Thread: cyprus

Originally Posted by guinness

Hi All
this is my first post so i hope it is in the right place :embarrassed: just let me know if it is not and i will retry

I have just been on holiday to cyprus / paphos - in the coral bay area

my wife and me absolutley loved it - people where very friendly and the cost of living seemed reasonable once you got away from the local shops and into the biger supermarkets.

We loved it that much that we are concidering living out there.
starting with myself just to see what the prospects are and find somewhere to live.
I have my own property in the UK and i have been told that it would be very difficult to earn the money to keep a house going in the UK as well as make a living in cyprus

so if anyone can help with some advice regarding work in the painting and decorating trade and the best areas to live / rent and any other advice anyone can chip in with, i would be very greatfull

many thanks
Mick

Hi Mick

I have been living in Cyprus since August 2007. Larnaca area.

Cyprus is great if you are retired but very very hard if you want to earn a living.

It is a beautiful place, with great beaches etc but living here is nothing like coming on holiday. For one, yes the cypriots are very friendly but that is because you are a tourist spending money, its slightly different if you are trying to earn a living here. They are very culturely different to the brits and alot of their ways i have found very hard to adjust to.

Since the euro came in it is also an expensive place to live, shopping on a par with UK, clothes, shoes are alot more expensive. Wages are very low!!. Having said that there are no hidden taxes like there is in the UK and bills are still relatively cheap.

I would advise you to rent rather than buy and probably best to keep your house in the UK incase things don't work out here (rent it out). There are alot of people going home because they cannot earn a living. We are leaving and heading to Canada

Having said that there are also a lot of happy people here and it is a calmer and less stressful way of life than the UK. Can be frustrating when you want something done though, nothing happens in a hurry!!!

Although it hasn't worked for us, I haven't regreted coming here and I have had agreat year visiting the lovely beaches. Perfect day is to pack a picnic and take your 4 x 4 for a drive and find a hidden bay somewhere. Nice place for kids aswell, more respect here and although crime is on the increase it still is nowhere as bad as UK and kids are alot safer here.

My advice is to give it a go, it might just work for you, just make sure you have enough savings to last for at least a few months and keep your options open to going back.

Hope this helps
Denise

O also try the angloinfo cyprus forum lots of info there.
Good luck

hi mick, im also from cyprus...yehh!!!! dont know if there are many of us on here?..i live in peyia,3km from coral bay(people call it little britain) yes there are alot of english up here ,...scattered about..lol . im working, i sorted the job before i arrived, my husband is a tiler, he has found it a struggle to get work, only now is the phone ringing.you definately have to have some cash behind you,just incase, you have to be patient too. work will come but you need to get your name about..ie..local rag,magazines leaflets and business cards in as many shops as you can get too... i don t find it that expensive here as some people say. we were living in spain before we came here,i think its on par, good luck in what you decide. Rach.

Originally Posted by rach

hi mick, im also from cyprus...yehh!!!! dont know if there are many of us on here?..i live in peyia,3km from coral bay(people call it little britain) yes there are alot of english up here ,...scattered about..lol . im working, i sorted the job before i arrived, my husband is a tiler, he has found it a struggle to get work, only now is the phone ringing.you definately have to have some cash behind you,just incase, you have to be patient too. work will come but you need to get your name about..ie..local rag,magazines leaflets and business cards in as many shops as you can get too... i don t find it that expensive here as some people say. we were living in spain before we came here,i think its on par, good luck in what you decide. Rach.

Hi Rach
Yey theres 2 of us now!!! We live in Oroklini, also another little Britain.

You are right about it taking a long time to get work. My hubby is a plumber and it took us 4 months to get any work, we did flyers, adverts and all sorts. In the end its getting to know people, just about all of his work comes from word of mouth.

We finally started to get lots of work around May time and up until August things where going well. Then no work for nearly 3 months because of August shut down etc etc. It's now starting to pick up again. I think the thing is to get into the Cypriot market but this is quite hard to do. After all theres alot of Brits here but not enough work just relying on them, and as a nation we do tend to be good D.I.Yers

I think it would have helped if I could have found work, been looking for part time and theres hardly anything about, unless you can speak Greek.
Been to a few interviews but no luck. (1 lady wanted me to work Tues through to Sat, 12-7pm, with possibility of some Sunday work for 450 euros a month. I mean get real!!!!.
I did work for 1 new company for 3 months but never got paid as they never made enough money to pay me.

I think if you don't have a mortgage, or school fees to pay then you could get by, we have both though and have used all our savings just to survive here.
You are right though about giving it time, if we had enough finances, (or there was just 2 of us) give it another year then I think hubby could build up business to a reasonable level. Like I said everything is word of mouth and the more people you know etc etc.

Wishing you well Rach

Hello there!

My partner and I arer looking to move to Cyprus in the next couple of years but the thing that worries me the most is schooling for my 3 children. Are there English schools on the island? My partner is ex military and says it won't be a problem but any additional advise would be great.

Thanks

Hi

The international schools here are very good, my son as excelled in all subjects at Pascal English school. I believe American Academy is also a good school. It depends where you will be living but if you choose Larnaca I would recommend either.
The school fees for Pascal is about 6500 euros a year plus fees for books, clubs etc etc.
These are secondary schools, not too sure about primary or junior.

Hi all

I am rather new to all this i have been living in Cyprus since 1999 i basically came on holiday decided to stay and 9 years down the line still here bought a house have a great job and started a family (that was a bit of a shock):eekxmas:. I love my life here and the only way you would get me back to the uk would be in handcuffs. My parents moved here nearly 5 years ago they are nicely settled and feel the same way as i do. The only thing i would say about working in Cyprus is try,try and try again. When i first came out here i had no choice but to take a seasonal job for 325.00 cyprus pounds per month which is roughly 500 euros working 10 hours 6 days a week in the sun, it was hard but i had a great time. I have had many jobs since that one but have been with my employer now for 4 years and actually love coming to work.

Welcome to our Forum Yummy & Sue & Adam.
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Hope you enjoy it here and stick around for awhile.


Andy:emoticon-signxmas: