'A red tape nightmare': How Spain's press covered Brexit's 10th anniversary

The Spanish press has taken a deep interest in the 10th anniversary of the Brexit vote and the consequences it’s had on Spain’s British population, from the ‘legal limbo’ of British second-home owners to the Britons who’ve decided to return to the UK.

A decade has passed since the Brexit referendum in which UK voters surprised the world and decided that the country should leave the EU.

The campaign and result divided the country (and lives on as a fault line in British politics) as well as gaining international headlines. But ten years on, there are still more than 400,000 British nationals living in Spain, the EU country with the largest number of British immigrants in the bloc.

Most of them were already living in Spain and benefited from the arrangements put in place during the transitional period (2016–2020) and the Withdrawal Agreement, something that protected their residency rights.

However, that's not to say that life hasn't changed substantially in Spain, whether for British migrants in the country or on a political level between Madrid and London, in the years since.

Brexit aside, the British remain the largest group of foreign tourists visiting Spain (some 19 million in 2025 alone) and the foreigners who buy the most properties.

It's no surprise, then, that the Spanish media dedicated significant column inches to the anniversary.

Here's what they said.

How Spain's press covered the 10th anniversary of Brexit

Taking a look through the papers, several of Spain's main titles covered the anniversary.

Paper of record El País took balance of the technical changes and evolving British-Spanish relationship, noting that "10 years after Brexit" there are "fewer students, more trade controls and a red tape nightmare".

"The break between London and the EU", it adds, "has led to new restrictions on mobility and trade, which have affected a wide range of sectors".

Spain's state broadcaster RTVE interviewed Brits in Spain, focusing primarily on freedom of movement and residence changes, plus difficulties Brits wanting to move to Spain have in getting the right to work, to drive, to buy a home, to set up a business or to receive healthcare in Spain after the vote.

As its report notes, "to live, work or study [in Spain]... you must apply for residency or use one of the special visas (such as a non-lucrative visa, a digital nomad visa or a student visa)."

RTVE's coverage also deals with the confusion many UK nationals have had about new rules. Discussing her administrative odyssey to swap a British driving licence for a Spanish one and difficulties renewing her residence permit, one interviewee, June, said: “There’s a lot of confusion about the rules".

For Glen Mundy and his wife, residents in Alahurín de la Torre, Málaga, having to swap their driving licence, receiving parcels and communicating with the UK was more expensive.

"They’re small things, bureaucratic matters,” said Glen, "but at the time it made us feel insecure, compared to the previous period, when we didn’t feel entirely secure in Spain."

Right-leaning daily El Mundo focused on the so-called 'forgotten' Brits, mainly second home owners who are non-resident.

Some interviewees blamed the British government for misleading them: "We feel completely forgotten, Spain is our home too," said one interviewee. "This is not what the British government promised us, either before or during Brexit".

This sentiment is echoed by many of the more than 106,000 Britons who own a second home in Spain, according to the latest figures from the British Department for Housing published in 2025, and who, following Brexit, have seen the time they can spend at their properties drastically reduced.

Since the end of the Brexit transition period, their stays have been limited to a maximum of 90 days in any rolling 180-day period. Many now find themselves caught in what El Mundo describes as "legal limbo."

Although they retain their homes and continue to pay the taxes and associated costs, and had previously spent long periods in Spain – many of them for decades – these second home owners were excluded from the residence rights protected by the Withdrawal Agreement, the treaty that set out the terms of Brexit, because their habitual residence is still in the UK.

One interview in particular brought home the fundamental confusion about what Brexit would actually entail.

"We bought our house in Puerto de Mazarrón about eight years ago, before the Withdrawal Agreement came into force,” Jane Pennington-Fryer, a 59-year-old British woman, told El Mundo.

"During the referendum campaign, we attended an event where a woman asked Michael Gove, then the Secretary of State for Justice, whether Britons with a home in the European Union would still be able to use it if the UK left the bloc. He replied that they would, which is why we decided to buy ours," she explains.

David Webster, a 61-year-old Scot, also singled out Gove: "Michael Gove promised us that the rights of part-time residents would be protected. The British government has failed to look after us," he says.

READ ALSO: Would the EU take Britain back?

La Vanguardia's coverage focused on long-term residents who sold up in the aftermath of Brexit.

Malcolm, an interviewee, voted Remain and had already been living in Alicante for years at the time, summed up the process pretty succinctly: "We shot ourselves in the foot," he says adding that he was forced to sell his house in Ciudad Quesada.

Interestingly, financial paper El Economista pointed out in its Brexit coverage that despite the red tape making life more difficult for UK nations in Spain, they still top rankings.

The latest available figures, from the second half of 2025, show a 4.4 percent fall in property purchases by foreign nationals in Spain overall, consolidating the gradual downward trend against a backdrop marked by the end of the ‘Golden Visa’ scheme.

However, the highest number of transactions in the last six months of 2025 was carried out by British nationals, with 5,178 transactions (7.8 percent) closely followed by Moroccans (7.7 percent). Nonetheless, although Brits remain top of the leader board when it comes to foreign property buyers, their numbers have fallen significantly.

La Razón interviewed the British Ambassador in Madrid, Alex Ellis. A career diplomat, Ellis avoided commenting on the politics or success of Brexit, but highlighted the advances made in negotiations since, such as the UK rejoining the Erasmus exchange scheme and the Gibraltar deal, something only signed a few months ago.

"Gibraltar was one of the most complex issues, as was Northern Ireland," Ellis told La Razón. "I am pleased that we have reached a balanced agreement between the European Union, the Spanish Government, Gibraltar and my government. It will enable us to transform the relationship between Gibraltar and La Línea and create a new legal framework".

Ellis also pointed out that Spain's relationship with the UK significantly predates both Brexit and the creation of the EU itself, something that arguably underpins the deep connections between the two countries:

"The United Kingdom and Spain have had relations for over 500 years, of which only 35 were spent within the European Union. This goes back much further than that," he said.

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'A red tape nightmare': How Spain's press covered Brexit's 10th anniversary