If you're thinking of emigrating to Europe and you're not so young think again perhaps

[woodieallen]

I mentioned in another thread a while back that we were planning to relocate abroad. Oh, how naive.

My wife and I have no ties in the UK. Our house is on the market but where to move to? We rather fancied an adventure and upping sticks to live in Europe. France or Italy perhaps. Portugal. Greece beckons me but not my wife.

But here's the rub. You need to live in the country for five years before you can apply for residency. Residency gives you access to the health system of that country. But for those five years you have to have private health cover. I got the quote. The insurance company quotes purely based on age and their assumption is that if you are, say, in your 70's (as are we) that you are a decrepit old wreck rattling around with all the pills inside you, overweight, in need of joint replacement throughout and an alcoholic. Neither of us are on any pills, nor are we overweight or alcoholic. And our joints are just fine, thank you.

The premium? £600 a month. Each. Adventure cancelled.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

You may also be aware that since the UK left the EU the 90 day rule kicks in for most folk. This is obviously avoidable by applying for residency - but AFAIK it tends to mean that your tax affairs also change to your new country of choice.

It can be quite complex working out whether you will be paying more or less tax than the UK - and any changes could swamp the costs of health insurance.

I also expect that health insurance costs can vary wildly. Go to BUPA in the UK and premiums may be off the scale. In more popular bits of the EU (eg: Spain) I am sure there are local companies which specialise in precisely the problem you have encountered.

We had toyed for some years in doing what you would aspire to. We do have UK family ties which we would not want to break and now comfort ourselves with 10-12 weeks (split before and after Xmas) in the sunshine during the winter in rented apartments.

A sort of half way house to permanent relocation.

 

[Cozzer]

You may also be aware that since the UK left the EU the 90 day rule kicks in for most folk. This is obviously avoidable by applying for residency - but AFAIK it tends to mean that your tax affairs also change to your new country of choice.

It can be quite complex working out whether you will be paying more or less tax than the UK - and any changes could swamp the costs of health insurance.

I also expect that health insurance costs can vary wildly. Go to BUPA in the UK and premiums may be off the scale. In more popular bits of the EU (eg: Spain) I am sure there are local companies which specialise in precisely the problem you have encountered.

We had toyed for some years in doing what you would aspire to. We do have UK family ties which we would not want to break and now comfort ourselves with 10-12 weeks (split before and after Xmas) in the sunshine during the winter in rented apartments.

A sort of half way house to permanent relocation.

Remember the days of Cosmos, Clarksons and Thomson Gaytours (!) when they did "OAP" specials, 60/90/120 days to Spain/Majorca, etc.?
Dirt cheap anyway, but especially when you escaped winter fuel bills at home...

 

[Jake]

Someday the future tense will be possible.

 

[John Brown]

I'd always had retiring to rural France as a possible option. My aunt and her second husband spent many happy retired years in Plan de la tour in Southern France. Brexit killed that option, and heart surgery killed the US option. Oh well. I quite like The Cotswolds...

 

[Lignator]

I have a barn/workshop on a couple of acres in France, I was going to live there full time but the tax situation would have been difficult for me for various complicated reasons. I started building an oakframe house on my site, but had to suspend the build then finally stop it because of tax residence problems. Sarkozy changed the capital gains tax rules overnight and I would have been caught out. I just converted the barn onsite which was rigged up for a workshop by me - to a basic peasant's cottage with a workshop.

The French electricity cut me off because I stopped the main housebuild. This was a bit of a shock (no pun intended!)...
To cut a long story short I decided to stay offgrid and used petrol generators and batteries, and installed solar on the roof. My Sedgewick planer thicknesser is 3 phase as is the old Wadkin spindle moulder. Then in the local paper an old classic 3ph Perkins generator came up. It is 40kva. I had built a shed to house the CAT telescopic handler I bought for the housebuild- I booted it out of the shed and fully enclosed the huge Perkins in there.

My French electrician friend wired it up for me into the barn. The 3 phase monthly EDF subscription is very high and the unit electricity price also, so in spite of the cost of diesel it is economic for me to use the Perkins when I am there, I don't miss the grid electricity now. The French won't connect 3 ph now to anyone not officially in business (because of the black economy). The CAT let me down last year, another long story.....

But to return to the business of living in France or elsewhere...a lot of older people went back to UK with the Brexit problems, or sold second homes. I have dual so Brexit isn't a residence problem for me, but the tax is, and the medical insurance would be a pain. They actually have a health service there though, unlike...... generally things are better there though the cost of food is high. 3 euros for a cabbage.....You need to be able to learn French if you don't already speak it, otherwise you can never really fully integrate or know what's going on. Not sure what the current political fiasco will do, it was foretold.

Out in the country the voting is very much for Le Pen and the farmers with their massive tractors rule the roost.

I have 10 tons of 3ph machinery in a container nearby : a Guillet four side planer, Pade single end mortiser/tenoners for furniture, a Hapfo copy lathe, and an old Waddie overhead router..... I have also 4 oak roof frames I made for the house, ready to knock together and peg up.

 

[Chris152]

I'd always had retiring to rural France as a possible option. My aunt and her second husband spent many happy retired years in Plan de la tour in Southern France. Brexit killed that option, and heart surgery killed the US option. Oh well. I quite like The Cotswolds...

My plan was close to the border with Spain, between the sea (surf in warm water) and the Pyrenees (snow in winter). Scuppered.

 

[selectortone]

I'd always had retiring to rural France as a possible option

Having had several holidays in rural France, the only problem with that is that France is full of French people. (And yes, I do speak passable French.)

 

[nickds1]

I was so annoyed about Brexit that I took out Portuguese citizenship, which, being fair, I was completely entitled to but had never invoked.

It's a HUGE relief - I was really quite emotional when I picked up my passport at the London consulate.

Other members of the family have done similar. My children now have a Portuguese father, so they can get passports too.

Whatever the pros & cons of Brexit, it really makes life difficult for those who like us, like to switch their country of residence every so often...

Recently came back from a trip to Bayonne - what a superb part of the world - and thence on to San Sebastian/Donostia - lovely lovely city. Used my European ID card all the way.

 

[selectortone]

I'm half Irish and have spent a few very happy holidays in County Cork with my Irish cousins. My daughter, who is also half-Irish, (my late wife was half-Irish) was incensed by Brexit, and applied for Irish citizenship. There are a LOT of people doing that! After two years of jumping through hoops and spending a lot of money, she's an Irish citizen.

 

[Agent_zed]

I'm not sure what I'd do if I moved abroad permanently what with the lack of queueing in an orderly fashion. I'd just be walking round trying to stand behind people. I enjoy skiing in France but having people push in in front I can only take a week or so!

 

[MikeJhn]

The French Government seem to work on the principle that if you have a second home in France you can afford anything they throw at you, Tax Fonciers now only applies to second home owners, the cost of living in France has spiralled out of control, leaving the EU brought into effect the Schengen Agreement that if a non EU citizen you can only visit for ninety days in any one eighty, so if you visit for three months you can't go back for another six months, various hoops you can jump through to circumnavigate this with Visa's, but a big hassle and not guaranteed year on year, the pandemic when we could not visit brought home to us that rural UK is a better bet than rural France so we sold up and now just reside in the UK, before even thinking about moving to France do look into the total cost it has become just as expensive as the UK.

 

[Jake]

before even thinking about moving to France do look into the total cost it has become just as expensive as the UK.

It's much richer and increasingly so.

 

[MikeJhn]

Wrong, the Euro is going down against the £ @1.2 for the last month or so, I used to get excited when it was 1.14.

You have to take into account your income from the UK not what others are earning in the EU.

 

[woodieallen]

Wrong, the Euro is going down against the £ @1.2 for the last month or so, I used to get excited when it was 1.14.

You have to take into account your income from the UK not what others are earning in the EU.

To put things in perspective as to just how far down the pan we've come, I can remember when you could get nearly $2 to the £.

 

[MikeJhn]

And 10,000lira to the £ about as relevant or just a different perspective?

 

[Jake]

Wrong, the Euro is going down against the £ @1.2 for the last month or so, I used to get excited when it was 1.14.

You have to take into account your income from the UK not what others are earning in the EU.

Their GDP is 3% higher in dollar terms.

 

[Limey Lurker]

To put things in perspective as to just how far down the pan we've come, I can remember when you could get nearly $2 to the £.

I can remember the dismay when it dropped to 4$ to the pound!

 

[MikeJhn]

Their GDP is 3% higher in dollar terms.

It's a well know fact that you can't trust the French Government to report anything accurately, accordingly they have reported a very low inflation rate for years even though in the last five years price's have near doubled, only yesterday a cabbage was €4 compared to under a £ in the UK.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Their GDP is 3% higher in dollar terms.

It could be wiped out or doubled in a week through no more than exchange rate fluctuations.

It is swamped by regional differences. In the UK, for instance, median weekly pay can vary from £853 in London, £779 in the south east, down to £661 in the north-east. London pay could be 30% more than elsewhere.

Average house prices vary from £525k in London down to ~£200k in many other parts of the country.

Factor in rural and city differences and a reported 3% difference is so low as to be regarded as a rounding difference and not even noise.