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Thanks everyone for the responses. Seems like a fairly international lot here!
Just a question to those who moved abroad with the idea it was only temporary (such as those with 2 year contracts etc): Did you sell up at home, or let your homes out?
I'm in Canada and have been for 13 years... We initially moved "temporarily" and then switched to permanent.
We did initially let our house out in London. It's nice to know your not losing a spot in the housing market as it were until you're fully committed. I would say that letting out homes from a different country is not stress free and is going to hugely depend on your letting agent or model you choose. I used to dread waking up in the morning and seeing in my inbox "RE: {property name}" as it invariably meant there was some issue I was going to have to attempt to trouble shoot with a 7 hour time difference.
Your place sounds much nicer than mine at the time so it's also important to recognize that whilst you're letting it out it's not your home but someone else's. We never actually saw it again after we moved and sold it remotely but we did have friends who had a bit of a culture shock when they returned 4 years after leaving find some differences in things like garden etc let alone inside.
@wornout A couple of my colleagues have emigrated, one to Qatar and one to Darwin. AFAIK both have hung onto UK houses in case they decide to come back (sadly, as we’d still have jobs for them, it doesn’t look like it). This would be my advice if you can afford.
I don't know if it's important to you but check the tax situation carefully.
My best man moved to Monaco for tax reasons about 15 years ago and had to sever every single tie he had to the UK.
This included memberships of clubs etc. as well as the more obvious things like owning house here.
Even that didn't stop the inland revenue launching an investigation and trying exceptionally hard over a couple of years to try and extricate backdated tax from him.
Although ostensibly in Monaco they actually rented just outside Nice for a couple of years before buying an apartment in the principality and moving there full-time.
All the time their three children were at an international school near Nice so there was quite a lot of travelling involved when they moved to the apartment.
Overall he has quite enjoyed being in Monaco but is at pains to keep reminding me that there is a ladder of wealth there and he was always clinging onto the bottom rung by his fingertips!
To put this into some kind of perspective, he also has an 80ft "superyacht" in Antibes that they run away to whenever they can to get out of Monaco!
As has been said already, most people who work in Monaco do not actually live there.
He's pretty much had enough of it now and would like to move out and do other things, but his wife seems to have other ideas 😬
Apparently the French government have very little time for the government of Monaco either and will chase down anybody trying to evade French taxes by saying that they live in Monaco whereas in natural fact they are renting just into France.
On the plus side, if you've got monegasque on your car then the French can do nothing about your speeding tickets 😉
We rented ours out. On both occasions we moved abroad for temporary but long term reasons. Glad we kept it to be honest. Mortgage is almost paid for. If I’d have sold the house back then, pretty sure I’d have spunked it all on coke and hookers…..We are now looking at downsizing to be mortgage free, this wouldn’t have been possible if I’d have sold the house….but I’d have had some great holidays and shiney bikes!!
We let ours through local agency and had zero issues. House had to be repainted when we moved back in and new carpets, but nothing that was a major headache. Each time the tenants were aware that it was only for a fixed period of time. No hassles with them moving out afterwards. No real issues with them contacting us for jobs to be done. Maybe a couple of times a year, but not much.
We accepted it was in our convenience regarding letting the house out. There was no monthly financial bonus from renting it out, all money went straight back into the house. We were also very fortunate in both of us worked good jobs, we had a safety net should something go wrong.
Thought I'd provide an update!
Well, it appears the job is mine if l want to take it... Went out to the employer last weekend. Spent some time with management, some time in the office, spent a day or so nosing around the area in a hire car and a couple of pleasant evenings out. The job itself is great. Good prospects, but not much more money than I'm already on.
Big list of pros and cons. Unfortunately more cons than pros. The main one's being accommodation (or the lack of much other than apartments - with two kids and a dog), the price of said housing, Monaco (grim), Nice (busy). I'm a country bumpkin, so would want to live somewhere between the two, or up in the hills, or Menton. It's not the France of my dreams.
At the moment we're just weighing up schools, potential housing, potential work for my wife, and the logistics of it all (including work, possessions etc). I have people's jobs resting on my work in the UK too, so my conscience isn't finding it easy to just 'go'.
Got some follow-ups with various people. Time will tell...