Cost of living in South Cyprus

tammy123 · #1 (**permalink**) 27th March 2008, 07:33 PM

My husband and myself are hoping to move out to Cyprus in Spring 2009. We want to buy a stone house to renovate and will have a budget of around £85,000 stg to buy and renovate. We have had an apartment in Kato Paphos and then bought a house nr Limassol. We have now sold the house and are looking for a house to renovate when we come over in October for 2 weeks.

We plan to start our own business in property management/maintenance as we have had alot of experience due to having the apartment and house. We always had trouble finding someone reliable, that would carry out cleaning to the agreed standard, that includes expats and Cypriot!!

While we build the business up we will have a budget of 900 eur a month to live on for 12 months. We won't have rent to pay and it will be just the 2 of us. Hopefully, we will start to earn money within 6 months of moving over.

Can anyone give me any advise as to whether 900 eur a month would be enough to live on initially? Or any other advice?

Many thanks

yummymummy150 · #2 (**permalink**) 27th March 2008, 09:11 PM

Tammy have a look at the link at the bottem of this post there is a page with livining costs .There is always things you dont think of or happen so good to have rainny day fund.

roniebabes · #3 (**permalink**) 28th March 2008, 12:38 PM

Please don't do it!!!! i just left Cyprus after 2 yrs, beautiful country but boy do they rip teh ex-pats off. If you go out with money and do not need to work you are ok but I needed to, i am a teacher and got a job at an International School there - to get paid less than the tax threshold and to work in filth with 'teachers' who wern't teachers - in paphos - they had literally got some of them off the streets - school is disgusting and not licensed so if you are needing a school for children - please beware!
There are hundreds of companies doing what you want to do in paphos but do not let you put you off! Cost of living has gone through the roof but I am sure you will love living there - just be careful with schools! I do have useful contacts and friends out there if you are interested - just be careful!

tammy123 · #4 (**permalink**) 28th March 2008, 01:44 PM

Roniebabes

Fortunately, our children are now adults and will be staying in the UK, so I won't need to look at schools. The apartment we had was in Kato Paphos and I take your point that there are alot of businesses offering that kind of service in the Paphos area. We shall probably stay near the Limassol or Polis/Latchi area. We don't really like the Paphos area now too many expats!!

I also can provide a service making curtains,voiles, cushion covers and bedspreads, something which I found difficult to find at a reasonable price and that weren't old fashioned, when I set up the house! My only problem might be sourcing somewhere that could supply materials.

roniebabes · #5 (**permalink**) 28th March 2008, 01:51 PM

Sorry I've just re-read and seen that you do not have school-aged children! I don't blame you for not going to Paphos, everything is so expensive and I am sure that the in the areas you have chosen that you will have a good quality of life!
Good luck to you - I am off to Spain soon - can't wait - I have a job at a propar school! God Bless!

tammy123 · #6 (**permalink**) 28th March 2008, 03:11 PM

Hi Roniebabes
We're hoping that if we go to the less "little England" areas of Cyprus such as Limassol and Polis we will have a better chance of things working out for us!
Good luck in Spain and hope everything works out for you!

davey50 · #7 (**permalink**) 29th March 2008, 05:17 AM

Tammy,
You won't get an old stone place for renovation for the price quoted.!
Why would you want to come to Cyprus and be ripped off by a likely property/building/lawyer scam!

My advice....rent out here and see what the problems are. Life in the sun is not always so good and I can't wait to get out of the place.
You can pm me for more details.

yummymummy150 · #8 (**permalink**) 29th March 2008, 07:39 AM

Sorry you are not happy Davy, But 1000 are there are con men scams world wide ,and uk . Cyprus is small and when something goes wrong it seems bigger.
All i can say is take time reserch well . And yes things can go wrong but that can happen enywhere.

davey50 · #9 (**permalink**) 29th March 2008, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yummymummy150

Sorry you are not happy Davy, But 1000 are there are con men scams world wide ,and uk . Cyprus is small and when something goes wrong it seems bigger.
All i can say is take time reserch well . And yes things can go wrong but that can happen enywhere.

Yummymummy,
Suggest you read the post again! I am not at all unhappy and am leaving Cyprus for personal reasons.
It's nonsense to suggest that because Cyprus is small, any problems that befall it appear to be large. Try explaining that logic to someone who has lost their life savings to some seriously corrupt property developer and NO, it does NOT happen in the UK!

Yes, take your time with research and don't be imprudent in accepting local ways.

tammy123 · #10 (**permalink**) 29th March 2008, 12:52 PM

Dave,
I'm sorry you have had such a bad time in Cyprus. Personally speaking we have not had a problem with either builders/developpers or lawyers and have always been dealt with in an honest and professional way, both when we bought the apartment and the house. We found that the main problem in Cyprus which we are not used to in the UK is the manyana attitude and you do have to keep pestering to get things done, which isn't easy when you are in the UK. The builder that constructed our house was great to work with and we had no problems and any snagging that needed to be done was carried out within about 2 months of the build. The only problem we did have was with an English couple that did rent our property for 6 months and totally ripped us off i.e. only paying 2 months rent and then doing a runner. The only other people that we had problems with was again English couple who did the property management for us again, they did not do the job properly that they were paid to do. So the problems we encountered were not with Cypriots but with English people. Hence us wanting to set up a "quality" property management service. As Yummymummy says there are people all over the world that want to rip you off given the chance. As seen on documentaries in the UK there are plenty of rougue builders and con men around and you have to be on your guard with anyone no matter how honest and plausible they seem to be and as you say do your research.

Regarding the stone house we are in touch with an agent in Limassol, who does come across properties for that price even though they are becoming rarer nowadays. So hopefully we can find something for around the price we are looking for.

I will PM you aswell always good to know the potential pitfalls and experiences other people have had.