Guide to Living in Seville in Spain

Summary: A guide to living in the Andalusian city of Seville focusing on employment, social life, language and housing

Located in Western Andalusia, Seville is quintessential Spain!  With its fabulous historic centre, great literary history and strong cultural feel, Seville is a popular tourism destination and is becoming increasing attractive to expats who speak Spanish and who want to live and work in Spain.

This is our guide to living in Seville in Spain if you’re looking for a destination with strong appeal, a diverse range of employment prospects and a really good social life.

As one of Spain’s most visited cities, Seville can feel very packed particularly around Easter time when it hosts two festivals that actually bring the entire city to a standstill.  Then in the summer months of July and August when you might expect the city to be heaving you’d be mistaken as the weather is so hot the majority of locals pack up and head for the coast.

The seasons that Seville encounters are summer and winter – winter is mild, summer begins in April and can result in oppressive heat, which is the one downside of living in Seville.  If you choose a city based apartment the heat can seem stifling when coupled with the traffic and the mass of inhabitants – but if you follow a growing trend and move away from the city centre and into the suburbs you can not only get more for your money property-wise, you get a better standard of living too.

Seville is a very Spanish city – in feel and in terms of the language predominantly spoken.  If you’re thinking about living in Spain and your Spanish is not up to scratch, Seville may be best avoided.  However, if you want to learn Spanish there are many language schools around the city, and when immersed in Spanish you will be more likely to learn the language of course!

So, employment-wise Seville really does require job seekers to speak Spanish unless you fancy working in the tourism industry or teaching English as a foreign language.  Both of these options are open to you, but they are really the only options available to you.  If you speak Spanish then you will find a very healthy jobs market…

If you’re thinking of moving to Spain and you have children, there are no international schools in Seville.  There are some private schools and of course there are many good state schools – but all of these teach the Spanish curriculum – so have a think about this before you enrol your children.  Think about the impact the language will have on their educational prospects.

In terms of things to do and see and experience in your leisure time when living in Seville, you will not be disappointed.  As stated, the city is very historic and so there are naturally many sites to see and places to visit such as the Giralda spire and the cathedral which is the largest gothic church in the world.  There’s the Jewish quarter, Santa Cruz and of course the river to enjoy as well.  If you’re more interested in the cultural side of Seville there is a very strong theatre and opera scene, may art galleries and museums.  For the whole family there are shopping centres, cinemas and Isla Magica theme park which is one of the biggest in Andalusia.

For sports fans the good news is Seville has some of the best facilities in the whole region; there are two football teams in Seville to support for example and a wealth of activities to get involved with, from water sports on the river to stadium based sports such as athletics for example.

Seville is a wonderful, thrilling and beautiful city – but it does have its downsides too such as the stifling summer heat and the fact that you need a good standard of Spanish to be able to settle into life in Seville.  If these factors don’t put you off and you want a good standard of affordable living in a stunning environment, Seville could be the perfect city for you.

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