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-   -   Cheapest countries to live? (https://britishexpats.com/forum/europe-55/cheapest-countries-live-894012/)

Dale_Katya Mar 17th 2017 12:39 pm

Cheapest countries to live?
 
So myself and my partner will shortly be migrating, on the cards we have:

Portugal (doesnt not seem so good to rent right now, high prices and very low availability around Lisbon and Porto)

Prague, Czech Republic - good rental prices, czech language

Budapest, Hungary - good rental prices, Hungarian language

Krakow, Prague - good rental prices, polish language

Cyprus - whilst we can find a place to live for a reasonable cost, the fact that it is practically a holiday island worries us. Although a high proficiency in English means likelihood of employment is high. Grocery costs are higher.

Malta - we ruled out it seemed the property rental prices were a little too high.

Also we considered both Riga and Tallinn. Maybe some other places?

Budget
Large studio or 1 bed - circa 450-500 euro pcm ex. bills. Ideally less is better.

We are having big trouble deciding, and need a little help please 😊 we like a city, but one you can escape from and maybe find the coast or mountains. We intend to buy a car. We both want to find some work, but completely open to something new (I'm software professional, but it's difficult to work in any other than English, I don't really want to do this work). We will live here for 6-12 months.

amideislas Mar 17th 2017 9:11 pm

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 
Jeezus, you can rent a 3 bedroom house for 500/mo here.

Red_Wine_Fairy Mar 17th 2017 10:07 pm

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 
I think you need to consider this further. You're looking for temporary work that will support you - so is much of low skilled southern Europe. You speak how many languages? 1? You're already at a disadvantage: fluent English speakers are easy enough to find anywhere in Europe among their own educated citizens and students looking for a side job. What do you have to offer than a local does? You'll be another unemployed immigrant (in their eyes). So how low are you willing to go? Zero hour contract doing 50+ hours in a warehouse?

Find the job, then worry about the location. If you can handle something different, perhaps try the camping companies who are usually looking for camp reps at this time of year for six months (warning: the first month you'll be doing nothing but preparing the caravans, aka deep cleaning, for 14 hours per day before the season starts).

Dale_Katya Mar 18th 2017 4:30 am

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

Originally Posted by amideislas (Post 12207261)
Jeezus, you can rent a 3 bedroom house for 500/mo here.

Please tell me where is here? :)

scot47 Mar 18th 2017 6:20 am

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 
amideslas gives his location as "Mallorca" A point for the OP. What is your nationality ? If EU then you have legal right to go and work in Europe, If something else (US, Aus, Canada etc) you have no automatic right to travel and work in the EU.

Pollyana Mar 18th 2017 6:28 am

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

Originally Posted by scot47 (Post 12207448)
amideslas gives his location as "Mallorca" A point for the OP. What is your nationality ? If EU then you have legal right to go and work in Europe, If something else (US, Aus, Canada etc) you have no automatic right to travel and work in the EU.

Previous posts say he is British, she is Ukrainian :)

dmu Mar 18th 2017 8:26 am

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

Originally Posted by Dale_Katya (Post 12206885)
So myself and my partner will shortly be migrating, :

We will live here for 6-12 months.

If you are simply "partners", you may do well to get married or enter into a Civil Partnership. A legally bound couple will find life less complicated, wherever...
Are you thinking of going the S.S. route to get into the UK? You as the UK citizen would have to work for several months in your chosen country, and you'd do well to choose a country with a relatively low unemployment rate where you'd have more of a chance of earning a living. As RWF says, find a job first and/or go where the work is!
Where are you both at present? Your gf could, as a single person, already enquire about temporary Visas at the various EU Consulates in the Ukraine.
Good luck!:)

Azarel Mar 23rd 2017 2:18 pm

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 
You could consider Bucharest. A studio in a nice area should be about 350 Euro per month, or for the same price you could get a one bedroom in a less central area. My bills (block bills, electricity, gas, water, heating, internet) come to about 100 Euro per month. Just have mobile phone (6 Euro) and food on top of that. Transport is cheap, city is small enough to navigate, language is easier to pick up than some of the others you've mentioned (Czech, Polish, etc), crime is low, climate is good being a bit further south. You have mountains to the north (hiking and skiing) and the coast to the west if you like, plus cheap flights to other European destinations.

soltopia Jul 5th 2017 3:32 am

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 
I would look at countries with a demand for English teachers. From my knowledge, Czechia and Hungary would be best and perhaps Spain. I think there is low demand in most other EU countries.

Richard8655 Jul 15th 2017 11:28 pm

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

Originally Posted by Azarel (Post 12211260)
You could consider Bucharest. A studio in a nice area should be about 350 Euro per month, or for the same price you could get a one bedroom in a less central area. My bills (block bills, electricity, gas, water, heating, internet) come to about 100 Euro per month. Just have mobile phone (6 Euro) and food on top of that. Transport is cheap, city is small enough to navigate, language is easier to pick up than some of the others you've mentioned (Czech, Polish, etc), crime is low, climate is good being a bit further south. You have mountains to the north (hiking and skiing) and the coast to the west if you like, plus cheap flights to other European destinations.

This is excellent advice and info about Bucharest and Romania. The Transylvanian Alps and villages are most scenic. Very true about Slavic languages being more difficult to learn for a native English speaker.

Pulaski Jul 16th 2017 12:35 am

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

Originally Posted by Azarel (Post 12211260)
You could consider Bucharest. ..... You have .... the coast to the west if you like, .....

Which coast? :confused: ..... Or do you mean "east"? :unsure:

BritInParis Jul 16th 2017 9:29 am

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 
You will need to be married in order to attempt the Surinder Singh route.

Azarel Jul 17th 2017 2:44 pm

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

Originally Posted by Pulaski (Post 12295365)
Which coast? :confused: ..... Or do you mean "east"? :unsure:

Sure, you can go east to the Black Sea, but to be honest it's not especially inspiring. Most people here complain of crowded beaches, high prices and poor services. A lot of them prefer to cross into Bulgaria as they consider it better value for money, especially if you want to stay in a resort.

As a result, a lot of locals choose to head west to the Croatia and the Adriatic as well as south to Greece (Thasos has be the destination of choice lately). Many places in Greece can be reached in a day by car and there are usually budget flights to places like Split and Dubrovnik in season.

Pulaski Jul 17th 2017 3:00 pm

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

Originally Posted by Azarel (Post 12296270)
Sure, you can go east to the Black Sea, but to be honest it's not especially inspiring. Most people here complain of crowded beaches, high prices and poor services. A lot of them prefer to cross into Bulgaria as they consider it better value for money, especially if you want to stay in a resort.

As a result, a lot of locals choose to head west to the Croatia and the Adriatic as well as south to Greece (Thasos has be the destination of choice lately). Many places in Greece can be reached in a day by car and there are usually budget flights to places like Split and Dubrovnik in season.

They're not exactly a day trip though, are they? You could probably get to a beach on the Adriatic or in Greece quicker from Luton than Bucharest. :unsure:

Azarel Jul 17th 2017 7:51 pm

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 
Who said anything about day trips? The OP was looking for place to live permanently, as I understood it, and wouldn't be in any way limited to day trips if and when they chose to take a holiday. Most flights to Greece take about half the time from Bucharest than from Luton. I'm not quite sure of the point you're trying to make.


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