Thank you all very much for your replies again.
This is a serious move for us especially with a young baby so we are trying to make sure it is realistic. We are seriously looking at making our life in Cyprus as my wife's family are originally from Cyprus and we think that life there can offer us a better future for all the reasons that I mentioned previously.
As another member mentioned previously most job adverts don't actually give salaries so it is hard to judge. Can anyone give us any some more idea of average salaries for some other professional jobs?
What would take home pay be roughly on 1300 CY pm?
Also we have been looking at houses to rent in the Limassol area and the average for a 3 bed seems to be about 500 CY pm, which seems quite a chunk of the salary. Are these realistic rental prices or just what's up on the internet estate agencies?
Cyprus Salaries
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by alex669 » Tue Jan 24, 2006 5:11 pm
Monkey, actually it's possible to rent a 3br house for 300-350CYP if you're lucky and for about 450-500CYP if you want to get first house you saw 
Forget the internet agencies, come here early Friday morning and get a weekly advertisment newspaper from kiosk. Newspaper is in Greek. Also it's better to get a greek-speaking person to call by this advertisements. Usually landlords will increase price for foreigner and reduce for a local people. Sometimes they refuse to rent a house to foreigner. Well, if you're lucky you will find a good house in about 2-3 weeks.
Or you can go to an estate agency and ask for a house to rent, but you will get it more expensive then directly from landlord.
About the salary, From 1300/mo gross you will pay 158.85 for taxes (social insurance a 6.3% and progressive income tax), so your net will be 1141.15 CYP
From my experience as well as from experience of people I know you will spend around 500-800CYP per month for living plus rent. This money includes insurance, food, clothes, petrol, bills, etc...
And don't forget that many people which have 500-600 CYP income have it not per family but per person and live in their own house. So, my conclusion is that with 1300 gross you will not die from starvation, but definetely will not live as a king
Forget the internet agencies, come here early Friday morning and get a weekly advertisment newspaper from kiosk. Newspaper is in Greek. Also it's better to get a greek-speaking person to call by this advertisements. Usually landlords will increase price for foreigner and reduce for a local people. Sometimes they refuse to rent a house to foreigner. Well, if you're lucky you will find a good house in about 2-3 weeks.
Or you can go to an estate agency and ask for a house to rent, but you will get it more expensive then directly from landlord.
About the salary, From 1300/mo gross you will pay 158.85 for taxes (social insurance a 6.3% and progressive income tax), so your net will be 1141.15 CYP
From my experience as well as from experience of people I know you will spend around 500-800CYP per month for living plus rent. This money includes insurance, food, clothes, petrol, bills, etc...
And don't forget that many people which have 500-600 CYP income have it not per family but per person and live in their own house. So, my conclusion is that with 1300 gross you will not die from starvation, but definetely will not live as a king
- alex669
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by rotate » Tue Jan 24, 2006 7:41 pm
Go to http://europa.eu.int/eures/home.jsp?lang=en
Follow the links and search vacancies as far back as they go. This EU site is run in conjunction with the Cyprus Governments Ministry of Labour so you should in theory get a true picture of salaries here. Many of the jobs shown are low paid but every so often Technical/Professional vacancies come up.
CYP1300 may seem good but if you are the only wage earner in the family it may not be enough. As elswhere in the EU Cypriot couples now tend to both work, fine if you have family support with looking after a child and runing a home but additional costs if you dont.
Salary deductions Social Insurance Tax provident fund etc, guess this depends on personal circumstances but in the UK I would be paying several hundred pounds a month more than I do here.
CYP500 rent is high but like the UK its all down to location, unlike the UK generally this may include good quality furnishing as to if it is to your taste or not is another matter. Make sure whatever you rent has central heating as contrary to popular belief Cyprus has a winter and it can be cold, nothing like the UK of course but it can still be a shock. Like wise make sure that the property has adequate air conditioning (a unit in each room).
Beware many landlords/ladies prefer to rent to foreigners (exactly the opposite of what alex669 has said, but we each write from our own perspective) rather than Cypriots as the foreigner is generally not so well informed about a tenants rights. My Cypriot brother-in-law flatly refuses to rent to his fellow citizens and he's a patriot! prefering to rent to the people he fought against for four years as they dont say 'take me to court for the rent'. Get a lawyer to look over the rental contract. We rented an unfurnished house for four years and had a great landlord until we gave him four months notice of our intention to quit when we needed only have given a month, we then saw the other side of our genial host.
Cypriot version of Council Tax is Municipal or Village Tax which is very low, we pay CYP88 per year for a three bed room village house including water service charge but not metered consumption and CYP65 a year for a three bed room town flat plus CYP38 per year water/sewerage excluding water consumption charges. If house is not connected to mains sewerage system expect to pay CYP60 a year for the honey cart to come around, less or possibly nothing if you dont flush paper away (never got used to that in over thirty years) and the septic tank is working correctly.
If family health insurance comes with the job count it as a bonus if not have a search around for costs. We pay CYP100 per month for two adults with Universal/PPP but we are a lot older, get exactly the same deal as with PPP in the UK but at about two thirds of the cost.
Hope there is a car with the job as prices are generally higher in Cyprus, if a car do'es come as part of the deal ensure it is a family sized car that you are getting and not a two seater car/van variant with all the refinements but no where to put the family.
Electricity charges are I believe a little higher than in the UK so only use air con in the room you are using and save money by going out for Sunday lunch.
The UK ex-pat community can be a mine of useful information where you can find out all the nitty gritty bits about living here, possibly become an alchoholic and play the role of the colonial. Unfortunately it can also be a sea of seething discontent with everyone moaning about the 'Cypriots' and Cyprus in much the same way as the Cypriot UK disapora moan about the 'English' and England. Better to get to know your neighbours and make friends within a broader community as my Cypriot wife did when we lived in the UK where she perfected the art of tea making and I have living in Cyprus perfecting the art of, well just enjoying life.
Good Luck
Follow the links and search vacancies as far back as they go. This EU site is run in conjunction with the Cyprus Governments Ministry of Labour so you should in theory get a true picture of salaries here. Many of the jobs shown are low paid but every so often Technical/Professional vacancies come up.
CYP1300 may seem good but if you are the only wage earner in the family it may not be enough. As elswhere in the EU Cypriot couples now tend to both work, fine if you have family support with looking after a child and runing a home but additional costs if you dont.
Salary deductions Social Insurance Tax provident fund etc, guess this depends on personal circumstances but in the UK I would be paying several hundred pounds a month more than I do here.
CYP500 rent is high but like the UK its all down to location, unlike the UK generally this may include good quality furnishing as to if it is to your taste or not is another matter. Make sure whatever you rent has central heating as contrary to popular belief Cyprus has a winter and it can be cold, nothing like the UK of course but it can still be a shock. Like wise make sure that the property has adequate air conditioning (a unit in each room).
Beware many landlords/ladies prefer to rent to foreigners (exactly the opposite of what alex669 has said, but we each write from our own perspective) rather than Cypriots as the foreigner is generally not so well informed about a tenants rights. My Cypriot brother-in-law flatly refuses to rent to his fellow citizens and he's a patriot! prefering to rent to the people he fought against for four years as they dont say 'take me to court for the rent'. Get a lawyer to look over the rental contract. We rented an unfurnished house for four years and had a great landlord until we gave him four months notice of our intention to quit when we needed only have given a month, we then saw the other side of our genial host.
Cypriot version of Council Tax is Municipal or Village Tax which is very low, we pay CYP88 per year for a three bed room village house including water service charge but not metered consumption and CYP65 a year for a three bed room town flat plus CYP38 per year water/sewerage excluding water consumption charges. If house is not connected to mains sewerage system expect to pay CYP60 a year for the honey cart to come around, less or possibly nothing if you dont flush paper away (never got used to that in over thirty years) and the septic tank is working correctly.
If family health insurance comes with the job count it as a bonus if not have a search around for costs. We pay CYP100 per month for two adults with Universal/PPP but we are a lot older, get exactly the same deal as with PPP in the UK but at about two thirds of the cost.
Hope there is a car with the job as prices are generally higher in Cyprus, if a car do'es come as part of the deal ensure it is a family sized car that you are getting and not a two seater car/van variant with all the refinements but no where to put the family.
Electricity charges are I believe a little higher than in the UK so only use air con in the room you are using and save money by going out for Sunday lunch.
The UK ex-pat community can be a mine of useful information where you can find out all the nitty gritty bits about living here, possibly become an alchoholic and play the role of the colonial. Unfortunately it can also be a sea of seething discontent with everyone moaning about the 'Cypriots' and Cyprus in much the same way as the Cypriot UK disapora moan about the 'English' and England. Better to get to know your neighbours and make friends within a broader community as my Cypriot wife did when we lived in the UK where she perfected the art of tea making and I have living in Cyprus perfecting the art of, well just enjoying life.
Good Luck
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by Monkey » Wed Jan 25, 2006 1:18 pm
Rotate and Alex669, Thank you both very much for your detailed and comprehensive information.
Two things stand out to me that are a real help. Firstly that taxes are much lower in Cyprus so actual take home pay is higher than I expected and secondly renting a house should be cheaper than I thought, especially if we get Cypriot family involved for the negotiating!
Rotate, the Europa website is most useful, thank you. I totally agree with your point about the ex-pat community being useful, but intregrating with the wider community is better. Hopefully we'll be able to do both (once our Greek is up to scratch!).
Two things stand out to me that are a real help. Firstly that taxes are much lower in Cyprus so actual take home pay is higher than I expected and secondly renting a house should be cheaper than I thought, especially if we get Cypriot family involved for the negotiating!
Rotate, the Europa website is most useful, thank you. I totally agree with your point about the ex-pat community being useful, but intregrating with the wider community is better. Hopefully we'll be able to do both (once our Greek is up to scratch!).
- Monkey
- Trial Member
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- Location: Kent
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