Around half a million people leave the UK to  each year. A survey by the British Council showed 72 per cent of 18- to 30-year-olds would consider living and working overseas, with cold weather, the high cost of living, extortionate childcare, a lack of work-life balance and even poor romantic prospects among their motivations for leaving the country. The i Paper’ 

Paul Knowles, 55, grew up in Newport, South Wales. After teaching at British international schools in Prague for 15 years, he relocated to Valencia, Spain, in 2017. He now supports himself through photography and private walking tours.

I studied fine art and photography in Birmingham and, after graduating, I got a job as an onboard photographer on cruise ships sailing out of Florida and around the Caribbean. They were great days, but after a year, I returned to Britain and took an office job in Birmingham. One grey day in the noughties, I was staring through a rain-spattered window at the dreary cityscape outside when I thought: there must be more to life than this.

I promptly quit my job and found work as a teacher at various British international schools in Prague. 15 years flew by in an endless round of bars, skiing weekends and socialising with friends. But after so many years there, I felt ready for another change.

I had always fancied living somewhere warmer and closer to the sea. I first visited Valencia on holiday in February 2015 and immediately felt a connection with the city. Valencia seemed to tick all the boxes. It offers the best of both worlds: everything you would expect from a busy European city, including culture, food, nightlife and plenty going on, but it also feels extraordinarily open and spacious. Two years later, I moved here with my then-partner.

There are wonderful green spaces, and the surrounding countryside and mountains are within easy reach. Head south of the city and you find long stretches of quieter beaches, so it is surprisingly easy to escape and find some peace.

My friends and family were happy for me when I decided to move. They were already accustomed to me living abroad, so it was not a great shock to anybody. There was not much culture shock for me either. Having spent so many years outside Britain, I found it relatively easy to settle into life here.

We rented a three-bedroom penthouse on Calle Cádiz in Ruzafa, one of Valencia’s liveliest central neighbourhoods. It had two terraces and cost around €800 (£685) a month. But in the seven years I have lived in Valencia, the city has changed. The same apartment would easily command twice that today. I still rent in Valencia and now pay just under €1,000 (£855) a month in total for rent and household bills. That gets me a small one-bedroom studio in a fairly central part of the city.

It is a stark illustration of how much Valencia has changed. Rents have since risen considerably, while electricity, household bills and supermarket prices have also increased. I think a single person living alone would now want to earn around €2,500 (£2,139) a month to live fairly comfortably in Valencia, although that depends enormously on where you live and the kind of lifestyle you want.

Compared with a major British city, Valencia can still offer good value, but it is no longer the incredibly cheap place some visitors imagine it to be.

A friend recently made a careful comparison of the price of the same weekly shop at Tesco in Britain and Valencian supermarket Mercadona in Spain. The Tesco basket came to around £190, while the equivalent products from Mercadona cost just over £130. So, despite rising prices, everyday life is definitely still cheaper here.

Nevertheless, it can be frustrating for local people when visitors arrive from wealthier countries and constantly announce how cheap everything is. Valencia may seem inexpensive to somebody earning a British salary, but it certainly does not feel cheap to someone surviving on local wages. The rising cost of housing is a particular concern for people who were born and work here.

I was fortunate with the timing of my move. I obtained my Spanish foreigner’s identification number, or NIE, and later converted it into a TIE residency card before Brexit. That meant I avoided most of the bureaucracy British people moving to Spain now face.

When I arrived, I continued teaching and spent my first year working at a private school. But I found the system very different from the international schools where I had worked in Prague. The hours were long, the pay was not particularly good and I found the job much more challenging. It made me think seriously about finding another way to support myself.

I began photographing Valencia’s streets, architecture, people and everyday life. I also started learning more about its history and becoming increasingly involved in the culture of the city. Those interests gradually came together as Streets of Valencia, where I share my photography alongside stories about the city’s history, culture and character. It has also led to content creation, creative projects and collaborations with local businesses, restaurants and brands, and now, I support myself entirely through private walking experiences, photography, content creation and collaborations.

My working day starts early, around 6am, particularly during summer. I take my dog, a beagle named Ringo, for a walk before it becomes too hot. My walking experiences normally start at around 10 or 11am. Once they are finished, there is more work to do editing and preparing the photographs for my guests.

I try to make it to the dog beach every Sunday. You can have a traditional almuerzo, a roll with calamari and a drink with olives and nuts for about €7 (£5) with a sea view. I occasionally meet with friends for dinner; you can eat really well at international restaurants such as Indian, Chinese and Thai, one of the benefits of increased tourism. I like a local Chinese restaurant where you can eat and drink like a king for about €20 (£17). We are also lucky in that Valencia is incredibly well connected to the rail network, so going to nearby towns or even cities such as Barcelona is really easy and affordable.

One of the biggest misconceptions about living somewhere such as Valencia is that your life consists of sitting on the beach drinking cocktails all day. The reality is that you are working and getting on with ordinary life, just as you would anywhere else.

Strangely enough, once you live beside the sea, you often visit the beach much less than people imagine. I probably go more frequently during winter than at the height of summer. Some of the novelty naturally wears off, although it never stops being wonderful to know the Mediterranean is there.

I do not find living abroad especially difficult in terms of missing people because friends and relatives come to visit me. Fortunately, people generally do not need much persuading to come to Spain. Although my partner and I are no longer together, I had fallen in love with Valencia in my own right and never considered leaving.

I speak some Spanish and, through my tours, I have come to know many familiar faces around the historic centre. I am always stopping to chat with people as I walk through the city. That makes me feel rooted here rather than a British expatriate simply passing through.

Valencia has allowed me to build a life around things I genuinely enjoy.

There are challenges, particularly financial ones, but there are challenges wherever you choose to live. After all these years, I still feel the same connection with Valencia that I experienced when I first arrived. I cannot imagine ever leaving.