jcaprani
1/2/2014 02:12 EST
Hi Alvena,
Your ideas are solid, and container building here is a really good idea, but here's a few thoughts:
Ask around about the land with people in the neighbourhood before you buy. Flooding is a huge problem here, one that property sellers go to great lengths to hide.
Get a good local lawyer to do title search and make sure the seller has the legal title to sell the land. The ownership of land here is very complex and if there are title disputes it can take many years to solve, very frustrating.
Buy the containers in country - import duties are high here and it's less expensive to pick one up from another expat who is done with their container after moving their personal belongings over. Search buyinfiji.com or talk to locals in the building trade.
Block-build your house: cheap is fine, but there are serious cyclones here that can blow the unprepared right away.
Burglar bar your windows - it's nice to live mostly outdoors, but you want to lock up your valuables and sleep safely at night. Behind the bulas and friendly smiles there is a serious undercurrent of burglary, robbery and other violent crimes, never mentioned in the tourist brochure or real estate prospectus.
White people will always be targets here because locals assume whites are rich - even poor whites are better off than locals in a society where the average wage is about FJD $5 per hour and unemployment is about 25%. Many local people also have ambiguous and conflicted feelings about white people because of this country's colonial history, particularly the history of 'girmitya' or indentured labouring. You will make genuine friendships with local people, but slowly.
All that said, Fiji is a wonderful country, friendly, fun and definitely safer than Sydney or London!
All the best,
John
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