadrupled” over the same period to €1.6 billion.

Last year’s net loss was the first in Banco Santander’s history, after having to revise downwards the value of several of its subsidiaries, notably in the UK, because of COVID.

The banking giant, which cut nearly 3,500 jobs at the end of 2020, in September announced an interim shareholder payout of €1.7 billion for its 2021 results. “In the coming weeks, we will announce additional compensation linked to the 2021 results,” it said.

BBVA

The group, which mainly operates in Spain but also in Latin America, Mexico and Turkey, posted profits of €4.65 billion ($5.25 billion), up from €1.3 billion a year earlier.

The result, which followed a solid fourth quarter with profits of €1.34 billion, was higher than expected, with FactSet analysts expecting a figure of €4.32 billion .

Excluding non-recurring items, such as the outcome of a restructuring plan launched last year, it generated profits of 5.07 billion euros in what was the highest figure “in 10 years”, the bank said in a statement.

In 2020, the Spanish bank saw its net profit tumble 63 percent as a result of asset depreciation and provisions taken against an increase in bad loans due to the economic fallout of the virus crisis.

“The economic recovery over the past year has brought with it a marked upturn in banking activity, mainly in the loan portfolio,” the bank explained, pointing to a reduction of the provisions put in place because of Covid.

In 2021, BBVA added a “record” 8.7 million new customers, largely due to the growth of its online activities. It now has 81.7 million customers worldwide.

The group’s net interest margins also rose 6.1 percent year-on-year to €14.7 billion, said the bank, which is undergoing a cost-cutting drive.

So far, it has axed 2,935 jobs and closed down 480 branches as the banking sector undergoes increasing digitalisation and fewer and fewer transactions are carried out over the counter.

At the end of 2020, BBVA sold its US unit to PNC Financial Services for nearly 10 billion euros and decided to reinvest some of the funds in the Turkish market.

In November, it launched a bid to take full control of its Turkish lending subsidiary Garanti, offering €2.25 billion ($2.6 billion) to buy the 50.15 percent stake it does not yet own.

The deal should be finalised in the first quarter of 2022.

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