Relocating with family and need a start

[zeebo]

Hello,

Firstly sorry if I am asking similar questions to previous posts but I have read quite a few and still find it hard to compare to my situation.

I have been offered a job in Nicosia starting in the new year with a full relocation package. It is an excellent company and I am sure i would love it there. I will be taking my wife and 3 children 7,6 and 2 out. I have looked at private schooling but couldn't pay 3 lots of fees (plus my UK mortgage until the house sells) so think i would be looking to send them to a greek school.

I would be very grateful if someone could perhaps recommend a place to rent. Ideally it would be a small village with a school and an nice Byzantine church and maybe some English families but not some kind of gated expat compound.

I have looked at other posts regarding salary and believe my offer is good (circa 50k Euros) but given the high rental costs I want to make sure we will be comfortable. I am not being greedy and have a basic lifestyle but as said above i could be carrying a £600pcm mortgage in the UK for a while.

Any help or recommendations you guys could give would be great, I was hoping to come to the UK and google everything but Cyprus doesn't have a good web presence and there is no rightmove and upmystreet ;-)

Please feel free to give me direct advice and recommendations as i really need some "inside help".. I completely understand that it is your opinion and will check it all out for myself, i just need a start.

I'm looking at Nicosia and Larnaca district but would prefer to stay out of city centres.

Many thanks, apologies if i have breached etiquette or repeated and i look forward to your help!

[BabsM]

Hi Zeebo. welcome to the forum.
There is no problem about asking questions... doing our best to answer them is what the Cyprus forum does!

50k is a good offer and a lot more than the average wage. You will be able to live comfortably on that, even with a mortgage in the UK if the children went to state schools but it could be tight if you were paying three lots of school fees, because it doesn't just stop at the fees. With the ages of your children they could be fluent in Greek very quickly and do well if they went to local schools.

With regard to location, how much commuting do you want to do each day? How close do you want to be to a town? There are lots of good areas between Nicosia and Larnaca and access is good if you using the Nicosia to Limassol and Nicosia to Larnaca motorways. Let me know how long/far you want to drive and I'll make some suggestions.

[theresoon]

Originally Posted by zeebo

Hello,

Firstly sorry if I am asking similar questions to previous posts but I have read quite a few and still find it hard to compare to my situation.

I have been offered a job in Nicosia starting in the new year with a full relocation package. It is an excellent company and I am sure i would love it there. I will be taking my wife and 3 children 7,6 and 2 out. I have looked at private schooling but couldn't pay 3 lots of fees (plus my UK mortgage until the house sells) so think i would be looking to send them to a greek school.

I would be very grateful if someone could perhaps recommend a place to rent. Ideally it would be a small village with a school and an nice Byzantine church and maybe some English families but not some kind of gated expat compound.

I have looked at other posts regarding salary and believe my offer is good (circa 50k Euros) but given the high rental costs I want to make sure we will be comfortable. I am not being greedy and have a basic lifestyle but as said above i could be carrying a £600pcm mortgage in the UK for a while.

Any help or recommendations you guys could give would be great, I was hoping to come to the UK and google everything but Cyprus doesn't have a good web presence and there is no rightmove and upmystreet ;-)

Please feel free to give me direct advice and recommendations as i really need some "inside help".. I completely understand that it is your opinion and will check it all out for myself, i just need a start.

I'm looking at Nicosia and Larnaca district but would prefer to stay out of city centres.

Many thanks, apologies if i have breached etiquette or repeated and i look forward to your help!

The offer is good (look InBusiness magazine KPMG salaries study). The taxes you'll pay on it don't compare to the UK.

Take advantage of the relocation package to bring everything from the UK.
I consider the rents here low but I came from New York City. I pay 700e a month for a 350sqm house with 4 bedrooms, the only negative is that it's not on the ground floor. I see it as temporary so I don't care that's on thew green line- actually it means it's really really quiet.

I like some villages on the way to Larnaca but bear in mind that there is a lot of traffic coming into Nicosia from that direction in the morning rush hour and out in the afternoon rush hour. On the positive side you'll be closer to the beach on the weekends.

Dina

[zeebo]

Thank you for your quick replies. It is so nice to be getting help as when i was out everyone was promising to help and now im back in the UK it has gone quiet (apparently this is a classic greek trait lol).

Ok i have no problem with commuting so would be willing to live anywhere within 45 minutes of nicosia. Traffic can be annoying but after doing the M6/M5 hell for years i don't think it will compare!

Dina - 700E does sound more like it as the only thing i seem to be able to get are holiday lets in paphos!

So the scope is:
- 45 minutes of nicosia
- Greek side
- beech distance doesn't really matter
- good local school (initially we will be a 1 car family and i will be commuting in it)
- Exposure to the local greek culture (we are Orthodox anyway so no probs there)

Thanks again for your help

[theresoon]

Originally Posted by zeebo

Thank you for your quick replies. It is so nice to be getting help as when i was out everyone was promising to help and now im back in the UK it has gone quiet (apparently this is a classic greek trait lol).

Ok i have no problem with commuting so would be willing to live anywhere within 45 minutes of nicosia. Traffic can be annoying but after doing the M6/M5 hell for years i don't think it will compare!

Dina - 700E does sound more like it as the only thing i seem to be able to get are holiday lets in paphos!

So the scope is:
- 45 minutes of nicosia
- Greek side
- beech distance doesn't really matter
- good local school (initially we will be a 1 car family and i will be commuting in it)
- Exposure to the local greek culture (we are Orthodox anyway so no probs there)

Thanks again for your help

1.Where in Nicosia will your job be? Make a big difference as it takes me 30min to go from my house to Aglanjia for instance.
2. If you have two cars bring both, since company pays. It will be very hard to be stuck with no 2nd car. We lasted for about 2 weeks after my husband got a job. Unless of course your wife can drop you off and pick you up when she needs to use the car. remember there is hardly any public transport here.
3.I know about good schools within Nicosia not the outside villages.
4. About the rent you have to be a bit flexible. I wanted to be in another neighborhood not far from here but the rents were around 1200e for much smaller houses but with yard, but seeing that this is only temporary till we buy or build, I couldn't justify the difference.

and finally don't take offers for help too seriously. lol. Although you could ask them again and again, they won't mind and someone might actually help.lol

[zeebo]

Hi,

The office is on Archbishop Makarios III Avenue. I don't know which district it is in but i walked into the centre in no time.

I do have 2 cars by my second is a 10 year old honda civic and it has had it lol.. Would it be a good idea to quickly replace it now? I have heard there are problems if you try to inport one you haven't owned for 2 years or something?

I'm willing to go upto about 850 Euros a month for the rent,, maybe 900 but i don't wan't outgoings to be too high.

Thanks

[BabsM]

You should have no trouble finding villas with pools in the villages around Larnaca for that kind of money.

[kimonas]

Originally Posted by BabsM

You should have no trouble finding villas with pools in the villages around Larnaca for that kind of money.

The problem with living in Larnaca and comuting into the city Centre (you can't get more central than Makarios III) is going to be the horrendous traffic. I commute in the opposite direction living in Nicosia and working in Larnaca - which is a 30 minute drive and I always feel sorry for the people stuck in the huge tail backs on the opposite side of the road. When I worked in Nicosia a couple of years ago it could easily take 1.5 to 2 hours to get into the city centre from our house on the outskirts, you could add probably another half hour to that if you were joining the tailbacks from the main highway. Just a thought. Traffic normally is not an issue outside of the rush hour, but it only takes one tailgate smash to snarl the whole system up (as local regulations dictate that cars cannot be moved however slight the damage until the police arrive - and they're inevitably stuck a few miles back in the tailback). As Cyprus is not renowned for its careful drivers, this happens on a daily basis. I've been comuting now for two years, and it is a very rare day indeed not to witness a major prang and tailback on the motorway coming into Nicosia.

[theresoon]

As Cyprus is not renowned for its careful drivers, this happens on a daily basis. I've been comuting now for two years, and it is a very rare day indeed not to witness a major prang and tailback on the motorway coming into Nicosia.

Coming from Larnaca one Monday morning I saw 3 accidents on the way. I told my husband this shouldn't surprise us as they don't seem to know the meaning of defensive driving here. I don't know the regulations about cars either. Actually the prices for new cars have come down drastically. But I would say do look into it as it will be impossible without a second car.

[zeebo]

Thanks everyone. I was aware the traffic was bad but that does sound nasty! Had a few tips and areas include:

Nicosia - Lakatamia
Larnaca - Voroklini, Kiti, Mazotos, Aradippou, Pervolia, Livadhia
Limassol - Zygi, Chirokitia, Kalavasos

Any thoughts?