“We are spending the winter in Spain, running our business from here.”
Taz and Mark Irvine from Hampshire run a company together recruiting HGV drivers. Mark is a driver and Taz has a background in recruitment. They got together after she interviewed him for a job. Dreaming of escaping the British winters they flew out to La Duquesa on the Costa del Sol with Leah a year ago looking for a property with £250k. After some tense negotiation they bagged property number five for exactly £250k.
After the couple secured the four-bedroom penthouse on an urbanisation they completed the property in February 2023. Everything went smoothly and the couple were out two days later (on a holiday booked in the area months before) and started all the admin like getting an NIE number and opening a bank account ready for the sale. “I wanted us to complete [the purchase] on Mark’s 60th birthday in January but we just missed it!” says Taz, 55. “We spent the day furniture shopping instead!”
Mark has an Irish passport so can flit back and forth as he pleases, whilst Taz is keeping tabs on her 90 days for now. “We were out for eight weeks in the summer and are out now from November through to January. I have brought my laptop and can run the business from here. It’s great,” she says. The couple, who married 2.5 years ago, have three grown-up children between them, and have since bought two Cavalier Prince Charles dogs, who travel with them (by ferry) – on their Spanish passports.
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The Spanish lifestyle seems to agree with them all. Mark has lost 25 kilos since the filming, Taz mentions, following her equally dramatic loss of 18 stone before they made their TV appearances. “I’m planning on taking up golf, and also take up padel tennis which is huge here,” adds Mark, who’s planning on bringing out his motorbike. He’s been busy kitting out the duplex apartment with the help of his brother and his son – it came with just a dining room table and chairs and a couple of sofas.
The couple have booked to come out again between May and August. “We love popping into Marbella, also visiting Tarifa, and have plans to visit Gibraltar,” says Mark, on the locations easily accessed from the western section of the Costa del Sol. They also love Castellar Zoo – a rescue centre for exotic animals. “We also saw Tom Jones perform at the Starlite Marbella – a music venue in a quarry.”
Mark and Taz loved the filming. “We had such fun with Leah and Toby and the rest of the TV crew. Then the estate agent – Andrew at Hamilton Homes Spain – was great and very helpful too.”
The duplex apartment is on a community with fees of around €2,500 per year, including IBI taxes (similar to council tax), and has currently been freshly painted recently. “We love the place and maybe eventually we’ll move out, but at the moment, going for up to three months at a time suits us well when we are still running the business,” says Taz. They have no plans to retire just yet – they can enjoy the best of both worlds now.
