{"id":1125919,"date":"2026-08-02T12:19:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T12:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1125919\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T12:19:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T12:19:28","slug":"its-intolerable-british-second-home-owners-selling-european-villas-due-to-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1125919\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s intolerable’: British second home-owners selling European villas due to fires"},"content":{"rendered":"

The wildfires ravaging some of France and Spain\u2019s most popular destinations<\/a> are pushing some British second home-owners to sell up over fears their properties could be under threat. <\/p>\n

Roy Patrick and Karen Smith, a retired 72-year-old couple from Oxford, told The i Paper they were concerned about the fires in Andalucia<\/a>, in southeastern Spain, where they own a three-bedroom villa in the coastal province of Almeria.<\/p>\n

They are now trying to sell the property<\/a>, which they bought in 2021 for \u20ac180,000 (\u00a3154,000), and plan to purchase a home in Italy instead.<\/p>\n

Recent fires<\/a> in Almeria killed 14 people, including seven Britons, and burned more than 7,000 hectares of land, leading to the evacuation of 1,500 people.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s property is located on the outskirts of the village of Tabernas, where just over 3,000 people live surrounded by Europe\u2019s only true desert area, about 30 kilometres north of Almeria city.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really worried, I\u2019m not there at my villa right now, and I try to monitor the situation online with fire maps and CCTV cameras at the property, as I can\u2019t really rely on my neighbours warning me,\u201d said Patrick, a former businessman who imported second-hand vehicles from Europe.<\/p>\n

The couple, who put their home in Almeria on the market this week, usually visit the property several times a year for short stays.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot\"Patrick, 72, says he is \u2018very worried\u2019 about the fires and tries to monitor his property from afar using fire maps and CCTV cameras (Photo: Roy Patrick)<\/p>\n

Although Tabernas is mostly barren land, and Patrick\u2019s villa is built of concrete without any wood, the area is full of palms and olive groves \u2013 used to produce the region\u2019s prized extra virgin olive oil \u2013 which could easily catch fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m keeping my fingers crossed that the desert will act as a shield, but you never know, there are spots with thick vegetation and so many olive trees,\u201d said Patrick. \u201cMoreover, it has never been as hot as this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The heat in Tabernas has become \u201cintolerable\u201d with frequent sand and dust winds from the Sahara Desert turning the villa\u2019s walls and roof yellow, he added. Patrick has insured his villa in case of fires and other hazards, but fears what he could lose should the blazes ever burn it to ashes.<\/p>\n

The property is a traditional, whitewashed Andalucian property with a wine cellar, fully restyled with high-end decor including vintage furniture. \u201cI\u2019d hate to lose what\u2019s inside \u2026 so many valuable things including a \u00a3600 radio-controlled plane,\u201d saidPatrick, who called the threat \u201cunsettling\u201d.<\/p>\n

If the fires do not spread further, the couple will head to Tabernas next week to meet potential buyers and monitor the situation on the ground. <\/p>\n

\"FILEA house surrounded by the aftermath of deadly wildfires in Bedar, Almeria, in July (Photo: Reuters\/Ana Beltran)<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe many fires in Spain are being caused by idiots who have fun starting them,\u201d said Patrick, as police revealed they suspected arson in the massive Vall d\u2019Uix\u00f3 fire in the eastern province of Castellon, after finding two separate ignition points.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am watching what is happening daily. So far we\u2019ve been lucky \u2013 the fires haven\u2019t reached the village.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the coastal city of Valencia to the north, Mary Taylor, a 74-year-old widow from Leeds who owns a two-bedroom apartment with covetable views near the centre, is packing her bags to return to the UK. \u201cI\u2019ve already handed the keys to the agency, this house is on sale. The fires around Valencia are freaking me out. I have nightmares at night. What if the blazes reach the city?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs Taylor bought the \u201cquite expensive\u201d flat three years ago for \u20ac250,000 (\u00a3214,000), and doesn\u2019t want to lose her investment if it is affected by fire.<\/p>\n

More than 200,000 hectares have burnt in Castell\u00f3n province, 30 kilometres north of the city. \u201cThe fires are practically at the gates of Valencia, it\u2019s been chaotic these days and the quality of the city air is terrible because of the smoke clouds. It\u2019s bad for my lungs,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\"BORDEAUX,A firefighting aircraft drops fire retardant over a forest near Bordeaux, France, as crews continue efforts to contain a wildfire (Photo: Dragan Lekic\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

France, too, has been ravaged by wildfires<\/a>, with more than 220,000 people evacuated from the south-western area around Bordeaux. Brighton-based couple Philip and Margaret Roberts, both 77, are selling their two-bedroom farmhouse on the outskirts of the village of Tresses, 13 kilometres east of Bordeaux<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spend two months every summer here, but it\u2019s no longer safe,\u201d said Roberts, a retired market analyst. \u201cStaying would be insane. We\u2019re just a few miles from the wildfires and there are forests all around. You never know what scenario there\u2019ll be in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple was about to leave for Tresses when the wildfires broke out. Their French neighbours called them saying smoke had drifted in from the west. They cancelled their trip and after viewing \u201capocalyptic\u201d scenes on TV, decided to sell the farmhouse, which they bought ten years ago for \u20ac500,000 (\u00a3428,000).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will wait till summer is over, now is not a good moment to place it on the market as we\u2019d have to undersell it, most likely. We pray every day that the fires don\u2019t reach Tresses,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Other British residents in France and Spain voiced concern to The i Paper about the negative impact of the wildfires news on tourism. <\/p>\n

Joanne Greenhalgh, from Birmingham, runs a small boutique hotel in Archidona, north of Malaga, which cost her about \u00a3420,000. She complains about \u201cmedia misreporting\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are badly impacted this season by people who are not booking because they assume all of Spain, which is a very large country, is affected by the fires. We absolutely love living in Spain and have no intention of selling up,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s fires are also affecting relocation choices. Alastair Johnson, who runs an agency in Sitges, near Barcelona, helping British people relocate, says there has been \u201ca major uptick in questions related to extreme weather given changing climate when people are thinking about where to live in Spain\u201d.<\/p>\n

Floods, extreme heat events and fires are getting enough media coverage to factor into decisions around which areas to choose, says Johnson. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe wildfires will impact Spain\u2019s natural disaster rating. I think the key issue is that one should think of the affected areas as similar to those in the UK with repeated floods, where people cannot buy home insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The wildfires ravaging some of France and Spain\u2019s most popular destinations are pushing some British second home-owners to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1125920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,20291,252,36,104,732],"class_list":["post-1125919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-expats","tag-fire","tag-france","tag-spain","tag-wildfires"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117025883587349314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1125920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}