# Cost of Living



## Gladders (Feb 10, 2009)

Hi everyone,
Since entry in to the EU has the cost of living in Cyprus risen very much?
What would you consider the minimum annual income required to keep 2 people,
excluding rental costs but running a small vehicle.

Any advice on moving and living in Cyprus will be much appreciated.

Thanks Paul and Sylvia


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

Gladders said:


> Hi everyone,
> Since entry in to the EU has the cost of living in Cyprus risen very much?
> What would you consider the minimum annual income required to keep 2 people,
> excluding rental costs but running a small vehicle.
> ...


Hi,
Yes the cost of living has risen considerably.
In order to have any sort of life at all you will need at least 25-30.000euros.
That is taking it easy, not going out for meals more than once a week and not drinking or smoking excessively.

Veronica


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## Gladders (Feb 10, 2009)

Thanks for your quick reply Veronica.


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## tammy123 (Mar 27, 2008)

Veronica said:


> Hi,
> Yes the cost of living has risen considerably.
> In order to have any sort of life at all you will need at least 25-30.000euros.
> That is taking it easy, not going out for meals more than once a week and not drinking or smoking excessively.
> ...


That seems very high? Does it really cost that much to live in Cyprus now? Could anyone give me an idea of general electric, water, rates, mobile phone costs? We are hoping to moving over this year. We will be setting up a holiday home/pool cleaning business. We have had a holiday apt and then a villa which we sold a couple years ago, so we have had alot of experience good, but unfortunately mostly bad! of people looking after our property. We don't intend to put people through the problems we had of unreliable people supposedly looking after our property! Hopefully, high standards will give us a good client base?


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## Gladders (Feb 10, 2009)

I have had a bit of info sent to me Tammy that may be of use regarding rates for a Town House.
£140 a year General rates £20 a quarter for water rates.

Sylvia.


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## BabsM (May 24, 2008)

I think that is high. We have a fraction of what Veronica says you need and are managing. But we rarely go out, we don't smoke and hardly drink. When we entertain we do it in our home. We don't have children at private schools either


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

BabsM said:


> I think that is high. We have a fraction of what Veronica says you need and are managing. But we rarely go out, we don't smoke and hardly drink. When we entertain we do it in our home. We don't have children at private schools either



I think maybe my estimate was a little bit high , I was going on what we need but that includes the fact that we have expenses as we have a company and I hadnt taken that into account.
That aside, it has become more expensive to live here than the UK especially if you have children.


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## Gladders (Feb 10, 2009)

Thanks for the replies it's interesting to hear peoples views.
Can anyone advise us on a good carrier to use to transport our 2 Cocker Spaniels to Cyprus from England and any to avoid. Has anyone any good or bad experiences with transporting their pets??


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

Gladders said:


> Thanks for the replies it's interesting to hear peoples views.
> Can anyone advise us on a good carrier to use to transport our 2 Cocker Spaniels to Cyprus from England and any to avoid. Has anyone any good or bad experiences with transporting their pets??


Try Jet set pets.
We used them to bring our pets over and friends used them for their two cocker spaniels.
We found them to be very helpful and also their quotes were a lot lower than others we tried. In fact we brought both our pet over for the price that other compaines quoted for just one of them. (It still cost us more than our own airfares though)


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

tammy123 said:


> That seems very high? Does it really cost that much to live in Cyprus now? Could anyone give me an idea of general electric, water, rates, mobile phone costs? We are hoping to moving over this year. We will be setting up a holiday home/pool cleaning business. We have had a holiday apt and then a villa which we sold a couple years ago, so we have had alot of experience good, but unfortunately mostly bad! of people looking after our property. We don't intend to put people through the problems we had of unreliable people supposedly looking after our property! Hopefully, high standards will give us a good client base?


Every second british couple who comes over intends to start a property managment company.
If you intend to start a legitimate business doing it you will be competing with dozens and dozens of 'retired' couples who found they cant manage on their pensions so are doing a bit of pool cleaning and property management on the side.
With the downturn in holiday home rentals I am afraid that you will find it extremely difficult to make a decent living.

Veronica

Just out of interest we have been talking today to a couple who have givien up on pool cleaning because there are too many problems involved and not much money to be out of it.


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## tammy123 (Mar 27, 2008)

I'm afraid I can't really agree with you Veronica regarding property management and pool care. We have friends in Pissouri who have more pools than they can cope with as they provide a quality professional service. We aim to provide a professional service set up as a business not 'a bit of pool cleaning and property management on the side'. I have just looked at the Owners Direct site and the holiday rental market looks fairly healthy. I think going about it in the right way and doing the correct marketing and website etc and using the contacts we already have in Cyprus we should be able to build up a clientele.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

tammy123 said:


> I'm afraid I can't really agree with you Veronica regarding property management and pool care. We have friends in Pissouri who have more pools than they can cope with as they provide a quality professional service. We aim to provide a professional service set up as a business not 'a bit of pool cleaning and property management on the side'. I have just looked at the Owners Direct site and the holiday rental market looks fairly healthy. I think going about it in the right way and doing the correct marketing and website etc and using the contacts we already have in Cyprus we should be able to build up a clientele.


I hope it works out for you tammy. As long as you have done your homework and go about things in a professional manner perhaps you will make it work where others havnt been able to.
good luck


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## yummymummy150 (Sep 8, 2007)

All the best Tammy,Looks like you have done the ground work . all new business are a risk where ever you are.(MORE SO AT THIS TIME). If cyprus is where you want to be its worth having a go .
All the best 
Tricia


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## francisbl (Jan 25, 2009)

trying to find out can i have bar on my own with out a cyprus partner


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

francisbl said:


> trying to find out can i have bar on my own with out a cyprus partner


Yes you can but things are much easier if you have a Cypriot partner to smooth out the bumps and things.


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## Arranexpat (Aug 17, 2008)

I just worked out our monthly spend for Danny. We're a couple, no kids and a high double income. We're spending around 3500 a month here's the monthly breakdown:

1200 rent; fully furnished 3 bed villa with private pool and uninterupted seaview. 
252 electric; this is low as we're very tight with the heating
28 water
58 Landline phone & Broadband; Only 18 EUR of that is calls, call to UK are cheap
600 Food; Food is about 40% more than the UK if you shop in supermarkets
200 Petrol; it's about 40 EUR to fill a 2 litre tank
600 Going out is cheap, we just like a nice meal at least once a week and then there's the pub quiz, odd night out.
40 round of golf
20 Ironing; big bag of ironing including sheets
50 Cleaner
80 Pool Cleaner

A bottle of branded spirits is 11.50 in local shop 15.00 for a crate of 12 630ml bottles of Carlsberg. Imported wine is a bit more than the UK, the local wine is reasonable, depends on your tastes. Don't buy alcahol from the supermarket if you're on a budget, if you shop around locally you'll find somewhere much cheaper
I don't smoke but ciggarettes are about half the price of the UK

Electrical goods and clothes are also much more expensive as there are high import tax. 

Cars are much more expensive than the UK now and they don't depreciate as fast. It's also expensive to import a car if you are working. I looked at importing our cars and it was going to cost about 7000 tax each so we bought cars here. A long term rent for an 1800 engine is about 400 pcm in the winter.

Rents are dropping rapidly. You can get a nice 2 bed appt with shared pool and sea view for 4-600 depending on where you want to live.

Going out needent be expensive. Mezze for 2 is about 24-29 EUR drinks are about 1.50 for vodka & coke.

you will need a months deposit on rent, 150 cash deposit for phone plus 108 set up cost. A lot of people don't bother with land lines as mobile calls are cheap but we wanted broadband.

Ask about water rationing and broadband when you are house hunting. A lot of areas still don't have broadband and some parts of Limassol have very strict water rationing. I've heard of people staying up all night to get their laundry done and washing in a bucket. This is not the case everywhere!

You can get by on 3000 a month.

Hope that helps.


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