Mass Exodus

[Scunner]

Why are so many people leaving Calis/Fethiye right now? I can't believe how many I'm hearing about, returning to the UK or moving on to places (nearly always Bulgaria)? Seems like every day I hear of others moving on.

I may have to move on from holidaying in the area, if this continues I won't know anyone over there anymore  

[apollo]

Expat life is transitory. People come and people go. C'est la vie!

[Scunner]

Ah, that's much clearer now. Thanks for the explanation!

I meant why now...

[johntaylor49]

Well...Bulgaria is cheap..its in the EC.....you can draw your pensions there ... you have NHS
treatment and priority of local people (not fair maybe but ...) you have full EC Human rights...
you cant speak the language   (well Turkish aint easy either)!.....what is not to like. Always said I would never buy overseas,
seen too many revolution s and been kicked out of too many places....but...this EC thingy
looks like it works ...and the UK isn't leaving ....(not a chance   ). Scotland what a great place to live.....
if you like winters  ??

[Scunner]

Says the man from the tropical area of Manchester

[Scunner]

Oh and the question wasn't "Why Bulgaria" anyway!!!

[tonysue]

I am sure different people have different reasons for staying or going, things don't remain the same and the Turkey of today is not like the turkey of 8 years ago, some changes for the good, like the roads and  pavements, some for the bad like bank interest rate, exchange rate on the lira, awful if you invested your money 2 years ago at 2.65 and the elephant in the room ISIS. We bought our villa 8 years ago and sold end of 2013 and I can only comment on the main reason we sold up and that was the change in the visa. we were quite happy to come twice a year and stay 8-10 weeks at a time, we spent most of our disposable income in Turkey, invested, all be it in a small way in the bank, paid our taxes and enjoyed life. we didn't take anything out of the system, didnt draw from the health system, didnt expect our children to be educated etc, we just wanted to come when we wanted to the property we had bought. The Turkish government wasn't happy with our twice a year £10 each tourist visa, so we decided to sell up and take our spending money elsewhere. We still love calis and will continue to visit but only as a tourist. The small amount of cash in the bank is now worth a lot less than when we last visited in may last year, so we will spend up  next week and raise a glass, efes of course to all who remain in Calis and friends who have moved on to pastures new.

[karaokemark]

I think the biggest reason is the new residency rules where you have to renew every year and have Insurance, although this was not a factor for us we have 3 years left. For the last few months the main topic of conversation on every night out was the new residence rules, I think people just got worn down with it and thought have a change, when the rate does go back to about 3tl to the pound things here will look expensive, Efes is 12 in a lot of bars that's £4 a bottle 65tl for a steak meal. apart from fruit and veg. in season it is not cheap here anymore.
The main factor for us is the grandchildren and I think all the other factors made our mind up for us.

[JohnF]

I can think of a few reasons, and surprisingly the main one (in my opinion) has nothing to do with the obvious ones.

In general, ex pat living is cyclic - folks come, folks go and under normal circumstances the number of folks leaving wouldn't be that apparent as there is usually the incomers who make up the difference.  From what I've observed, five to seven years seems to be average for long stayers.  Ok, you're always going to get a few who pop up for a bit then disappear off somewhere else or back home and they may skew the figures a bit.

The problem here is that in 2008 the financial world went tits up and property sales in Turkey's traditional markets, UK, The Netherlands, Scandinavia etc suffered considerably.  Most of Europe went into recession and as a result folks started tightening their (financial) belts - one result was the drop in house prices which I suspect affected many who would have funded their move overseas with sale proceeds.  Properties became harder to sell, it became a buyers market so folks were getting nowhere near what they'd anticipated or required to fund a move overseas.

The knock on effect has been less folks moving to Turkey over the past few years which make the current exodus more obvious.  On the other hand, I could be talking a load of sh1te here...

It's also worth considering that the folks who all moved over 2003 - 2008/9 when they retired are all getting on a bit now and healthcare issues may be forcing them back to the UK.

As regards those already here, and I include the ones (non residents) who stay for extended periods of time  - well, where do you start!

• Residency and healthcare goalposts being moved annually.
• Six monthly tax increases on alcohol and imported goods.
• Unstable currency.
• Bank interest cut by two thirds from a few years ago.
• Double figure inflation.
• Political uncertainty domestically and in neighboring countries

I haven't even touched on the human rights issues, but they don't really affect those living in tourist areas that much so will leave that for another day.

JF

[Scunner]

Isn't ex-pat life in general supposed to be non-cyclic? They come, they stay. That's the theory