# Moving to Corfu



## paddybear (Feb 6, 2014)

Hello, I am recently retired and I have been giving serious thought to moving abroad. I have no ties in UK and have been looking at the possibilities for some time. I have come to the thought that Corfu might be just what I am looking for and I have been looking at the information available on the internet. It is very helpful but, there is no substitute for talking to people who have already done it. I wonder, would anybody be prepared to chat to a novice like me and answer some of the "basic" questions. I would be extremely grateful.
Thanks in advance.
Paddy


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## Kevan Bailey (Jan 5, 2014)

Like you, we’re (early!) retired and felt that we’d like to start up somewhere else. Some friends of ours sold up and moved out to Lesvos two years ago; we went to visit in September 2012 and we liked the place and the people so much that by February 2013 we’d bought a place there ourselves.

We think we’ve been fairly level headed about the whole enterprise. Alright, the decision to buy was pretty much on the spot, but we loved the house and it was in a fantastic condition – a 4-storey town house just restored, new plumbing and electrics, just a bit of finishing-off to do. This meant we were able to create exactly the home we wanted.

We deliberately chose a location with an excellent infrastructure: good transport links, shops, a health centre, everything to support life as we know it. Our town, Plomari, doesn’t rely much on tourism but on its own industries: fishing, olives and ouzo. Everyone is wonderful and we already feel accepted; our Greek is terrible (but we’re learning) and we have some terrific conversations with all our neighbours where nobody really understands anyone else, but everyone smiles and laughs and we all get on with it.

We’ve kept our home in the UK as we don’t feel ready to make the break yet. This probably has its advantages and disadvantages, but we just like the idea of not losing this foothold.

We have a Greek tax number and a bank account, and we’ve found that we’ve got huge amounts of helpful advice from our bank manager and the estate agent who managed our house purchase – it’s a bit different over there, the agent works on behalf of both the buyer and the seller and you both seem to get a good deal. I can’t stress enough how important it is to have someone local on your side; ok, so they’ll probably point you towards their friends if you’re looking for someone to do a job for you, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

We’re still not sure what to do about transport. At the moment we insure our “Greek” car through Saga to get unlimited cover abroad and we drive down in spring and back to the UK in autumn. It’s probably an expensive way of doing it, but cars are very expensive to buy and run in Greece. We paid £1500 in the UK for a very decent Freelander which would have cost about €7000 on the island. We’re only supposed to keep it in the country for 6 months at a time but nobody seems bothered about it, and if they are, we’ll just take it on the €30 day trip to Turkey and start our 6 months all over again!

We come and go throughout the year, taking cheap flights between the UK and the island. You can get some real bargains: Mytilene to London for £26

The cost of living isn’t really any different than in the UK; obviously some things are dearer, but the price of food, water and electricity is a bit less. Fuel is about the same, as is fast broadband. Eating out is very reasonable and we do it a lot more than we do in Britain.

That’s our experience, then. Nothing bad’s happened yet, and if it does we feel fairly well equipped to deal with it. We have no regrets for doing what some of our friends consider absolutely barking what with the Greek economy, Golden Dawn, 2000 miles away and Afghan refugees landing on the beach – but you never know, do you?


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## paddybear (Feb 6, 2014)

Many thanks for the helpful messages. I really appreciate you sharing your experiences, in fact, it makes me even more determined to make the move!


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