# A few more questions to help with our move



## RMcC (Dec 31, 2013)

It is amazing how plans seem to change the closer you get to making the move. We are now starting to get a plan in place to prepare for our move to Cyprus in May, we had the letting agent come and assess our property yesterday and as a result our plan to leave the UK property fully furnished has now changed as we have been advised the property is more suited to a family who in most cases Will have their own furniture. 
In an earlier post I asked about what furniture and household goods we should consider bringing to Cyprus as we intend to rent furnished when we arrive, the advice from most on the forum give us a real good idea of what we needed to bring but things have now changed as a result of the visit by the letting agent yesterday. The big question for us now is do we go for a full removal service and look for unfurnished on arrival in Cyprus or just sell the big items (beds, suite etc) here and buy when we arrive if required, or continue with our plans to go for furnished when we arrive. Can anyone please give an indication on costs in Cyprus to purchase the big items when we arrive or would it be better to go for a full removal service and bring everything with us.
I suspect the best option is to sell the big items here and if we can't find a furnished/part furnished villa on arrival we can buy when we get there.
As always any advice from you guys living there would be greatly appreciated.

A couple more questions in this post, 
1. I was given details of Simon Emery to contact about the purchase of a car, I have emailed on 3 occasions but had no response, the email address I have been using is [email protected], is this his correct address?
2. As we will need to purchase private medical insurance due to not being of state pension age, is it a pretty quick process when we arrive or should we try to arrange it before arriving in Cyprus?
3. It will be essential we have Internet access in any property when rent, are there any areas we should avoid due to no internet access being available. What is the availability of fibre optic in Cyprus?

Thanks for now but many more questions to come in the new year

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## expatme (Dec 4, 2013)

RMcC said:


> It is amazing how plans seem to change the closer you get to making the move. We are now starting to get a plan in place to prepare for our move to Cyprus in May, we had the letting agent come and assess our property yesterday and as a result our plan to leave the UK property fully furnished has now changed as we have been advised the property is more suited to a family who in most cases Will have their own furniture.
> In an earlier post I asked about what furniture and household goods we should consider bringing to Cyprus as we intend to rent furnished when we arrive, the advice from most on the forum give us a real good idea of what we needed to bring but things have now changed as a result of the visit by the letting agent yesterday. The big question for us now is do we go for a full removal service and look for unfurnished on arrival in Cyprus or just sell the big items (beds, suite etc) here and buy when we arrive if required, or continue with our plans to go for furnished when we arrive. Can anyone please give an indication on costs in Cyprus to purchase the big items when we arrive or would it be better to go for a full removal service and bring everything with us.
> I suspect the best option is to sell the big items here and if we can't find a furnished/part furnished villa on arrival we can buy when we get there.
> As always any advice from you guys living there would be greatly appreciated.
> ...


That is the correct email address for Simon. PM me with your email address if you would like me to get him to send you an email as I am seeing him tomorrow.


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## David_&_Letitia (Jul 8, 2012)

Hi!

We finally made the move here at the end of October, and went through a similar thought process as you did with regard to letting out our UK property. There are so many factors to take into account, and as each situation is different, you will have to tailor all responses to your particular circumstances.

As far as we were concerned, we decided to rent our property in the UK unfurnished and look for an unfurnished property in Cyprus for various reasons, but the 2 biggest factors were:

1. Generally speaking, a tenant in the UK who rents an unfurnished property is likely to be more stable and is therefore more likely to stay put when the tenancy agreement is due for renewal.

2. We felt that it was important to have our own furniture in a rented house here in order to make it our home. The alternative is to live in someone else's home and live with their taste in furnishings etc.

There are far more furnished properties for long term let in Cyprus than there are unfurnished, as we were to discover when we were looking for a long term rental property here in September. Although some Landlords may agree to de-furnish a house, not all will do so. We were fortunate in our eventual choice of property which was fully furnished, but our landlord (a Cypriot) agreed to remove his furniture in order to accommodate us. I'm not sure that a UK landlord would be in a position to do so. Most long term rental properties here, whether furnished or unfurnished, come with white goods supplied which was essential for us, as the kitchen of our UK property was fully integrated.

We did some sums regarding the value of our furniture and the cost of relocating it all to Cyprus and found that it was worth the expense, rather than skimping on removals and buying new here. This became more obvious when we had our insurance estimate for shipping as all items had to be valued. As we did not need to buy new furniture here, I can't give you a definitive answer regarding the costs, but generally speaking for new furniture it is more expensive than the UK. Even IKEA furniture here is substantially more expensive than IKEA UK (you can check and compare for yourself on the web).

I'm not sure what your plans are regarding a car, but for us, the difference in cost between a 20ft container and a 40ft container was around £1,500 which resulted in a saving for us of having to buy a car here. Just another factor to take into account.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.


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## Talagirl (Feb 24, 2013)

When I originally contacted Simon at Deals on Wheels I used the Contact Form on his website:

Simon Emery's Deals On Wheels - Care Care Tips - Full Service from 99 Euros

As a result within 24 hours he had located the vehicle which we bought the following day! A year on we are very impressed with the after sales service.


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## debs21 (Mar 13, 2013)

Hi, I have to say as regards to bringing over your furniture etc we did the opposite. We initially planned to come for a year or so to see how things went workwise and generaly adapting to a different way of life. We left our property in the U.K part-furnished(our daughter moved out at the same time and took the 3 piece and some beds). This included all crockery/cutlery etc and white goods. We have a great tenant who re-news for year to year. Here we have rented a previous holiday let, which had everything here down to teaspoons. In time we have replaced items and added our own personal touches.The furniture is not ours obviously but is to our taste. We sold one of our cars in the UK and bought one here when we arrived having rented a car initially to view potential cars! This worked well for us, but each to their own.


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## RMcC (Dec 31, 2013)

debs21 said:


> Hi, I have to say as regards to bringing over your furniture etc we did the opposite. We initially planned to come for a year or so to see how things went workwise and generaly adapting to a different way of life. We left our property in the U.K part-furnished(our daughter moved out at the same time and took the 3 piece and some beds). This included all crockery/cutlery etc and white goods. We have a great tenant who re-news for year to year. Here we have rented a previous holiday let, which had everything here down to teaspoons. In time we have replaced items and added our own personal touches.The furniture is not ours obviously but is to our taste. We sold one of our cars in the UK and bought one here when we arrived having rented a car initially to view potential cars! This worked well for us, but each to their own.


 many thanks, 

It would appear the best option may be middle of the road and bring the items of furniture that will help make any rented accommodation more homely. All the information is very helpful and it is helping our decision making process as we get to the time to make the big calls.

I would be grateful if someone could advise on the medical insurance question I posted.

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## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

I doubt you can successfully deal with medical insurance before you arrive here. They will most likely require you to attend medicals and also pay the full years premium before even processing your application giving you a 30 day refund option when the policy is issued. It is at that stage you find out whatever exclusion clauses they have decided on.

A clumsy way of doing things as are many over here.

Pete


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## RMcC (Dec 31, 2013)

PeteandSylv said:


> I doubt you can successfully deal with medical insurance before you arrive here. They will most likely require you to attend medicals and also pay the full years premium before even processing your application giving you a 30 day refund option when the policy is issued. It is at that stage you find out whatever exclusion clauses they have decided on. A clumsy way of doing things as are many over here. Pete


Pete

Thanks, that does sound a pretty strange way to go about getting an insurance policy but if that's the way it is in Cyprus we just go with the flow. How quickly can a policy be arranged and does it impact on gaining residency? do they offer joint policies as we are both under state pension age?

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## expatme (Dec 4, 2013)

I am not sure but believe that if you had a private medical insurance from UK such as BUPA you may be covered. It might be worth contacting them to find out,

When we moved here the procedure was as follows; We decided to use Alpha Medical Ins and they arranged the medical exam. This was a simple examination and the cover was offered. It was a joint cover for me and my wife. 

Most banks do Med Ins cover. You have to have a bank account for residency as well as Medical insurance.


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## Baywatch (Mar 30, 2014)

RMcC said:


> Pete
> 
> Thanks, that does sound a pretty strange way to go about getting an insurance policy but if that's the way it is in Cyprus we just go with the flow. How quickly can a policy be arranged and does it impact on gaining residency? do they offer joint policies as we are both under state pension age?
> 
> Sent from my iPad using ExpatForum


You can wait with your application for residency 90 days and in that time you will have your medical insurance solved.

I saw you asked before about fiber optic for Internet in Cyprus and to my knowledge it does not exist anywhere. We have a very limited area that has Cable Internet. Internet in general is far behind most of the EU countries


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## RMcC (Dec 31, 2013)

Baywatch said:


> You can wait with your application for residency 90 days and in that time you will have your medical insurance solved. I saw you asked before about fiber optic for Internet in Cyprus and to my knowledge it does not exist anywhere. We have a very limited area that has Cable Internet. Internet in general is far behind most of the EU countries


Many thanks, I was forgetting we had a 90 day period to resolve our residency. Thanks for the update on fibre, it is what I was expecting and not a real issue as I suspect most areas will have broadband and an acceptable level. No real change for me as I am currently in an area in Scotland not covered by fibre optic.

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## RMcC (Dec 31, 2013)

expatme said:


> I am not sure but believe that if you had a private medical insurance from UK such as BUPA you may be covered. It might be worth contacting them to find out, When we moved here the procedure was as follows; We decided to use Alpha Medical Ins and they arranged the medical exam. This was a simple examination and the cover was offered. It was a joint cover for me and my wife. Most banks do Med Ins cover. You have to have a bank account for residency as well as Medical insurance.


I did have cover with BUPA provided as part of my company package, just looked online for a quote and it is extremely high, I will just wait until we get to Cyprus and look for a suitable joint policy. Had a quick look on the Alpha site but they don't list any details of medical insurance - it was a very quick look and I may have to look in a bit more detail to find their levels of cover

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## David_&_Letitia (Jul 8, 2012)

RMcC said:


> I did have cover with BUPA provided as part of my company package, just looked online for a quote and it is extremely high, I will just wait until we get to Cyprus and look for a suitable joint policy. Had a quick look on the Alpha site but they don't list any details of medical insurance - it was a very quick look and I may have to look in a bit more detail to find their levels of cover
> 
> Sent from my iPad using ExpatForum


There are 2 major insurance brokers in Paphos who provide medical insurance (and incidentally, car insurance and house contents insurance). They are Atlantic and Abbeygate. Check these links:

Atlantic Insurance Company ? One of the leading General Insurance Companies in Cyprus

Insurance in Cyprus, Motor, home, Car, House, Marine, home insurance Cyprus, Motor insurance Cyprus


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## David_&_Letitia (Jul 8, 2012)

Costs clearly depend on the level of cover, the excess you are willing to accept and your ages. Whilst the premiums may still seem high (but nowhere near BUPA levels), you need to think of the long term savings overall. Once you register for tax in Cyprus, you will pay substantially less over 12 months than you would in the UK, and even when you factor in the medical insurance premiums, you will be better off.


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## RMcC (Dec 31, 2013)

David_&_Letitia said:


> Costs clearly depend on the level of cover, the excess you are willing to accept and your ages. Whilst the premiums may still seem high (but nowhere near BUPA levels), you need to think of the long term savings overall. Once you register for tax in Cyprus, you will pay substantially less over 12 months than you would in the UK, and even when you factor in the medical insurance premiums, you will be better off.


Many thanks, this is very helpful and much appreciated. I need to look into the payment of tax in Cyprus but I suspect that is something I can discuss with the appropriate accountant or tax advisor once we get settled in Cyprus.

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## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

I would also suggest contacting Topquotes who have provided me with excellent service. 

Tel: (00 357) 26 27 28 24

Web: TopQuotes.com.cy

Pete


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

*Taxation in Cyprus*

Taxation

In Cyprus you can choose one of two taxation methods. You can choose to go with the personal allowance of 19.500euros before tax or you can choose to pay 5% on all of your income if you have large pensions and income from investments etc.

Therefore most British retirees who have only their UK government pension will pay no tax at all if they choose the personal allowance. Those who have extra income from personal pensions, investments etc can decide which method to choose depending on which works out most beneficial for them. Below is a table of taxation rates.

– up to EUR19,500 nil

– from EUR19,501-28,000 20%

– from EUR28,001-36,300 25%

– above EUR36,300 30%


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## David_&_Letitia (Jul 8, 2012)

Veronica said:


> Taxation
> 
> In Cyprus you can choose one of two taxation methods. You can choose to go with the personal allowance of 19.500euros before tax or you can choose to pay 5% on all of your income if you have large pensions and income from investments etc.
> 
> ...


The break even point is £26,000. If your income is below this, you are better electing for the Personal Allowance and 20% tax on the remainder. If your income is above £26,000, you are better off electing for the 5% tax on all income...


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## Da Funk (Jun 5, 2010)

David_&_Letitia said:


> The break even point is £26,000. If your income is below this, you are better electing for the Personal Allowance and 20% tax on the remainder. If your income is above £26,000, you are better off electing for the 5% tax on all income...


Just a quick one, am I right in saying you can declare all earnings and only pay 5% income tax? I work for oil companies and am sometimes paid out of Singapore to any bank account I wish worldwide. I am a higher rate tax payer and my income would be above £26,000.


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