The very budget European early retirement location?

[iguana]

Pretty much purely hypothetical, however no harm in a dream.

Say you have the dream of retirement but no juicy early pension etc, bugger all but a house sale & some savings, you dream of swimming every day in that sheltered Greek island type bay, a cycle in the hills & some OK driving roads for the cheap car, a simple gaff nearby, local shops etc

The Costa del chav type thing is very very much not your bag, but cheap house costs, cheap living costs & ability to fly or drive in rest of Europe for family visits etc is a must, so no Thailand or Argentina etc ideas.

Anyways, interested in yr thoughts.

Cheers

[ColdoRS]

Bulgaria.

Property is pennies. Countryside is beautiful. Coastline is idyllic. You’ll live well on the proceeds of a modest UK house sale. Good roads… but the surfaces leave a lot to be desired so maybe not good driving roads as such, as far as I saw anyway.

It’s not luxury but if you’re just about the sun and quiet life, I bet it’s OK.

[omniflow]

Some friends of mine have pretty much done this - and moved to Corfu.

They bought a house in Lefkimmi for about €25k - it needed some work. They've learnt Greek. Outside of the resorts, it's still a very chilled out and very cheap place. Being there all year (over the winter) makes a massive difference to how integrated you become.

[MarkJS]

ColdoRS said:

Bulgaria.

Property is pennies. Countryside is beautiful. Coastline is idyllic. You’ll live well on the proceeds of a modest UK house sale. Good roads… but the surfaces leave a lot to be desired so maybe not good driving roads as such, as far as I saw anyway.

It’s not luxury but if you’re just about the sun and quiet life, I bet it’s OK.

Don’t do this - it’s horrific in the winter - think temps of -15c and desolation (unless you’re deeply immersed in the local community….but even then…)

Also, you can’t have “good roads” with bad surfaces!? The motorways are ok but all others are pretty bad.

Bulgaria can be lovely in the spring & summer, but to live there all year round would be tough. I’ve done it.

[plenty]

Montenegro.

[Deesee]

Scotland?

[LuS1fer]

It rather depends on whether your house sale was Inner London or Bradford, the difference is rather huge.

[MisanoPayments]

I've a couple of clients who have ventured East to Romania and Bulgaria, the former having enough land to keep chickens which in Spain would not be affordable.

[languagetimothy]

I moved to Portugal in Dec 19, luckily pre brexit and covid. I already owned an apartment but had a long term tenant so had never used it myself.
I’m in a town an hour or so north of Lisbon and 20 mins from the coast.

I would say that some things are cheaper (wine n beer!) and some foods. It’s quite easy to get a meal in a non tourist restaurant for under a tenner. Petrol is about the same as UK and I do a lot more driving than I did in London. Utilities are cheaper but probably not by a huge margin. There again I don’t have to have the heating on as often.

Fortunately I did have a s.e.London house to sell, an apartment to go live in and some small private pensions (not a fortune but more than covers all my monthly outgoings)

The problem you may find in the EU is that as a Brit outsider I’ve heard that some Countries make you jump through quite a few hoops now including proving that you have enough income to live on.

[theboss]

plenty said:

Montenegro.

Inclined to agree with you. My wife is Serbian and always talks about the place for holidaying. Have also developed a great appreciation for Balkan people, food and way of life generally. The trick is presumably to stick to the more normal areas with low (by UK standards) incomes and avoid the popular coastal towns where prices are substantially higher with lots of foreign owed holiday homes.

Portugal and Bulgaria have to be good shouts as well.

[plenty]

theboss said:

plenty said:

Montenegro.

Inclined to agree with you. My wife is Serbian and always talks about the place for holidaying. Have also developed a great appreciation for Balkan people, food and way of life generally.

As have I. Croatia is lovely but too expensive now. Montenegro despite being tiny has all of Croatia's charm and massive natural variety, from gorgeous coasts to forests, waterfalls and cliffs in the north. And is a lot cheaper than Croatia (which is now comparable in costs to Western Europe) as long as you stay away from the resorts as you mention.

Further east, Albania is fabulous to visit and ridiculously good value, but not sure I could live there. Ditto Romania.

[anonymous-user]

omniflow said:

Some friends of mine have pretty much done this - and moved to Corfu.

They bought a house in Lefkimmi for about €25k - it needed some work. They've learnt Greek. Outside of the resorts, it's still a very chilled out and very cheap place. Being there all year (over the winter) makes a massive difference to how integrated you become.

I'm in corfu right now, I'm guessing they bought their house a while ago

[elise2000]

plenty said:

theboss said:

plenty said:

Montenegro.

Inclined to agree with you. My wife is Serbian and always talks about the place for holidaying. Have also developed a great appreciation for Balkan people, food and way of life generally.

As have I. Croatia is lovely but too expensive now. Montenegro despite being tiny has all of Croatia's charm and massive natural variety, from gorgeous coasts to forests, waterfalls and cliffs in the north. And is a lot cheaper than Croatia (which is now comparable in costs to Western Europe) as long as you stay away from the resorts as you mention.

Further east, Albania is fabulous to visit and ridiculously good value, but not sure I could live there. Ditto Romania.

Yep, Montenegro is a great option. Like Croatia, but much cheaper with fewer tourists. Some of Croatia is still cheap for property, but mainly the little inland villages. That said, you can pick up a small property that needs just a little work not far from the coast for far less than uk prices still.

[Jaguar steve]

plenty said:

theboss said:

plenty said:

Montenegro.

Croatia is lovely but too expensive now. Montenegro despite being tiny has all of Croatia's charm and massive natural variety, from gorgeous coasts to forests, waterfalls and cliffs in the north. And is a lot cheaper than Croatia (which is now comparable in costs to Western Europe) as long as you stay away from the resorts as you mention.

Montenegro remains like Croatia was 15 years ago.

Lots of development and huge marinas being built around the Bay of Kotor though - I suspect it won't last.

[gotoPzero]

I appreciate its not in the EU but would you consider Thailand?

[Europa Jon]

No doubt someone with better knowledge than me can soon confirm, but isn't it very hard for a Brit to emigrate to an EU country for retirement?
I dreamt of retiring to France, but from what I understand it's no longer possible.

[rdjohn]

Third country nationals have been retiring in France for decades.

It is most certainly possible, just not as easy for Brits as it used to be.

[telford_mike]

Europa Jon said:

No doubt someone with better knowledge than me can soon confirm, but isn't it very hard for a Brit to emigrate to an EU country for retirement?
I dreamt of retiring to France, but from what I understand it's no longer possible.

Not EU, but we retired to Switzerland. A bit of paperwork, but no big problems (no need for lawyers or agents). But this is probably way off the OP's 'budget' aim.

Edited by telford_mike on Tuesday 19th April 00:34

[Evoluzione]

gotoPzero said:

I appreciate its not in the EU but would you consider Thailand?

Would you consider reading the OP before answering?

[ClaphamGT3]

Somewhere half an hour to an hour inland from the French Atlantic coast or Western Mediterranean coast (say around Bordeaux or Beziers) should meet your requirement

https://www.bordeauxbeyond.co.uk/en/search/propert...

https://www.french-property.com/sale-property/1688...