Downm sizing

cavework

Hi.. we have decided now is the time to do this..
We have choices , one being a park home in Cornwall or Devon...the problem being our investment will decrease in value as time goes on
the other is to buy a property in Eire (I know to refer to this as Southern Ireland can be offensive I think. I am right.) this is how uneducated we are
We would love to relocate to Southern Ireland .
Has anyone done this? We would be a retired couple so cash purchase on our new home..
Thanks for any feedback

dimbo61

I would buy a House any day rather than a Mobile Home !

CLAPTON

have you researched southern ireland?
e.g. health service is not like the NHS
do you know the area?
weather is worse than devon/cornwall
what if it didn't work out: could you afford to come back?

cavework

Sorry for the late reply ..We would not be moving until the middle of 2016 and that's why we are researching now.
OH has friends who moved there 7 years ago with employment .. we are retired
Health service is not an issue
As for the weather? As a friend over there said said , yes we have rain but we don't have floods..
As for coming back ..?
Probably but that is not the aim
Is there anyone on here who has done this , want's to do this or already lives there?

moneyistooshorttomention

I'm wondering what your reasons are for downsizing, as I think that will make quite a difference as to how this would likely work out.

I've moved country recently, ie from England to Wales, and one of the very first things to be aware of is your attitude to it will vary according to whether you are moving 100% by choice or part of the reason you are moving is because financially you can't afford to live in your own area. You will have feelings of resentment if you've had to move for financial reasons, even if there are positive reasons behind the move too. These will have to be dealt with/lived with.

You will have to do some adapting if the weather in your new area is worse than what you are used to. It's surprising how much you take whatever climate you are used to for granted. I would prefer my own climate, but am trying to get my new house together much faster than I would possibly in my home area, because what my home is like is more important than it was back in my home area (ie because of the worse weather). There will likely be different micro-climates within whatever area of Southern Ireland you might choose. There are where I am. More by accident than design, I chose a place with one of the better microclimates and that is just as well, as its still worse weather than I am used to. I'm told there are much worse microclimates again in a variety of places not too far away from me and I've heard of some English incomers who had accidentally landed-up living in one of the worse microclimates here moving. Are you used to just putting on a jacket and possibly gloves and going out whenever you decide you will? If so, be aware that you won't be able to think like that any more in some parts of Britain (probably including some parts of Southern Ireland) and there WILL be times in some places where you decide to go out, but the weather "she say no":(. That is difficult to get your head round. I have found myself that it sometimes means having to hire a taxi for a perfectly walkable distance on the one hand (ie because I have a specific thing I am going to) or staying in when I have decided to just "go out for a walk" on the other hand.

One household got "driven mad" by the level of wind in winter in the next microclimate up the road and moved to a better microclimate nearby. One friend spent her first winter being "driven mad" by the level of rain in another nearby microclimate and moved to a nearby microclimate (ie where there is too heavy rain, instead of absolutely horrendous rain in winter:rotfl:).

If the area is more "old-fashioned" than where you are coming from then, even though you will probably see advantages to that fact (I do personally), you will find it more important than usual that your home at least is very modern (well...I do...hence another reason for doing my home renovation as fast as possible).

Don't even think of a mobile home. There are far too many horror stories about peoples' experience of them and they do downvalue.

trailingspouse

Calling it Eire is OK although no-one in the Republic of Ireland does. They call it 'Ireland' or 'The Republic'. No-one calls it southern Ireland, although they refer to Northern Ireland as 'The North'.

Yes they do have floods in Ireland - http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/further-flooding-in-cork-city-as-river-lee-bursts-banks-1.1678975

Re Health Service, I'm not sure what you mean by 'Health Service is not an issue'. Do you mean you can afford to pay for health insurance which doesn't cover you for prescription charges (and you pay for the full cost of the medication, not a fixed charge), and only covers you for €30 per GP visit when the actual cost is €50? Or do you mean you never get ill and never have accidents?

House prices are certainly cheaper over there - this is on the market for €155,000 (roughly £120,000) - http://www.property.ie/property-for-sale/13-Gort-Na-Habhna-Roslevan-Ennis-Co-Clare/742393/
It's on the outskirts of a lovely town, on a fairly new estate - walking distance to a handful of shops, a short car ride into the town centre, half an hour from Limerick and not far from Shannon airport. There is no equivalent of council tax or rates - but VAT is 23%, and you have to pay direct to the supplier for things like refuse collection.

If you want to take your own car over, you will need to pay a Vehicle Registration Tax which is in the region of 25% of the Irish value of your car (and cars are relatively expensive).

I'm not saying don't do it - I'm saying do lots of homework before you do it. I lived there for 4 1/2 years, and originally went thinking 'they speak English and drive on the left, how hard can it be?' It's more different than you might think.

Old_Git

What part of the country are you in now.
Have you family in Cornwall/Devon or Ireland .
How would you cope in Devon or Ireland if one off you where to die .

moneyistooshorttomention

Old_Git wrote: »

What part of the country are you in now.
Have you family in Cornwall/Devon or Ireland .
How would you cope in Devon or Ireland if one off you where to die .

Which is a valid point.

I've moved on my own anyway and have had decades of having to "fend for myself" as a singlie. I've come across some examples here of English incomers having moved in here some years back as a married couple and the husband dying within months of the move and that has resulted in a woman who hasn't been used to having to "fend for herself" getting into a situation where she has to make friends on her own and get a house renovated on her own (despite having expected her husband to be helping her with this for some years after the move). Us long-time singles are used to this and have worked out how to cope with this and had a lot of experience of it, but I've had one of these widows say "I'm not even able to put up a shelf myself, and so the house just got left as it was...." (ie rather than renovated as planned with her husband prior to the move).

I do have a suspicion too that houses in a poorer area than you are used to will be, on average, in worse condition than you are used to and therefore it's usually not an option to even think of not renovating them. Many of them will need it. Also, if you have moved to a poorer area, then that will be another reason why you want your house renovated faster than you would in your own area (ie so that that is what you are used to and you can think "There's no x/y/z public service or shop that I want, but at least I have my nice modern this/that/the other in my own home as usual").

From where I'm standing, an awful lot of married women don't realise just how dependant (financially and otherwise) they are on their husband until he's gone...

Davesnave

cavework wrote: »

We have choices , one being a park home in Cornwall or Devon...the problem being our investment will decrease in value as time goes on
the other is to buy a property in Eire (I know to refer to this as Southern Ireland can be offensive I think. I am right.) this is how uneducated we are

You have loads more choices than that, but a Park Home shouldn't be one of them.

Devon & Cornwall are mainly overpriced, so Pembrokeshire might be a better bet, so long as you stay away from seaside areas, which carry a premium.

If you compare Cornwall & Devon with Pembrokeshire on a climate map, you'll see there's not a huge difference:

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/averages/ukmapavge.html

There are even places 'oop norf' which aren't too bad! :rotfl:

Do a bit of research, but so long as you avoid coastal places and higher inland locations e.g Mid Wales you should be fine.

cavework

Thank you to everyone who has replied .. so now Ireland is out of the question , it's just too big a move so we are looking at Somerset or Wales as our kids live in the midlands.
I am still oddly attracted to park homes as the cost of living is so low once the property has been bought and also because of the new legislation protecting residential park home owners that has been brought in by the Government.
Anyone on here already living on a residential park in a park home?
Surely there must be some good points to this choice of retirement?
xx

cavework

I am going to be honest here , please don't make judgements..
We bought our house on an interest only mortgage with the intention of paying it off with OH,s personal pension plan.. we also took out a second secured loan that should have been cleared at the same time as the mortgage.
OH was made redundant in 2010 and had to take a lump sum and had to take his personal pension early to make ends meet as our kids were still at home. We also had to extend the secured loan which now ends in 2024.
Our mortgage will need repaying in 2016..
OH has now retired with his personal pension and now state pension enhanced because of extra payments made in the 1970,s?
I am 12 years younger so no pension for at least 13 years
our equity is only about 60k plus approx. another 45k we can pull together..
We have struggled for the last 7 years but we survived and kids have left home and bought homes of their own , we don't want to rent and we have no hope of a shared equity property with the local HA unless we make ourselves homeless .. that is not a route I want to go down.
We have my 89 year old Mum now living with us ..no way would she go into a home , so to me the only solution is to buy a park home outright.. and live within our means..
I hate putting these details on an open forum but I really could do with a bit of advice
x