We have been going to Polychrono for a number of years now, and are thinking of moving out here.
What are the benefits to buying or renting.
My husband is a builder and I am a nurse. We are fed up of England and are ready for a new challenge.
What are the chances of finding work here. We are learning Greek, but find it easier to learn when hands on.
Any feedback would be appreciated. We are both in our 40's with family all grown up, and no mortgage.

i think long-term renting is still quite cheap in the area especially if you don't rent in the tourist hotsposts.

buying will obviously be more expensive but you get the benefit of the long-term increasing property prices.

i think you will probably be able to find a low-paid job in the building industry. for higher-paid job, it depends on the circumstances and what you plan to do with your skills.

but i think the difficult part will be to find work in nursing. you may be forced to commute to thessaloniki or near there since your best chance will be to work in the private sector whether it is a private hospital or caring for an old person, and obviously most (but probably not all) of these opportunities will be around Thessaloniki.

In any case it will be difficult. I wouldn't go straight for byuing. I would take advantage of the low long-term rental prices in places such as kassandreia , kallandra, fokea etc settle down and then take it from there. See first what job opportunities are around and where.

I ll just detail to you another perspective that you might find suitable from the moment you are looking for a job in nursing: Except the nice beaches and scenery, the reason halkidiki is so popular with greeks is its proximity and easy reach from Thessaloniki. So the majority of greeks live and work in or around thessaloniki and they take advantage of weekends and all sorts of other holidays and annual leaves to go to their holiday homes in halkidiki on a weekly basis etc.etc. So it may actually work equally nice , leaving in a suburb of thessaloniki (you can easily find 1 and 2 bedroom flats for 300 euros in suburbs such as Triadi, N. Epivates , Risio, Scholari, Epanomi and many others (all of the named suburbs used to be small villages just 10 years ago, some of them still are today)) and taking advantage of weekends and holidays to commute to polichrono

Hope the above summary helps a bit.

Thank you Petros that was very helpful.

A friend and I have recently bought a maisonette in Pefkohori. It is only for holidays so we are not moving out there, but it was pretty cheap. Our budget was 100,000 Euros for 2 bedrooms and we got a lovely brand new maisonette within our budget, 5 mins walk from the beach and close to all the amenities in Pefkohori.

I would suggest spending a winter out there first before moving there because it is VERY different to the summer. Pretty much everything closes down and you can almost see the tumble weed blowing through the streets! Plus it does get quite cold & wet as you are so far north. I actually really enjoyed the short breaks we had last winter because all our Greek friends were not working so were much more relaxed and everything was very chilled out, but I think I would have been bored if I had stayed more than 3 or 4 days (but then I have lived in London for 20 years and enjoy the buzz).

Can't comment on the job situation as I only ever go for holidays.

One thing I would say about buying is that even though it is cheap, and the ongoing costs are minimal, it is a very complicated & slow process....!!

Good luck in whatever you decide.

Rent, definitely. There are so many places to buy in Halkidiki now if you needed to return to the UK, for example for health reasons, you would find it difficult to sell up. The house we are renting next year for two years has already been on the market for over three years.

\we have been renting long term on and off for the past 12 years.

Make sure you get a rental agreement in English, although I can speak and read Greek you need to be fluent to know all the legal terms.

Rental is cheap, electricity is expensive. It includes TV licence and rates, but if you have oil heating it will cost you a fortune. Log fires are nice but hard to find.

Greece is now quite expensive to live in. If you eat Greek style at home and go out just a few times a week it is fine, but we will be more careful next year. Veg and fruit is cheap, very cheap. Meat expensive. Sardines and the like cheap.

Fuel is not much cheaper than the UK now.

Finally, if you decide to buy be careful of the cheaper ground floor apartments. Apparently these are initially for storage only and many many have been converted, but could at any time be grabbed by the government as they are technically illegal. Might never happen, but then you never know.

Rent is better, we have no children either and have downsized in the UK. We have the security of a place in UK if we ever need to return, and you never know, you may need urgent health care which is expensive in the private sector in Greece and although some hospitals in the city are good, many others are not to the standard you are used to in the UK. Rent is so cheap that is makes sense not to saddle yourself with a place that may not sell in the future, and you can also pick and choose villages and try them out. We nearly bought 12 years ago, glad we didnt. The place was lovely, but in winter it was desolate. We always stay in Mola kaliva now, pebbly beach but deserted, clearest sea ever, only a few kilometres from nearest fishing village of Skioni and fifteen minutes of the mountain to Hanioti, Polichrono etc.

Good luck, might see you over there.

Jane

Jane

Been reading your posts, do you have a private email address we could send you an email to so we could pick your brains please? Or a uk phone number (If you are in the UK now)?

Many thanks, Mark & Kelly

Hi Mark andKelly, sent you a pm.
Jane

Hey Jane

Got your message hunny, we've sent ya one back...Say hi to the US for us!!!! Chat soon. X

Hi PDewhurst!

Like you we are in our 40's and have recently made the break from UK for the same reasons!! We actually leave the UK for good on Wednesday 29th July Wooo Hooooo!!!!

I too am a nurse, infact an Emergency Nurse Practitioner with a degree in emergency nursing and many years experience. I would forget any option of nursing as a job in Greece. It is totally different. The wages are approx 800 euros a month, you would have to read and write Greek and pass a Greek language course to do so. Because there are so many qualified doctors without decent jobs all the extended nursing skills you have in UK would be useless as the Dr's do it all even the dressings etc. Families look after the personel hygiene of patients leaving the ' nurse ' quite redundant hence the poor pay, so nursing in Greece is totally different.

You could try for work as a private carer, this is something I am going to look into when I move over but until I find anything suitable I am commuting to UK for work, I have arranged a contract that allows me to work 6 days on with 8 days off so back and forth, the bonus is I get to keep my decent wage and have a holiday every other week!! It will work for us and is only a thought you could consider. This option also allows you to keep your pension and maybe retire early and also allows you to transfer your health care entitlements to Greek equivelent for you and your hubby if he has no work. The flights are very cheap if pre booked.

I have been researching this kind of info for the last 2 years so if you would like to email or pm me please do so. I am also thinking of starting up a small business and could maybe use another nurse if it was to take off so keep in touch maybe we could do something together?

I could go on forever! so if you would like any info or a chat P.M me and i will give you my addy or number.

Good Luck! all I can say is do it now or you will never make the break!!

Jane