This is not the sort of conversation normally associated with 1980s pop stars — including founders of the New Romantic movement, which tended to prioritise clothes and clubbing.

It is not the first time saxophonist Norman and I have shared alfresco vino. The last occasion was 20 years ago in Kensington’s Roof Gardens. Back then, Spandau were top of the charts with True. Norman’s fortunes have changed dramatically — and not always for the better.

The problems began in 1988 when a gentleman’s agreement within the band was terminated. Songwriter Gary Kemp, brother of former EastEnders star Martin and another former member, had been sharing some of his royalties with the group, as artists often do. A change in royalty policy and a resulting court case, however, had a profound effect on Norman’s income, leading him to trade down to a £240,000 conversion flat in Hampstead in 1991, which he “practically gave away for £310,000” in 1995, having moved to Ibiza two years earlier.

“Apart from its association with better times, I’d always been a bit of a Hispanophile,” says Norman of his move to Ibiza with Menchu, whom he had met on the island when she did PR for the band, and married in 1990. “I decided it was a good way to learn the language and it would be nice to go somewhere sunny to bring up our baby, Jack. We rented out our London flat for £400 a week and found an old mill, actually an old olive oil press, for £400 a month.” Last December, Norman sold for £450,000 the home he and Menchu had bought on the east side of the 220sq mile island to pay his costs in the 1999 royalties case, after which his marriage collapsed. He had acquired this property as a 4,000sq metre shell in 1993 for £200,000, plus another £20,000 for 377sq m of terrace.

With all this drama, you might imagine Norman to be existing on Spanish brandy and tranquillisers. In fact, he’s composed, sees his son, now 12, and four-year-old daughter, Lara, most days, and has a cracking bijou apartment, which he rents for £70 a week. Robust plants tickle the ancient ironwork on both balconies of the flat in Ibiza old town. He has started singing and been offered work as a television presenter by a neighbour who runs a German production company. This probably has something to do with the fact that he’s not looking bad for a 43-year-old survivor of the 1980s.

Norman likes his new surroundings, finding the street life invigorating. “By day there’s the hubbub from the market, and then in the evening comes the sound of revelry from the bars. When I lived in the countryside, the only noises were of cicadas and pigs being slaughtered.”

Similar properties in the area, between the port and the old city walls, go for about £110,000 for a one- or two-bedroom apartment, but they rarely come on the market. “Most families tend to keep hold of them,” says Natasa Tadic, of Ibiza agent Torremar. “A four-bed house overlooking the port has just gone for £1.4m because of the view. For the past couple of years, property has been increasing at about 10% per annum, but it’s getting to the stage where people are inventing prices. Valuations are hardly bothered with.”

Those who can afford to, buy two apartments and let out one. This is the strategy of Philip and Francesca Mosaby, owners of La Ventana, an elegant boutique hotel near the old town. They have bought two of the 20 units comprising Los Molinos, a new development on an archeological site overlooking the sea. It took 10 years to obtain planning permission and 18 of the apartments were sold off-plan. The remaining pair, each with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a patio, are on offer for £310,000 apiece. The son of a London cabbie, Norman was raised on a succession of housing estates. “The best was in Holborn. It was next to Leather Lane market and, from the age of 10, I had a job before school heaving the barrows around. I guess I’ve gone back to my roots,” he says, indicating the Spanish market stalls below.

Before moving to Ibiza, Norman played the London property market with a certain amount of skill. In 1985, he made £15,000 on a one-bedroom flat in Crouch End that he bought three years earlier for £65,000. He then paid £345,000 for a five-bedroom house in prestigious West Hill, Highgate. It was bought with a £180,000 mortgage and led to the next move, in 1991, after he sold it for £550,000.

“Apart from the royalty arrangements, there was hardly any other income coming in,” Norman explains. “I was better off living somewhere more modest without a mortgage.” The solution was a £240,000, two-storey conversion in Willoughby Road, Hampstead, where he was joined by Menchu. By the mid-1990s, Norman was working as a session musician, so he and his wife moved to Ibiza and bought the country house that he has now sold.

In contrast to the resort of San Antonio, the other side of the island of 100,000 residents and 700,000 visitors a year — where Norman sold his estate — is relatively undeveloped. Jef Hanlon, until recently the manager of Gary Glitter but now working with Norman, says this is because there is a moratorium on building. However, none of this affects Hanlon, who came to Ibiza in 1985, when he and his wife Alice bought a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house for £65,000. By 1997, they were paying twice as much for a villa with a pool, plus land. The Hanlon house needed plumbing, rewiring and extensions — including a pool and terrace and a separate flat for relatives, which doubled the original £130,000 price. It’s now valued at about £500,000, including the recording studio. At the time of writing, Hanlon is entertaining a posse of “island people” at his favourite beach bar. Under a blood-red sunset, some fine rioja washes down the seafood. But not too much: tomorrow will see another recording session, one involving Norman and his girlfriend, another well-preserved face from the 1980s, a certain Shelley Preston from Bucks Fizz. In Ibiza, it seems, old pop stars stay the same. Shame the same can’t be said of property prices.