Paphos People

Watched an interesting programme about this last night, looking at the knock on effect the credit crunch is starting to have on all sectors of the economy.

One analyst described the combination of rising food and fuel prices, falling house prices and weak sterling as being a "perfect storm" in terms on the damage being caused to the UK economy, and forecast that recession, if not already here, is now inevitable.

There were some case studies on small businesses being forced to close, people who were recently very secure now finding themselves unemployed and with a mortgage they can't afford, sometimes negative equity etc etc...

Are those of you in the UK noticing the difference? And what are the longer term implications for the Cyprus tourist and property markets??

at the moment we arent noticing it too much, however we try and be sensible and live within our means! we dont have a massive mortgage.... but big enough! we both work and have reasonable wages.
the only thing we have noticed recently is petrol consumption as we both travel to work by car stevie 40 miles each way and i do 15 miles each way if i am working at dunfermline instead of my home town, my job covers 2 hospital sites!
we would like to move to cy, but due to emily being at college it will be a few years so we hope by then our house will be worth more again...we just have to wait and see!! although i dont think the property market is quite as bad in scotland as in england!

my food bills are much the same!

electric and gas will be more this winter i am sure..... we will just have to wait and see though with that one!!!

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Kathryn x

I have noticed that some food items have gone up in price but as there is just the 2 of us it is easy to be more selective. We eat very healthy and I generally cook everything from scratch so I would imagine that my food bills will more or less stay the same.

Our mortgage is very, very small and we only have 18months left on it so that will stay the same. We do have a mortgage in Cyprus as well and we have noticed that it has incread by approx £100 over the past 2 years. Also costs generally .i.e electricity, communal charge etc have gone up so we will have to watch what we spend on our property in Cyprus.

We both work full time and Mike has a company car so the only fuel cost are mine and I live not far from work so that is ok.

Also my husband is a bit of an anorak regarding getting the best deals on things and he has negotiated our fuel cost to be frozen for the next two years. I alwys laugh at him about things like this but he has come up trumps this time.

The only drain on our income is our 22 year old son who has moved out. He is always behind with his rent and we foolishly signed as guarantor to his landlord. Never again. He has just informed us today that he has lost his job and so we will have to pay over £500 for this months rent. I will not repeat what I said to him but its not the credit cruch that is stressing me out but him.

Tough love from now on.

Gilly

Just passed Tesco and petrol £1.11.9 per litre plus 5p off per litre if you spend over £50 on shop.

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Life is short! Break the rules! Forgive quickly!
Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably
And never regret anything that made you smile Warning Internet forums may contain nuts

IMHO ............

The press are obsessed with 'The Credit Crunch' and as a result, the 'general public' are panicking.

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J B

Going to get worse before it gets better.....

We are certainly noticing it - our utility bills have increased by £150 pcm without having done anything - council tax up, electricity, fuel etc. Phil has changed his car because of the increase in car tax.

Fortunately, our apartment is on a long term rental so we are not having to worry about paying our Cyprus mortgage but when that ends we will notice an increase due to the exchange rate.

It's a case of tightening belts and hanging on in there. During the last recession in the late 90's we moved to our current house with negative equity but during the time we have been here the value has increased 3 fold. I think it only becomes an issue if you are trying to buy for the first time, as mortgages are not readily available, or selling up for the last time as the equity in the property is not as much as it was a couple of years ago.

I do feel sorry for those who are hardworking and still not managing to make ends meet through no fault of there own.

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Sarah & Phil

Oh boy,
Did we pick the right time to jump ship?
If we hadn't made the move over here this year I think I would be close to suicide in the UK now.
What with brown the clown and his gang of imbeciles. and the appaling "summer" if you can call it that.
The row I had with my employers was a blessing in disguise.
If that hadn't happened we would probably have still been there.
perhaps I should send them a thank you letter.

Brian

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Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want....

Well we've moved on a bit now and the credit crunch is now officially a recession, with forecasts of the likely duration and severity seemingly getting worse by the day.

Are people now noticing more impact of this in Cyprus and the UK?

Property in the UK has really dropped in price over the last six months and getting a mortgage is now much harder and bigger deposits are necessary. Perhaps in some ways for the young folks it will be better because they can get on the property ladder at a much more affordable price but they also have to save longer for a deposit. No bad thing since they are not landed with such a massive debt if their job goes.

Food in general I think is quite reasonable still in the UK and clothes likewise.Certainly the likes of Asda and Tesco and Primark have clothes at almost disposable prices which is very good for young families.

Jobs are harder to come by and those that are in work are finding salaries static and Companies like Jaguar are now on short weeks.

In all I think we all have to think before spending and to be more careful in every way like trying to keep bills as low as possible. Savings are not earning any money and so we have to think of ways to invest more wisely.

In Saudi Arabia the compounds for expats are full at present which shows that more people are moving to work in those Countries to beat the crunch.