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Seriously considering moving to Cyprus for an extended time

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Bdub
  9/3/2010 22:56 EST

My wife and I are both retired and currently live in Australia. We are considering a lengthy stay in Cyprus. Long term rental say 12 months to begin. Limassol or some other main centre.Not out in the sticks.We have the retirement income to support this lifestyle.We would arrive with 2 suitcases and will need to buy everything we would require.We are both holders of Australian and U.K. passports.We would need to establish bank accounts Mobile phone and Internet. Pay for view T.V. Car, insurance. Medical insurance and other necessities.
Our question, is this do-able at a reasonable cost.We would be willing to pay up to 1500 Euro per month rental. Not too bothered if furnished or not.
Any thought,comments directions would be greatly appreciated.All answers answered.
Thanks, Brian and Julie.

angang
  9/6/2010 11:28 EST

Just a little notice in advance of your move: even in an over-all corrupt world, Cyprus stands out as exceptionally corrupt!
The Russian mafia (Russians of course disclaim them,saying they are from other Black Sea hell-holes) securely controls the backstreets,particularly of places like Paphos and Limmasol, so the racketeering in the high places trickles down to street level in the form of violent casual brutality.
At the "top" end-----there really is no governance by the theoretical government; everything is in the hands of the gangsters: planning,property,commerce,you name it.
This is not simply a case of an administration suffering from the inroads of corruption, but a totally corrupt state that could not even begin to see a way out. Good luck!

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Bdub
  9/6/2010 20:21 EST

angang, thanks for your answer..They are serious concerns you voice here.
Are you speaking from personal experience,or are they general comments ?.
We currently live north of Sydney, why, A few reasons.The crime rate there is shocking and the Russian problem you talk of in Cyprus is alive and well here.The Gold Coast is a haven for them and they are very active there.
Australia is reportedly a highly desirable place to live!!!!.
I have looked for information on crime statistics for Cyprus and they compare very favourably to other western countries.

angang
  9/7/2010 08:38 EST

Hi again BDub,

yes,from personal experience......felt obligated to stop a thuggish youth from kicking a small boy methodically to some injury,then started yelling at a local taxi operator for not stepping in.......then got informative lecture from him about what would happen to him/family/business/livelihood if he did. A sobering experience---this in the cute little backstreets of Paphos in broad daylight. The Russian scum seems to have washed up everywhere,and the soft liberal democracies are gutless willing victims. Glad to hear that reported crime rates are fair in Cyprus,but I guess they just live with the situation.....It may be that Nicosia is better than some of the coastal tourist boomtowns.....there may be more resistance to the rats,away from the easy tourist trade?......
But the corruption itself is simply ubiquitous there.
Best luck anyway.

cyprus100
  9/7/2010 13:38 EST

We live about 10 or 12km on the outskirts of Limassol (approx 15mins drive from the city centre for work purposes) and don't have any of those issues mentioned here.

We've been living here permanently for over 6yrs in the same rented property we started in.

The rent you quote is in the high range price where you will more than likely come across Russians.

If that's what you want to avoid, lower your price limit and broaden your horizons away from seafront or top of the range accommodation and you will be just fine!

If there are only 2 of you which your posting appears to indicate, you should be able to find a 2 - 3 bedroom property up to €1000pm quite easily.

Check out another forum if looking for property. Just Google Cyprus anglo info and you will see what I mean.

We have a 3 bed semi detached bungalow and pay €450pm.

Bdub
  9/8/2010 03:59 EST

Hi,
Thankyou for your response. We would be happier paying less than 1500 Euro pcm. The reason I quoted that amount was that some of the nicer properties are listed at that kind of price. Perhaps I hve been looking at the wrong sites. It is not our intention to be living in a block of flats on the sea front in close proximity to holiday makers hell bet on having a good time. From searching the net I have found it difficult to identify nicer properties in a desirable outlying area. I have not bought the book, but today I looked at the 'Lonely Planet Guide' to Cyprus, it paints a pretty seedy picture of Limassol and Paphos which is dissapointing and I don't think for one minute we would want to live amongst that. However, we are still keen to persue this and intend getting to Cyprus to have a first hand look, and our hopes can be confirmed and our fears dealt with.
Thankyou for your response, it is greatly appreciated

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ParisCyp
  9/30/2010 12:20 EST

I have arrived here on 18 Aug to become a permanent resident and had to shell out about 15 000 EUR since I set foot on the island. I am not sure this will suffice. I have life insurance contracts to spare, but I doubt they can be redeemed sufficiently early. My only advice is: prepare an ample supply of cash (and life insurance does not qualify as cash) because initially you have to spend lots of money and your income is low for several months. In addition, everything bar accommodation is very expensive, even more than in Paris. So, contrary to the Beetles' pop song, all you need is cash, not love.

Bdub
  10/1/2010 02:22 EST

Paris, thanks for your comment.I have not believed that Cyprus was overly expensive. Your comment is an interesting one.I would believe that moving there as you have done would incur costs. You do not say what the bulk of the cost has been for, nor do you refer to the general cost of living.
Where you aware of the likely cost, or did this come as a suprise to you.
Our initial thoughts where to arrive with only personnel stuff and then buy what we needed. We are retired and therefor cash is available to us. We intend to rent for a period and see what we feel about the place.

ParisCyp
  10/1/2010 11:13 EST

I certainly was unaware. I had stashed away 20 000 EUR in cash and believed I would spend but a small part of it. I reckoned finding a flat within a week, but it took me 10 days and I could not move in until 14 Sep because the previous tenant was due to leave on that date. So I spent 3 weeks at the hotel (note that I did not choose expensive ones, although the latter are better value as breakfast in the downmarket ones is not worthy of the name whereas in beach hotels you have a true and healthy (an important consideration here), with lots of vegetables and fruit (à propos, the latter cost 2 to three times more than in Paris, electronics two times and linen closer to three), so there was a sizeable cost overrun on this. I also had to rent, and then buy a car as public transport here is no good contrary to what they say on Cyprus internet sites. I have not had time to look closely at all my expenses, but I did not splash out on many extras. It all ebbs away drip by drip but at the end of the day it makes an impressive amount. I do keep a few thousand euros to pay expenses remaining in France, such as taxes and national insurance contributions, however.

I saw on the site that you must be prepared for this since it is the standard pattern for expatriate, of which the locals (even my banker) are well aware. Only unsuspecting foreigners are in for a shock. You must also make do on little or no income for several months. Since I arrived by plane, I only brought the essentials and had to buy the rest locally, at a price.

Shops are generally ghastly, with high prices and very limited choice (sometimes one item only). A sizeable minority of shopkeepers are rather grumpy (more than in Paris), but the majority of people are friendly. And it seems that fruit is systematically grown in Cyprus (i.e. tasteless, imports are rather thin on the ground) and reaped well before it reaches maturity (i.e. unedible). The snag is that in the sun it does not ripen, it just rots, so I have learnt to dispense with it and fall back on canned fruit, which is cheaper though still more expensive than in Paris. And apparently they do not sell frozen fruit here. But if anybody knows of a place where there is some I shall be glad to go there.

You will also notice that, even if you have a high cash limit for withdrawals at home, which is my case, local banks will let you withdraw only small sums (usually the maximum ranges from 150 EUR and 300 EUR depending on the bank concerned, but the most profligate ones like Société Générale will let you go as high as 450 EUR), so initially you will have to pay all your expenses with your present credit card and settle your rent buy withdrawing cash at several ATMs (when moving in you will have to pay one month's rent plus one month's deposit).

As me, you will probably be very busy from your arrival. This is why I have not had time to find out about meeting places to get acknowledged with local people and expatriates. I would be grateful if you informed me about this.

And, to cap it all, administrations, public utilities and banks are open only from 8 am to 1 pm 5 days per week (so the work week for them is 25 hrs. Who said that the French had too much leisure?). Little surprise then that in two weeks, the local near-monopoly, CYTA-Vodafone, has not been able to install my telephone and DSL lines. But I have been told that PrimeTel is cheaper and much better. If they do not have to rent their lines from CYTA, I shall switch to them. Otherwise I shall wait until mine have been set up since I guess they would postpone my order yet further.

Let us stay in touch to exchange information since we are in the same boat, aren't we?

Bdub
  10/4/2010 04:30 EST

Hi Paris,
Sorry to take so long to reply to you substansive answer, long weekend here!.
I do appreciate you taking the trouble to describe your circumstances. It gives us a real insight to what to expect. Are you feeling more settled or do you think you might not have prepared well enough. I think we would expect the costs you refer to. Our profile would tell you that we would arrive with very little and then see how we felt about it.
Our other plan is to use it as a base and assess other European destinations.
France is a thought
My wife speaks the language quite well. Spain is also on the list as is Portugal. We don't know a lot about the other possible destinations.
From a Retirees perspective Cyprus is an attractive destination if only for the Retirement Tax isssue. All other aspects seem to stack up.
There is a large British Expat populas there, which on the one hand has no interest to us, but tells us it's an easier place to live. We would not seek them out.
Please keep in touch , we are gratfull for the contact.
Best wishes,Brian and Julie

ParisCyp
  10/4/2010 09:01 EST

Alas, I had done quite some homework before leaving and checked it with the Cyprus embassy in Paris and it seemed all right. I was completely unaware, so I am still trying to come to grips with it all. It would have been better to ask the French embassy, which would have given me a more accurate idea. I shall be glad to keep in touch. Thanks

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Angelos
  10/8/2010 03:09 EST

Hello there I just read your post that you are looking for a flat to rent in Cyprus. I have an apartment available for rent or sale in Limassol in a very nice location next to the sea. The complex is called Deana Beach Apartments (you can find it in the internet). If you are interested please contact me for more information by email: [email protected]
Thank you very much and I look forward hearing from you soon.

CHRIS1
  11/11/2010 20:58 EST

I don't know what your Momma did to you guys when you were kids, but some of you have some serious anger issues that need to be addressed. And I'm not talking about going to a Psychologist, no, you need to be studied at a University setting, where they just put you in the middle and all the professors are in circle around you trying to figure what happened to you. The Cyprus that I know has the most friendly, fun loving people in whole Europe. What you call inneficiencies in public services, I call an easier, more calm, less stress way of living...that is why the average woman leaves to be 81 and the average man to 80 years of age. Most of the people that move to Cyprus, are the ones that realize that life is short, and they are choosing to actually LIVE before they die. Also, I don't know what dumbster you buy your fruit at, but in Cyprus the fruit is probably one of the 10 major reasons on why you should move to Cyprus. Yes, I agree there are Russians, but 99% of them are good hard working people. Unless you are planning to get into the underground world of drugs and prostitution you will never see what it was described above. The fact is that the crime rate in Cyprus is one of the lowest in the world, 6.4 per 1000 people- which translates to two per year on average. Basically you got a better chance of getting kicked by a "garo" (Cyprus donkey) and die. So, at the end of the day, my friend I felt it was important for you to also know, the other side of the story...good luck to you and god bless all of you-Hope you did not mind me pocking some fun at you.
(Also, keep in mind that as a good and responsible Cypriot, I also own a beautiful Villa and we would love to have you, and if you ever miss Australia our Villa is within spitting distance from the white Kangaroo park in Coral bay...

MissDaisy
  1/25/2011 06:36 EST

Hi! New to this forum but I can offer a slightly different perspective having just moved to Cyprus from the USA. My experience has been much more pleasant than Paris' experience.

I lived in Cyprus for 3 months in 2008 before deciding to make the permanent move. During that time I checked into the costs of many things - health insurance, cars, food, utilties, etc. A bit has changed since I did my first estimation, but all in all I am happy with the choice I made.

My home is in Eastern Cyprus, Frenaros to be exact and I love it there. I can walk or ride my bicycle to the bakery, grocery store, butcher, and local pub. It is very safe and my only complaints would be the noisy motorbikes and the dogs that bark at 3 am.

Compared to the US, I have found that insurance costs are lower, as is water. Gasoline and electricity costs are slightly higher, but then again the homes in Cyprus all use solar to heat their water and I haven't turned on my clothes dryer (I didn't buy it, the builder of my home gave it to me).

Yes, the pace of life is slower in Cyprus, but that is the one of the reasons I chose to come here. You just have to figure out the office hours and work around them.

Cars are expensive in Cyprus and seem to hold there value. I bought a used car and am quite happy with it. The road tax for it for 2011 was 70 Euros.

My big expenses so far have been: fly screens for the windows, a TV, and the car and insurance for it. Health insurance was incredibly inexpensive compared to the US.

If you are looking for a cosmopolitan lifestyle, Cyprus will not be for you. If you are looking for a slow and comfortable pace of life, a safe environment, and peace of mind, Cyprus is the place.

BTW, I have some British friends who just rented a home in my village and they are paying 500 Euros a month for an unfurnished 3 bedroom home and the home is brand new. Right now there are good deals to be had if you are renting (or buying).

Bdub
  1/27/2011 21:00 EST

Hi Missdaisy, Thank you for your reply. Yes there has been some negative comments but we are not deterred. We are arriving on the 29th April, so not long now. We have done a lot of research and we are confident of finding the life we are looking for. we are coming with a"can do" attitude and we are positive in our outlook. Your experience and approach to it sounds right to us. I am interested in hearing a little more of your accomodation choices and experience. Again, thank you for taking the time to answer my post.
Brian.

GBM
  2/17/2011 08:41 EST

Hi Brian, I'm New to this site as I am to Cyprus and I have just spent a half an hour reading all your previous bloggs regarding your forth-coming move. I am a retired South African and I have been living in Paphos since October 2010 and up to now I have been as happy as a 'pig in sh..t' and found this place suits my every need. The people are very friendly indeed and as previously mentioned by others, there is a very large English contingient living here. With regards to crime, I think that, as in any place in the world, you will find trouble if you go looking for it ! I have found that the cost of living is no higher than where I come from, but then again, as everywhere, eating out is very expensive. I could go on forever, but I chose to live here in Paphos (Peyia to be exact) and 'my home is where my heart is'. Good luck with your move and I shall be more than glad to 'show you the initial ropes'. Feel free to contact me on email - [email protected]
Regards,
Graham Marshall

MissDaisy
  4/19/2011 02:04 EST

Brian, I don't know what I can tell you about my accomodation choices and experiences. If you ask spacific questions, I will be happy to answer them. I can tell you that right now, the property market in Cyprus is a buyer's/renter's market. So buying or renting you should have plenty to choose from at very good prices. Make sure you get a good agent to help you. It may take you a whiel to find the right agent. I worked with several agents and finally found the right one purely by accident.

Good luck with your move - the 29th is not far away!

Savage
  1/16/2012 15:22 EST

Hi

I have read your blogs for the last 1/2 hr, just wondering with all the comments how did the move go and how did you find the day to day and moving costs.?

Cheers


Savage

HenryLCA
  3/3/2012 10:00 EST

Whats your reason for choosing Cyprus over Australia? Sounds a bit crazy to me...

aalyaah
  3/8/2012 11:27 EST

Brian and Julie,

I am an American and I went to visit a friend in Cyprus I found the people to be very friendly and my friend lives in a 3 bedroom flat and pays 600.00 Euros.
I loved the country, I loved the people the shops seemed to me about the same as the US. The way of life seemed slower but that is also one of the reasons why I loved Cyprus so much. I am considering relocating.
Good luck with your move.

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