To leave UK due to weather and cost of living

[Blossompink]

We are absolutely fed up of this constant cold, wet and dreary weather and are seriously thinking it's time to leave the UK. It's not just the weather which is making us miserable but also the cost of living is just ridiculous simply trying to keep the house warm and do simple tasks like drying clothes outside.

We are late 50's, no mortgage, have some savings, but would probably need to have an holiday let type set up to bring some money in or a small business.

AIBU to have had enough of life in the UK and want to move elsewhere?

There are still visa options, eg Portugal golden visa

OP your plan sounds a bit drastic, a lot of countries have a crazier cost of living crisis than us. How about getting a tumble dryer/heated clothes airer and see how you get on?

In practical terms it will be hard to find somewhere near the uk and the coast ( so Europe ) that has better weather - you may end trading grey for droughts and damp for more extreme heat

The most likely scenario for the next 20 years uk is wetter but for Spain it's Sahara

France still allows immigration from the UK, I know a couple who have recently completed the process..

However now you need a long term Visa and that means having more in the way of resources ( basically money) to back you up than was the case prior to Brexit.

We already live and work abroad (left UK in 2018) but won't retire and stay where we are now. We used the proceeds of our house in UK to buy property in Gibraltar, which is currently tenanted. We can move there whenever we want and access healthcare etc. Gibraltar has its limitations but its only 3 hours from London by air and although Spanish and Llanito are widely spoken, English is the bureaucratic language. I'm looking forward to retiring in a Mediterranean climate.

Unfortunately, Gibraltar property prices rival those in London.

That's interesting about visas for France and a 'golden' one for Portugal - i had no clue. How rich do you have to be?

@LumiB you could look into home exchanges. That would be a lot cheaper than renting for 3 months per year

www.longtermrentalsinfrance.com/living-in-france/moving-to-france/income-requirements-for-french-residency.html#:~:text=Normally%2C%20individuals%20who%20do%20not,1%2C400%20per%20month%20(net).

Portugal may be 500k

For 5 years

I really want to do this too. I'm younger with children at school. I'm entitled to an EU passport but haven't bothered applying as my DH has one, and I was only going to bother if it meant my kids could get one too, but I don't think they can without a lot of hassle. I would like to move to Portugal, and have been trying to learn it on duolingo but it's difficult. My DS wants to go to University in Spain. We have pensions and I'd like to do some kind of remote work, but haven't thought what yet. We both have elderly parents so can't go for a few years for that reason.

OP, I say do what you feel will make you happy, tomorrow isn't guaranteed to anyone.

That said, I'm part Spanish and if you are thinking of moving somewhere there just be aware that they are fed up of English migrants coming there, so aim for areas with a high population of established Brits living there.

You won't need to speak Spanish, those areas mean you don't have to.

Thanks for the tip!

"Hey, how do you fancy giving us your Spanish villa from October to February and living in my house in constant rain and cold, and paying £££ extra on food for the privilege?"

You need to think about the practicalities.

• can you legally move to another country (for example do you have an EU passport?)
• have you thought about what it would mean for your healthcare provision as you grow older?
• the weather is affected by climate change everywhere you go and warmer countries will be really hot in the summer
• do you speak another language? how will you cope with the bureaucracy if you don't?
• you will be away from your family and friends.

If you have the money you could aim to spend a couple of months abroad every year in a warm location and maybe invest in a holiday home once you find somewhere you really like so you can have the best of both worlds and it would not be such a drastic move.

That would be my choice if I could afford it.

We are going to do it however, we have lived abroad before. It’s not easy. If neither of you have pensions it’s even harder but not impossible.

We are in our fifties and have retired early with PS pensions. This covers us for meeting the basic income threshold of many countries. If you do not have this you need the equivalent in savings.

How much money do you think you will have to move and set up your business?

We burned through money when we lived abroad but we were not good with money at the time and tbh we are still not the best. What saved us was keeping a house in the UK and we will definitely do this again albeit a modest house but a back up if needed.

I would budget at least 40% contingency fund once you have identified a country and made a plan.

Yep dont blame you

Thanks to Brexit you no longer have a right to live in an EU country - you can apply but there's no guarantee that you'll get permission. And you would need to take out health insurance.

Let's hope the weather improves, for all of us!

Obviously brexit means you have no automatic right to live there but it's not impossible.

Loads of Americans lived near us when we lived abroad. Most of them needed visas. It’s not impossible and the visa process has always been there for them.

We did it for 4 years - packed our jobs in, rented our house out and moved to a property we already owned in Greece.

This was pre-Brexit, however - but I will stress that we still needed to pay for private health insurance over there (state pensioners were entitled to use the Greek healthcare system, we were not). It will cost several thousand a year. We also had to pay tax on our UK income - for the house rental - in the UK.

Obviously, we were not paying NI in the UK for those years so that was 4 years off our state pensions. We were able to make these up when we returned.

We lived on savings plus income from renting out our house and when we sold the Greek property, had made a decent profit, which put back the savings - that wouldn't happen now, I don't think.

What I will say are the downsides - apart from those already mentioned- are the ferocious heat for months, which effectively keeps you inside running the air con! If you don't speak the language really well, navigating systems (even with private healthcare - which we DID need and use - using it successfully was hard) can be quite stressful. Just paying your taxes in Greece is very complicated and we were advised to have an accountant.

Social services, etc in different EU countries and what they will do for you as you become elderly different widely.

You need to have quite a bit of money coming in regularly to live in most EU countries these days and/or own a property above a specific value. Each country has different residence rules - France, for example, will only let you apply for residence for up to 5 years at a time.

@VickyEadieofThigh I agree we experienced that even though on paper a country has a lower COL this doesn't always translate to expats COL in this country being as low.

OP will have to research!

It’s easier with no kids though. Thats what we are hoping for this time round!

Of course people can move and live in EU countries, it's happens all the time. It's just there is no automatic right.

@Jc2001

www.aplaceinthesun.com/articles/2022/05/how-long-can-i-stay-in-spain-if-i-own-a-property

I would want to go somewhere with better weather, within an hour or so of the coast, but also not too difficult to get back to the UK to see adult children.

Let's hope you've got deep pockets then because you think its expensive here, just wait till you see how much it will cost to get that dream house in the land of the sun.