# moving to SA



## fluff (Sep 18, 2013)

Hi my wife my son and I are looking to move to jo'burg asap.
We have begun the process. 
My wife is South African and basically we are all fed up with the UK.
We have approx £95k to cover everything. With R1000000 for a property.
The idea is that with a house paid for we wouldn't have to worry about large salaries.
I would really appreciate any constructive comments.


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## LegalMan (Dec 26, 2012)

You and your son can receive Relative's Permits since your wife is South Africa. Yours will be a Spousal Permit and you can apply for a work endorsement on it once you find work and sign a contract. Your son may need a Study Permit (I don't know his age).

PS: My two cents on the house: A house for R1m is going to be very, very small or in a poorer area.


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## fluff (Sep 18, 2013)

LegalMan said:


> You and your son can receive Relative's Permits since your wife is South Africa. Yours will be a Spousal Permit and you can apply for a work endorsement on it once you find work and sign a contract. Your son may need a Study Permit (I don't know his age).
> 
> PS: My two cents on the house: A house for R1m is going to be very, very small or in a poorer area.


Many thanks for the reply. 
Hope our R1000000 stretches far enough!


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## shumifan49 (Sep 18, 2013)

I am looking at returning to South Africa and have done a bit of digging to look at cost of living.
R1m will not go far towards buying a house, search some property websites.
My monthly expense analysis came up with R15k per month for basic standing costs(excluding accomodation) to cover health care, insurance, water and lights and council tax, DSTV (like Sky), but no internet. If you dont buy a house, rent seems in the region of R7k(not most desirable areas) upwards.
Internet varies between R300 (capped,1MBit/s) to R2000 per month(uncapped, 10MBit/s).
You WILL need a car as public transport is nothing like in the UK and that can cost upwards of R50k for a used car and fuel is approaching UK prices.

So I would suggest saving a bit more before moving.

NOTE. If you move your furniture/car it looks like costing £8000+(20 foot container), but it depends on how much you move. It might be an option as you get very little for used stuff here in the UK.


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## fluff (Sep 18, 2013)

Many thanks for the reply. 
Wish we had some more cash but thats it.!


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## shumifan49 (Sep 18, 2013)

If this is not allowed,I appologise, but a place to start is property24.co.za. You will get some idea of house prices.


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## fluff (Sep 18, 2013)

I know the site. My wife's brother lives in a suburb of jhb called northcliff.
We hope to find something in randpark ridge,allansnek,roodepoort,weltevreden park .
Where are you hoping to go?


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## shumifan49 (Sep 18, 2013)

I would like to buy the house next to my brother that is in the market in Horison View Roodepoort=R2m, but itmight be sold by the time I have sorted out visas etc(see other post). You have to be careful where you buy as there are many squatter camps and crime tends to be high close to them, but get advice from your contacts down there always being aware that they might give you optimistic assesments to encourage you to move (I know LOL).


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## fluff (Sep 18, 2013)

Will do.


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## fluff (Sep 18, 2013)

How do you 3dit a post?


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## hedgehog1 (Sep 21, 2013)

Hi. I'm also hoping to move to SA from UK with my children (teen & adult) and also will have about the same amount of money to take as you guys.
What about renting for a short time thereby being able to look around areas and prices before deciding on the house you want to buy. Perhaps put your money down as 3/4 of the payment thus leaving only a small amount as mortgage/balance which you can easily cope with.
Jo'burg is an expensive area - would it be possible to live slightly outside this area as it may be cheaper?
I was informed that I can get a 5 yr working visa for my children which will be a great start and give us time to sort ourselves out and find out more about how things work before we have finalise that bit too.
As for taking you goods out, the other person wrote about the costs - perhaps you may think about paying for part of a container load - sharing a container or paying by cubic foot - that's what I did when we moved to the UK from Zimbabwe. You don't have to know the other person/s you share with - the company sorts that out. 
Another thought - cars are very expensive to buy there, so if you are going to take a container, perhaps include your own vehicle.
So much to think about, but because my family and cousins are all there and loving it, its obviously worth the effort!
Good luck and hope your plans go well.


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## fluff (Sep 18, 2013)

Thanks for the reply. 
Think your right about having a small mortgage. 
Good luck and hope your plans work out.


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## shumifan49 (Sep 18, 2013)

Read around the web about part containers; and bear inmind that a part container to the UK is not the same as a part container to South Africa; it seems more things go 'missing' to RSA than the other way around.


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## fluff (Sep 18, 2013)

I've heard that.


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## John Gambarana (Jan 18, 2012)

With regard to buying a property, the smart money says wait a while and get a feel for the real estate market in Johannesburg. Rather rent a place for a 6 month to 12 month lease and find your feet and develop a sense of where you will be working and where your son will go to school and other settlement factors.
As one comment said earlier, the R1miil is not going to go far unless you are using it as a hefty deposit with a low repayment scheme.


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## jamesjones (Oct 30, 2013)

Does Anyone know if you can work beyond the 20 hours a week if it is voluntary in terms of a study Visa?

Many thanks =)


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## LegalMan (Dec 26, 2012)

If there is a way for you to not count it as work, then yes.


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## Saartjie (Mar 1, 2010)

fluff said:


> Many thanks for the reply.
> Wish we had some more cash but thats it.!


For what it's worth. I have just moved into our new property which we purchased for R1.1M. Admittedly it is outside Johannesburg (about 30 mins) but the property is huge (4bedrooms, three living rooms, two bathrooms) with a pool, five garages, one additional 3 bedroom house which we rent out (which covers 3/4 of our bond repayment) and its all on a 2400 sqm land. Not everyone want to travel 30 mins extra in the morning but we dont mind as we get to go home to something we love every day.

Before we bought the house we looked at many many many houses (got sick of it in the end to be honest) all over Johannesburg and lots of houses were 1M or just below or just above. It totally depends where you want to live and obviously most of the Northern Suburbs will be out of the question as property is very expensive there but I think I saw some of your suggested areas in a post below and you should be able to find something fairly decent for 1M.

I just wanted to let you know that you do not have to live in a bad area or in a minature house for 1M. You just need to look around and I am sure you will find something that you like for that money. But yes, your selection will be slightly limited.

Saartjie


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## jamesjones (Oct 30, 2013)

LegalMan said:


> If there is a way for you to not count it as work, then yes.


Thanks for your response, but how do you not count work as work? LOL Does work = services rendered for remuneration, or services rendered.


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## MissGlobal (Aug 4, 2012)

Saartjie - that's a very good point about how far your money can stretch.


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## LegalMan (Dec 26, 2012)

@jamesjones - As someone offering legal advice on the Internet, I think that is up to you. The question is, do you have to tell anyone that you are working?


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## hedgehog1 (Sep 21, 2013)

Hi.
You can always use your cash as a large deposit - then you'll only have a small mortgage to pay off.
My sister lived in weltevreden park for years and was very happy there. On another site, I noticed that someone had bought what sounded like a lovely,large 4 bedroom house with pool etc that sounded wonderful. As far as I can recall, I'm pretty sure they paid around R1m and said it was because it was not right in the town centre. Perhaps you can look into this as an option?
PS - not sure how to edit, but sure you can find a way if you perhaps go onto your 'account' or something? I've just visited SA to do a recon and found Seeff Property people to be wonderfully helpful and also have a lot of properties online to view.
Good luck

Good luck


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