Is Tenerife expensive to live in?

Less than most of western Europe. Groceries and eating out are broadly mainland Spanish in price, local produce is cheaper, and heating is unnecessary. Water costs more than on the mainland because the islands desalinate.

Do I need a car in south Tenerife?

In the resort towns, no. In residential villages such as Palm-Mar, effectively yes — the local bus line runs eight times a day and stops at four in the afternoon.

What a month in south Tenerife actually costs

Outside rent, two people living normally in south Tenerife — cooking most nights, eating out a couple of times a week, running a small hire car — should budget in the region of 900 to 1,300 euros a month. The variables that move that figure most are the car and how often you eat out.

Groceries

Mercadona and HiperDino are the two supermarkets most residents use; Lidl and Alcampo are present in the larger towns. Prices are broadly mainland Spanish, with imported goods a little higher and local produce — bananas, tomatoes, potatoes, avocados, fish — noticeably cheaper.

The better move is the weekly farmers markets. The Arona one is in Valle San Lorenzo, open Friday and Saturday from 08:00 to 14:00 with free parking. San Miguel de Abona runs Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday; Granadilla, Saturday and Sunday from 07:00; Adeje, Saturday and Sunday.

Utilities

Electricity is low because nothing needs heating and air conditioning is barely used between October and April. Water is the line that surprises people: the Canaries desalinate, so it costs more per cubic metre than on the mainland. A fibre connection is the third bill and typically the most predictable.

Getting around

A small hire car on a monthly rate is the normal solution and, in the south, close to essential. Public transport is run by TITSA, whose network from the Los Cristianos interchange is good — the express line to Santa Cruz, frequent buses to the airport and Costa Adeje — but the residential edges are thin. Palm-Mar has eight buses a day and nothing after four in the afternoon.

Eating out

What you stop paying for

Heating, mostly. And the small compensatory spending of a northern winter — the taxis in the rain, the light therapy lamp, the flights somewhere warm in February. For a lot of people who winter here, the honest accounting is closer to neutral than it first looks.