Immigrating to the UK

The Voice said:
Just checked and all our trickle vents are open. Humidity sitting at 56%, but I’m home alone at the moment, haven’t started cooking, showering, etc. Latter is also a problem because the extraction fan in the bathroom is dogshit, and I guess that moisture has to go somewhere eventually.
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Do you have an extractor fan above your hob?

I ask, because it's one of those silly things I get a kick out of--most extractor fans here don't actually extract to the outside. Does yours?

If we're boiling water for potatoes, pasta, veg, etc. we have to open the windows in the kitchen or everything steams up :)

Another reason why a working HVAC is sorely missed.

But yeah, I feel ya.
 
We've got bad insulation in our kitchen and in our living room. We have double glazed double doors in both (living room is upstairs and has Juliet balconies each with a double door, made of double glazed glass).

The problem is that all of these doors have deliberately open gaps that we can't close. So cold air just streams in. There are no vents or anything, just literal gaps at the top of the door. The kitchen doors have vents, but we have no ability to close them. So its open 24/7.

So our kitchen is always freezing while the rest of the house is warm. We could fix this by replacing the doors, probably improving the insulation without sacrificing ventilation, but its EXPENSIVE.
 
Ancalagon said:
We've got bad insulation in our kitchen and in our living room. We have double glazed double doors in both (living room is upstairs and has Juliet balconies each with a double door, made of double glazed glass).

The problem is that all of these doors have deliberately open gaps that we can't close. So cold air just streams in. There are no vents or anything, just literal gaps at the top of the door. The kitchen doors have vents, but we have no ability to close them. So its open 24/7.

So our kitchen is always freezing while the rest of the house is warm. We could fix this by replacing the doors, probably improving the insulation without sacrificing ventilation, but its EXPENSIVE.
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Bet you don't have a humidity problem at least ;)
 
Ancalagon said:
We've got bad insulation in our kitchen and in our living room. We have double glazed double doors in both (living room is upstairs and has Juliet balconies each with a double door, made of double glazed glass).

The problem is that all of these doors have deliberately open gaps that we can't close. So cold air just streams in. There are no vents or anything, just literal gaps at the top of the door. The kitchen doors have vents, but we have no ability to close them. So its open 24/7.

So our kitchen is always freezing while the rest of the house is warm. We could fix this by replacing the doors, probably improving the insulation without sacrificing ventilation, but its EXPENSIVE.
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You get some products to fill the gaps. I fitted some, what looks like, really thick foam tape, around some window frames which produced a draft, and that helped a lot.
 
Lycanthrope said:
We tend to average around £250 per month. I think £150pm is very normal, though I've heard some people managing on around half that, at £75pm. I can't imagine how.
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Yea, I'm just still one person - I'm sure it's going to go up quite a bit when my wife gets here. She hates getting cold so the heating is going to run overtime. But I think this area is also fairly new so it should be well insulated.
 
Sinbad said:
The joys of a new build...

Super well insulated.

No humidity issues though as we leave a door open for the dogs most of the time.
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I've been on a building site for smart home software we were assisting a company with. Let's just say if you saw how they build these new builds, joy wouldn't be the words used.
 
heartbroken said:
This is it, the potential to earn and do business in the UK is exponentially higher than in SA - you will have access to opportunities you don't here. Excellent point on housing, expect to pay 3x more for 50% less than JHB
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I worked out a while ago it will cost you at least 6 times more to get a similar size house in UK that you got in SA.

Eg: So a 3 bedroom, lounge, kitchen, dinning, two baths and single garage is easily minimum £350k in urban areas, which is a cool R8.5mil, yet on SA you get the same for around minimum R1.2m

UK property ain't cheap.
 
AdrianH said:
I worked out a while ago it will cost you at least 6 times more to get a similar size house in UK that you got in SA.

Eg: So a 3 bedroom, lounge, kitchen, dinning, two baths and single garage is easily minimum £350k in urban areas, which is a cool R8.5mil, yet on SA you get the same for around minimum R1.2m

UK property ain't cheap.
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But a poor comparison because you’re converting to rands for the property and trying to directly compare when there are many factors that influence the prices.
 
Dave said:
But a poor comparison because you’re converting to rands for the property and trying to directly compare when there are many factors that influence the prices.
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It's a simple comparison that does work as it deals with people moving from SA to UK with ZAR they exchange for GBP, and how far their ZAR will stretch.

So if the person sells their paid off 4 bedroom house with double garage for R2mil thinking they can bring that money over to buy another 4 bedroom house with double garage, they will need to bring R2mil X 6 as the house this side will average £500k.
 
AdrianH said:
So if the person sells their paid off 4 bedroom house with double garage for R2mil thinking they can bring that money over to buy another 4 bedroom house with double garage
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I think anyone who moves from an African country and expects to buy a house of the same size in any Western European country for the same price should probably not be allowed access to their money unsupervised…
 
AdrianH said:
I worked out a while ago it will cost you at least 6 times more to get a similar size house in UK that you got in SA.

Eg: So a 3 bedroom, lounge, kitchen, dinning, two baths and single garage is easily minimum £350k in urban areas, which is a cool R8.5mil, yet on SA you get the same for around minimum R1.2m

UK property ain't cheap.
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Your argument is severely flawed tho - there are a lot of other factors to also consider (this coming from someone window shopping for severely overpriced properties in the UK).

Here is one to consider: who would potentially be in a better position after 10 years of ownership?

A: £350k house in a market with a high demand, with general low interest rates (meaning more of the capital portion can be paid off faster)
B: R1.2m in a market filled with constant uncertainty and high interest rates
 
Tman* said:
Your argument is severely flawed tho - there are a lot of other factors to also consider (this coming from someone window shopping for severely overpriced properties in the UK).

Here is one to consider: who would potentially be in a better position after 10 years of ownership?

A: £350k house in a market with a high demand, with general low interest rates (meaning more of the capital portion can be paid off faster)
B: R1.2m in a market filled with constant uncertainty and high interest rates
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You also missed the point
 
@Dave @Priapus @Tman*

So if an average 4 bed, 2 bath, 2 garage house in SA in the average suburban neighbourhood sells for R2mil, how much ZAR must a Saffer bring over to buy a similar size house in UK, which would be about £500k.

Let's do the maths....

R2mil / 24 (exchange rate give or take) * 6 = £500k
 
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