Purchase a small property and tax issues regarding pension or savings

Don't know about cross-border tax issues as I earn and pay tax here. Probably best to contact a tax lawyer in the UK to clarify the situation. However, if you'll be living here for more than half of the year (which I suppose you will be), then you'll be liable to Romanian taxes, I think.

I've bought a couple of properties here, so if you have any particular questions with that, I can try to help you out.

As a real estate agent it would be easy to sell you a property, but....

My advice is, rent first.  It took me 5 years to really understand what I love about Romania & all my early estimations & plans did not go as I imagined.  You can rent a simple place for 2k gbp per year or a nice place for double that. Of course you can pay 2k per month also. But one thing you dont know yet is what the future holds & when the money is gone, love goes straight out of the window, as my late mum used to say. So think long term, put your money where you can't access it for a year. It is the easiest thing in the world to be Mr Kind & Generous but the money goes really fast, as does time. So before you know it, you could be 5 years older & broke. Once you stretch your imagination, it does not easily fot your old life, so returning to the UK will not be easy. Depressing even. 

Think long term. One thing is for absolute certain. You will not earn money here & there is zero or less, charity. What you can't pay for yourself, you will not have. period.

That said, its a beautiful place with wonderful people, so go for it. You will not regret it if you treat your savings with the correct level of respect. For every 1gbp you have, you will have had to earn 2 or more & it cannot be replaced.  Semi retirement rarely works.  I have seen 50 people say they can work from home anywhere inthe world & I have seen 50 people disappointed when it never worked.  If you have a business anywhere in the world & are not there to manage it, it will almost always die a slow death. Businesses flourish based on personality & human drive & die without it.

Hi

Thank you for your reply, Sorry I've not replied to you sooner.

My concerns are more in the issue of which way to do things, Leave house in UK rent and live off that and private pension, total around 5K RON per month, which is double my partners income from teaching or to sell in next 12 months and buy approx 60 - 70K Euro in Iasi.
What are your views on investments in Romania what would the yield be approx or would I be better to  invest £100k in UK and transfer income to Romania monthly or yearly
sorry these questions may not be able to be answered by yourself but any thoughts could be usefull

with regards

Mark

Keep your UK investment. With your UK tax allowances, you can pretty much keep all of that for yourself. in Romania, you will be taxed 12% & 5.5% on any rental income you make.

Make the place in the UK nice, make sure everything works well & rent it long term. Use upad.co,uk or some such site. Don't pay a friend for PM. Pay a local agent with a decent size, but not to big a team.

The high level of care I was able to offer owners when I managed only 15 properties with 1 staff is not always as thorough now with 80 properties & 4 staff, because the red tape bogs you down. Don't get me wrong, we do a very decent job but I don't have a personal relationship any more with every tenant which can make a difference & I cannot do every repair myself so I sometimes rely more on contractors for property repairs.

When we were a smaller team, I myself did emergency repairs, even at 10pm on december 31st & used to forget to charge owners! If I did that now, I would go bust with all my overheads! So find a family business for your PM & make sure they dont have too many to look after.  Try to chose your own tenant if you can or be involved in the selection.

Move to Romania but only by rental. Prices are unlikely to rise more than 10% in the next 5 years in my view, despite all the hype people say, because many income earners are deserting their country for higher salaries in the UK, Italy etc, reducing demand & unlike the nationalistic/ patriotic Poles, they are much less likely to return because the country is not growing as quickly as it could in their absence. Ignore excess confidence that you will surely witness. Follow your instinct. Take it slow. one step at a time. Move via rental only. Try it for a year & review.  If this relationship goes belly up, would you find another relationship or would you return?