Expats #2: The British

Adventures in Cyprus for the Curious

Statistics by the Cyprus Ministry of Finance state that approximately 70,000 UK citizens live permanently in Cyprus with about half of them of them living in the district of Paphos (mostly residing in Pegeia, Polis Chrysochous, Tala, etc).

This is a very high proportion as Paphos District, on the Western side of the island, only has a total of about 90,000 residents.

Cyprus used to be a British colony and only gained its independence in 1960. It was invaded by Turkey in 1974 who still occupy the northern third, and created the “country” of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) which is only recognized by Turkey. Cyprus joined the EU in 2004 and adopted the Euro in 2008.

Until Brexit, in 2020, British citizens had freedom of movement and residence throughout Europe including Cyprus. Given that Cyprus, to this day, has multiple British military sovereign bases scattered throughout Cyprus, with thousands of armed forces personnel and their families, living on the island, it became natural for many of those families to remain on the island after retiring from the military. A legacy of British rule has left the island with the British standard of driving on the left, a population that speaks English, or at least three quarters do, a large proportion of medical professionals who completed their training in the UK, a closely knit and thriving British expat community, and many, many restaurants that advertise full English breakfasts. For the uninitiated an English breakfast includes eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans, fried mushrooms, fried tomatoes, toast with butter and jam, tea or coffee is included and often hash browns are also added. It’s a really hearty, fried meal.

Britons also holiday frequently in Cyprus. There are direct flights to Paphos from London (Stansted, Heathrow and Gatwick), Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Belfast, Newcastle, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool and others to make a total of 14 airports scattered across the UK that have direct flights to Paphos.

When we visit the Paphos beaches, harbor and seafront, year round one can see British tourists with many of them exhibiting a bright pink/red sunburn after a day or two in the sun eager to make the most of their week of sunshine, forgetting or disregarding the warnings of how strong the Cypriot sun is.

There are a lot of British expats offering services to residents. Our gardener, is an ex military forces resident who played rugby in his youth for the British military team. He likes to call me “boss” and has frequent titbits of local news to share on his weekly visits. We had some custom cushion covers sewn for us by a lovely lady living and working in a nearby village who always called me “luv” when visiting. A gay British couple in a nearby village run a service to help absentee property owners look after their homes while they are away.

Brexit has had its downside for some British residents. One of our acquaintances owned a seafood shop specializing in British delicacies which he would import from the UK. He was forced to close after Brexit made it much more difficult and expensive for him to to import the British seafood his customers wanted. Newcomers have to go through a much more intensive visa process and are not guaranteed residency as they had pre Brexit. Non residents are now limited by the 90/180 day rule which means that they can only spend ninety days in Cyprus out of every 180. Pre Brexit one could import anything duty free from the UK. An order from Amazon UK was duty free, once could order directly from any number of UK retailers or online stores and get delivery within a few days. Much to the dismay of many expats, this is no longer as easy or as cheap as it was pre Brexit. Some UK stores have stopped shipping to the EU/Cyprus due to the need for the extra paperwork required by them to meet EU/Cypriot customs requirements.

British drivers have different standards from the Cypriots. A frequent topic of discussion are Cypriot driving and parking habits.

We have a number of British expats among our extended circle of friends and two of our immediate neighbors are British expats. Most of the expats in our village, Kallepia, are British, from areas as far afield as Scotland, Wales, Devon and London. Our house was built by British expats who went back to live in the UK about four years ago

We’re off, back to Kallepia, in a couple of weeks. More stories then.