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.

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

Jeezus, you can rent a 3 bedroom house for 500/mo here.

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).

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

Please tell me where is here? :)

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.

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

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

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

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!:)

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.

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.

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

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.

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

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

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

You will need to be married in order to attempt the Surinder Singh route.

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

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.

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

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:

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.

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

Likewise. Bucharest doesn't seem like an intuitively obvious place to live if you like to spend time at the beach.

:getcoat:

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

Again, I didn't say at any point that it was. :banghead: The OP mentioned Budapest, Prague and Krakov in his/her original post, none of which has 'intuitively obviously' beach access, therefore I supposed that reaching the beach in a 'day trip' was not vitally important.

Really not quite sure why you have this obsession about my suggestion. I was just trying to be a helpful denizen of the BE community by throwing up another possibility for the OP to consider. I'm terribly sorry if my suggestion has somehow offended you.

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

Perhaps we could stick to giving factual advice, preferably from people who are living in the areas/countries the OP is looking at. Petty squabbling over personal opinions just irritates people and doesn't help.

Hope you find what you're looking for Dale-Katya. :fingerscrossed:

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

I actually thought the Bucharest suggestion was a good one for the OP. It's also on my potential retirement list and was hoping to hear more. I also didn't think beach proximity was all that relevant for what the OP was looking for, but maybe an interesting side note (although coast and mountains were mentioned).

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

@Richard8655

If working isn't an issue (which would be most people's main reason for choosing Bucharest as there are more opportunities) then you might consider some of the provincial cities. Take a look at Brasov, Sibiu or Cluj-Napoca. All big enough to have most of what you need (in terms of shops and facilities) but with a more laid-back atmosphere and beautiful surrounds. Cluj International Airport, for example, has regular flights to various destinations in the UK.

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

Thanks Azarel. Many years ago while visiting Romania (while still under the Ceausescu regime) to see the Transylvanian Alps and skiing opportunities. I found Brasov and Sibiu simply gorgeous. Sighisoara was the larger nearby connecting city and also very nice (the little I saw of it). But you're right, as I only scratched the surface on my short stay, they deserve a much closer look. I imagine wonderful places to retire.

I wonder if that imposing Ceausescu palace in Bucharest is accepted by everyone by now and put to good use (parliament?), or still reviled. The capital seemed typical but didn't have time to take a good look.

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

If you travel around Bucharest only briefly, you mostly see the main boulevards, which are mainly lined with those ugly blocks, but behind them, and in some other neighbourhoods, there's a lot of fantastic and diverse architecture. The People's Palace is still there, used by the parliament as you say. Lots of people hate it still although some older folk see it as a symbol of what could be done (albeit under a dictatorship) compared to the slow rate of state development projects today (lack of motorways being the main complaint these days).

Sighisoara is lovely. I have an old house in a nearby village where I spend weekends and holiday. Fabulous. Sibiu and Cluj have taken great leaps in the last decade. Cluj particular has attracted a lot of business (mostly in IT) and is a thriving university town, and has a lot of festivals and events. Sibiu and Brasov have also fared well. You should come back for a visit; I think you'd find it interesting comparing it with the Romania you saw in the 80s. Even in the 13 years I've been here I've seen a lot of changes, most of them positive. Still a way to go in many areas, but also a lot of charming features which haven't yet been lost.

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

Excellent advice and information, and exactly what I plan to do. Nice to have first hand experience and perspective from you actually there for 13 years. Yes, I agree and am sure so much has changed since the communist era as I remember it in my visit so long ago (1977 as I recall). I think Romania is often overlooked by many British expats in their usual retirement migration to southern Spain.

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

South of Bucharest there is all of Bulgaria. Destination for quite a few retirees from the UK. Not much work there - unless you are happy to sell your labour for £300 a month, but property in villages and small towns is cheap. Plovdiv and Stara Zagora are worth looking at. So is Burgas.

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

And Bulgaria produces outstanding wines at incredible prices - almost a reason itself to move there! But indeed a beautiful country than many Brits overlook from lack of background information. The language might be a bit intimidating using the Cyrillic alphabet. But to me that might be an interesting challenge.

Re: Cheapest countries to live?
 

The Cyrillic Alphabet is only a small barrier. Of all the Slavonic languages, Bulhgarian is the easiest to learn. Much of the vocabulary is shared with French, German and English. the grammar has become simplified over the centuries, in the same way as Anglo-saxon has morphed into Modern English.

I lived and worked in Bulgaria for many years until fate brought me back to the Land of Johnie Walker.