Aflat in the bustling beehive of Benidorm or a quaint white-washed casita on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean in Menorca? On the hunt for more affordable places to retire, Britons have long flocked to sunny Spain to live out their later years.

For the past decade, the country has been the most popular port for British retirees. Of the more than 1m Britons who have their pensions paid overseas, 74,000 receive them in Spain compared with just 26,700 a decade ago, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.