Do you know any one who has emigrated??

[w1z4rd]

+1 That is only the case if you live in London.
I own a new home in the South West of England, 3 bedrooms, large front and back yards, beautiful countryside, neighbors that all own their homes too. Much better place than i could afford to own in JHB or CPT even on a decent salary.

You must have had a poor paying job here as property is much cheaper and better here.

 

[Midnight_choir_drunk]

Guess I'm one of the few odd ones in that I'm able to go whenever I want/need to but love this place and still call it home. We had dual citizenship but our SA citizenship fell away [long story] so we are no longer SA citizens even though we were born and raised here. Make no mistake, I still pay my backside of on taxes even though I'm not allowed my SA citizenship. Guess I'm still good enough for tax purposes.

We own property both here [in process of selling] and abroad and have a number of family members in both the UK and Europe so we spend quite some time there each year but both of us still call this home. My son will be leaving SA next year to go study abroad and I guess he will follow in the footsteps of his cousins in that I doubt he will ever come back. We will most probably also start to spend more and more time that side once he's there.

Point I'm trying to make is that the present government is alienating the very people who in some way or form keep the wheels turning through either their tax contributions, knowledge or whatever else they are contributing. Fact is that those who are leaving are those who were not or are not dependent on the government and thus not a burden for the government.

There might not be a brain drain but I can assure you that there is a massive capital drain. Over the past three years I've moved everything I had, except for the essentials, offshore and from end of next month I will also stop 'working' within the borders of the country resulting in me no longer contributing to the tax coffers as I did in the past. This was not done in 'revolt' but because of our exchange controls and other regulations which made it near impossible to operate efficiently from here. Much easier to setup offshore and the one thing just led to the next.

So in our greater family group there are at present 6 in SA on a permanent basis, 8 nomads like us and 18 who have been abroad for three or more years and I doubt they will be coming back except for the odd holidays.

Make no mistake, there might not be queues at the airports but people are leaving....

You're part of the majority. The ones enjoying life here just aren't motivated to make a song and dance about it on a forum and deal with the "whenwe's".

 

[w1z4rd]

Guess I'm one of the few odd ones in that I'm able to go whenever I want/need to but love this place and still call it home. We had dual citizenship but our SA citizenship fell away [long story] so we are no longer SA citizens even though we were born and raised here. Make no mistake, I still pay my backside of on taxes even though I'm not allowed my SA citizenship. Guess I'm still good enough for tax purposes.

We own property both here [in process of selling] and abroad and have a number of family members in both the UK and Europe so we spend quite some time there each year but both of us still call this home. My son will be leaving SA next year to go study abroad and I guess he will follow in the footsteps of his cousins in that I doubt he will ever come back. We will most probably also start to spend more and more time that side once he's there.

Point I'm trying to make is that the present government is alienating the very people who in some way or form keep the wheels turning through either their tax contributions, knowledge or whatever else they are contributing. Fact is that those who are leaving are those who were not or are not dependent on the government and thus not a burden for the government.

There might not be a brain drain but I can assure you that there is a massive capital drain. Over the past three years I've moved everything I had, except for the essentials, offshore and from end of next month I will also stop 'working' within the borders of the country resulting in me no longer contributing to the tax coffers as I did in the past. This was not done in 'revolt' but because of our exchange controls and other regulations which made it near impossible to operate efficiently from here. Much easier to setup offshore and the one thing just led to the next.

So in our greater family group there are at present 6 in SA on a permanent basis, 8 nomads like us and 18 who have been abroad for three or more years and I doubt they will be coming back except for the odd holidays.

Make no mistake, there might not be queues at the airports but people are leaving....

When you leave, dont you wanna sell me your house at 40% below its current value? You know.... with all that capital flight leaving the price of housing just has to crash

You have just told me of all this capital flight. If the capital flight is of any real significance your property value is going to plummet. Which is pretty strange considering a real estate agent told me last week its a sellers market.... but any ways, Ill be happy to take it off your hands at a "capital flight" market price

 

[surface]

+1 That is only the case if you live in London.
I own a new home in the South West of England, 3 bedrooms, large front and back yards, beautiful countryside, neighbors that all own their homes too. Much better place than i could afford to own in JHB or CPT even on a decent salary.

Just out of curiosity, would you post the approx price of your current house in rands. I am fairly certain that house prices in england (no matter where) would be way much higher than anywhere in JHB/CPT if you compare similar areas.

 

[Sinbad]

Just out of curiosity, would you post the approx price of your current house in rands. I am fairly certain that house prices in england (no matter where) would be way much higher than anywhere in JHB/CPT if you compare similar areas.

For this to be valid he better post his salary in rands too - and also his mortgage repayment, since the extremely low interest rates over there make property a lot more affordable. He didn't say it was cheaper, he said it was more affordable. HUGE difference.

 

[Spizz]

It seems like there are more Brits moving to SA than SAns moving Britain, see here. And as one of them, I have no desire to move back to the miserable dump.

 

[Ninja'd]

Just one.

And as luck would have as I saw her on Saturday. Was back just for her grandma's funeral.

 

[surface]

For this to be valid he better post his salary in rands too - and also his mortgage repayment, since the extremely low interest rates over there make property a lot more affordable. He didn't say it was cheaper, he said it was more affordable. HUGE difference.

Good point about affordability but I am just curious as to what one can get for less than 100K pounds over there (approx 1.8 Million here).

 

[w1z4rd]

It seems like there are more Brits moving to SA than SAns moving Britain, see here. And as one of them, I have no desire to move back to the miserable dump.

Wow, 305 000 brits moves to SA, 315 000 brits moves to NZ. Thats are interesting figures

 

[Ninja'd]

Has anyone considered Mauritius?

I know Korn1 once talked about it.

 

[ponder]

Wow, 305 000 brits moves to SA, 315 000 brits moves to NZ. Thats are interesting figures

Question is how far back do those figures go, they could have come here in the 60's for all we know. Just not enough details there.

 

[TehStranger]

Question is how far back do those figures go, they could have come here in the 60's for all we know. Just not enough details there.

+1, I would like to see the recent figures of Brits coming to S.A., say over the last 3 years. I'm fairly sure it would paint a different picture.

 

[Sinbad]

+1, I would like to see the recent figures of Brits coming to S.A., say over the last 3 years. I'm fairly sure it would paint a different picture.

Not counting extradited ones!

 

[pimpmycode]

You must have had a poor paying job here as property is much cheaper and better here.

SAP Consulting never pays poor

For this to be valid he better post his salary in rands too - and also his mortgage repayment, since the extremely low interest rates over there make property a lot more affordable. He didn't say it was cheaper, he said it was more affordable. HUGE difference.

Thanks Sinbad couldn't have said it better myself.
Not every home in the UK is a shoe box with no yard, there are some really nice homes and they are affordable.

I don't believe comparing ZAR vs GBP amounts adds much value. The current exchange rate is R18.34 to the pound so any conversion is going to be skewed. A one to one comparison has always worked well for me, so if i earn a R1000 in SA what can i get for it and if i earn £1000 in the UK what will that get me. In most cases you get more for what you earn in UK than what you could in SA, IMO anyway.

That said its not all roses living in the UK, as with anything in life there are negatives. Its just depends which negatives you are willing to accept. For now I'm happy accepting the negatives here over the negatives of living in SA.

 

[w1z4rd]

SAP Consulting never pays poor

Then what you said, doesnt make sense. But anyways...

 

[Sinbad]

Then what you said, doesnt make sense. But anyways...

It does. I earn well in ZA. I earned well in UK. I had more disposable income in UK than I have here.

 

[w1z4rd]

It does. I earn well in ZA. I earned well in UK. I had more disposable income in UK than I have here.

Could you buy better property with what you earned there than you can buy here with what you earn here? Im not a SAP developer, but I rent a pretty nice place in a good, safe suburb with a pool, large gardens and close to school and shops. A friend in the UK pays the same amount I pay and he gets a ****ty one bedroom apartment. Okay sure its in London, but I could get a decent sized farm if I also rented out of town.

 

[TehStranger]

Could you buy better property with what you earned there than you can buy here with what you earn here? Im not a SAP developer, but I rent a pretty nice place in a good, safe suburb with a pool, large gardens and close to school and shops. A friend in the UK pays the same amount I pay and he gets a ****ty one bedroom apartment. Okay sure its in London, but I could get a decent sized farm if I also rented out of town.

You live in PE or East London or something right? And you're trying to compare it to London right?

There's your problem right there. Plus the same amount in rand value, or the same percentage of his earnings?

 

[Sinbad]

Could you buy better property with what you earned there than you can buy here with what you earn here? Im not a SAP developer, but I rent a pretty nice place in a good, safe suburb with a pool, large gardens and close to school and shops. A friend in the UK pays the same amount I pay and he gets a ****ty one bedroom apartment. Okay sure its in London, but I could get a decent sized farm if I also rented out of town.

Yes, I probably could.

 

[surface]

Thanks Sinbad couldn't have said it better myself.
Not every home in the UK is a shoe box with no yard, there are some really nice homes and they are affordable.

affordable = 250K, 200K, 150K, 100K, 75K (in GBP) ? Just need to get perspective