getoutofbritainquick

We put our house on the market yesterday and sold it within an hour above asking and no subjects ironically to an English guy originally from Camden in London. We move on the 15th July and will return back to the UK to retire with my family.
I am currently looking at quotes for shipping our belongings in a 40ft container from Victoria to Plymouth in Devon.
Our first quote from Crown Relocations was $24,000 excluding insurance which seemed a little high. I have received another quote from Astra International Moving & Shipping Inc. in New Westminster for $14000 which is a huge difference.
Has anyone had experience with either of these companies or can recommend other International shippers? Thanks

Siouxie

Congrats on the house sale!

Whoever you use I would check to see if they are members of the appropriate International moving company associations.
https://www.mover.net/member-directory
https://www.iamovers.org/
https://www.fidi.org/
(and perhaps at the other end, that the company that the Canadian one uses as their agent is https://bar.co.uk/ registered. )

Tangram

What happened ?

I remember your username and how anti UK you were coming over here originally ?

jeremy brewer

Hi
Plymouth, home of dewdneys and clotted cream

Please up date us here on your move, last time i went back a few years ago now

It was a city i hardly recognised, and I grew up and worked there for many years

Can't help with movers
But good luck

I am looking at a 60/40 split can/uk for a retirement option

cheers
Jerry

Revin Kevin

$14000 doesn't sound too bad for a 40ft container. Shipping rates are up across the board due to huge backlogs caused by the pandemic.

getoutofbritainquick

Good to see you guys still on here. That was 15 years ago! Yes I was very anti UK. We got out just before the big financial crash by the skin of our teeth. Our plan was to live in the Okanagan but never got there no matter what we tried. I managed to get an excellent job with BC Hydro before we left the UK, initially as a Stations manger in Surrey before taking over Vancouver Stations before finally ending up in Victoria.

My family and I really enjoyed our first 7 years in Canada and then it seemed to go slowly downhill from then. We got fed up with the congestion and rapid development in the LM and then had the opportunity to move to Vancouver Island. We made many friends in the LM both socially and at work. We experienced no culture shock since we arrived in Canada. It all seemed to change when we moved to Victoria. Boy did we get culture shock. We purchased a beautiful property (the first lottery home) on Bear Mountain in Langford just on the outskirts of Victoria in stunning surroundings. We had not done much research on the Island because our focus was to retire in the OKanagan and we only had a couple of weeks to accept the job offer. The resort was in receivership at the time owned by HSBC bank. It was shortly after the current owner bought the resort when things started to go south. It didn't take long to find out this company had no real interest in the resort and wanted to develop the golf course by building on 9 of the holes. The other thing we were not aware was the Municipality of Langford. We found this web site some time later - WTF Langford boy oh boy was this guy accurate. It was really start of the beginning of the end for us in Canada. Fast forward to today after many unhappy years on the Island. Victoria is not much better, the rapid densification and political correctness has ruined this part of the Island. I think if you have not been here for a while, especially since COVID you will be shocked at what they have done to the place. This region will be totally gridlocked soon with the massive development taking place. Langford is the fastest developing Municipality in the whole of Canada and this is a geographically constrained region.

We did think about moving elsewhere in Canada but our experience on the Island did a lot of damage to our perception of the place. Not only that, it is so ridiculously expensive here now we don't think it warrants the cost of living. I have the same feeling now as when I left the UK 15 years ago but in reverse (the irony is we moved to take advantage of the difference in cost of living in the UK now we are doing the same by going back to the UK). I don't think the current economic situation is sustainable and a lot of people are struggling here. My children have grown up, property is unaffordable and the place looks a mess and we don't see it getting any better. There is a total lack of forward planning in BC, you can't keep densifying and do nothing to the infrastructure.

Financially we have done very well but we no longer feel the same way about Canada as when we arrived. We couldn't return to our home town in the SE of the UK for the same reasons as when we left so we are going to stay with family in Plymouth for a while so we can check out Cornwall and Devon to find a nice place to retire by the sea (yes we know it's crazy there at the moment but not as crazy as here). My daughter will be going to University in the UK and my son will go into college to complete his schooling.

My wife and I have handed handed in our resignation and move back to the UK mid July. We are really looking forward to the change.

getoutofbritainquick

The shipping rates don't appear too bad on the quote but we found out the $14k did not include packing reading for shipping this end despite us requesting to. This added another $6k but was still several thousand cheaper than Crown.

getoutofbritainquick

Hi Jerry, my brother works in Devonport. Plymouth is not the best of cities in the SW but we are only staying there until we find a property in either Devon or Cornwall. I have always loved the SW of England and now we have the opportunity to retire there. We did very well financially in Canada and should be able to get a nice place by the sea in the SW. We are just hoping the craziness in the UK housing market eases somewhat when the Stamp Duty holiday ends in September. Mind you it's just as crazy here, we sold, above asking and no subjects in an hour and signed contracts in 3! You can't do that in the UK!!!

Revin Kevin

Can't be that bad where you live if they are so desperate to move there!

CanadaJimmy

This is common across most of the temperate parts of BC, lots of people want to move here, but there are geographical constraints and land use constraints such as the ALR that locked municipal borders to where they were in the 1970s as well as zoning laws. To house all the newcomers local governments feel the pressure to approve new developments, but how and where they are developed often causes a lot of controversy because people who moved to quieter towns are now seeing high density construction as such little land is approved for development.

Anyway... hope your return to the UK works out for you! My parents live in Cornwall right now and do like it however there is not much economic opportunity, particularly with Covid. Also seems like Cornwall gets a lot of rain, always sunny here and rainy there whenever I talk to them on Skype! So maybe just make sure you work to get the best possible outcome from the move

jeremy brewer

Hi
Hope it all goes smoothly, my stepdaughter moved back a couple of years ago after 10yrs
As they say it is slways better to try , than wonder what if for the rest of your life
I must admitt devon is nice especially the torbay teignmouth area of the south coast
cheers
jerry

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getoutofbritainquick

I am not sure what you mean by 'not a lot of economic activity' but it looks like the SW is in the middle of a housing boom especially Cornwall. Hopefully this will moderate with the Stamp Duty holiday ends.

We are retiring and hope to travel Europe (the sunny bits!) when COVID eases up, so we are not really interested in work related opportunities, the converse really. We would never return to the SE of the UK which we left, it's far too crowded for us.

There is a difference between approving new developments and reckless building, I am sure our friend from Mill Bay, if he has been down to Victoria would see for himself what is going on in this region. It won't be long before the Malahat is developed, it's already begun. Keep building high density developments in geographically constrained area is not going to end well. The transport links in Western Canada are appalling. To top all of that it's also ridiculously expensive here. We do have a lot of sadness as well.

getoutofbritainquick

Thanks Jerry.

rivingtonpike

Being in Mill Bay myself, I actually quite enjoy the relative bustle of downtown Victoria. I probably come down once a week for a fix of street lighting and pavements! But I must admit it’s nice to turn around and come back to the relative tranquility of where we live.