Two years ago, Ron and Marcia Gibbs swapped doing the school run with their grandchildren in Newton Abbot, Devon for a new life on the largest Greek island – Crete. Today, even in February (the coldest and wettest month there) they are enjoying a relaxing breakfast in their garden, tucking into Greek yoghurt and local honey while soaking up the spring rays and the views.
‘The snow on the White Mountains looks so beautiful under the blue sky,’ says Marcia, 69. ‘It’s bliss here. Life is easier and slower-paced. This feels like a proper retirement.’
As well it might for the hard-working couple, who first met in a Torquay nightclub 50 years ago and were married two years later. They raised their children Mark 46, and Emma, 44, in a four-bedroom house and also helped out with their four grandchildren.
Marcia, who trained as a nurse at 18, retired from teaching at Torquay Hospital at 57 to look after the grandchildren, which she did until the youngest started senior school. Ron, 71, a fabricator welder, retired two years after Marcia to also help out. It was after four holidays to Crete that the couple decided the laid-back lifestyle there would be ideal for their retirement.
The sunset over the island of Crete in Greece
‘We knew we wanted another adventure in our lives yet we also wanted to be involved with bringing up our grandchildren. Otherwise we would have made the move sooner than we did,’ says Marcia. ‘We had visited other Greek islands but chose Crete because it’s the biggest, so has the most going on. The Cretans are so hospitable: they invite you into their homes and make you feel very welcome. One of my Greek neighbours left me a huge bag of oranges on the doorstep this week. I am going to make marmalade with them.’
The place the Gibbs call home is a three-bedroom house high on a hill in Drapanos, a village in north-west Crete close to the beach resort of Almyrida, which they bought for £218,000 in 2022.
They fell in love with its stunning views across Souda Bay after being shown it on Channel 4’s A Place In The Sun – although it did lack the swimming pool on their wish-list. So when they moved there a year later, building a pool was one of the first updates they made to the property.
They spent nearly €40,000 (£33,000) but Marcia says it’s been worth it. ‘The average temperature in July is 32 degrees so it [the pool] was essential and we positioned it to get amazing views, especially at sunset.’ Another €15,000 to €20,000 has been spent on improvements such as landscaping, while Ron has been using his welding skills to make a wrought-iron gate and gazebo for the property.
Marcia, who’s had severe asthma in the past, says the weather is fantastic for her health, as is walking their two dogs, adopted as stray puppies. She’s also immersed herself in local groups – and volunteers one day a week at a charity shop, the Syllogos in Plaka.
They joined 17,000 other British expats in Greece, and their timing was good – they bought in 2022, meaning they were able to apply for a golden visa to get Greek residency before the minimum qualifying purchase price of a property in Crete was raised from €250,000 (£206,000) to €800,000 (£660,000) last year. They decided not to sell but to rent out their Devon home to keep their options open.
The couple have lots of new British and Greek friends, but miss their family. ‘It is hard. We had a first Christmas here without them. But they come over in the school holidays,’ Marcia says.
Experts say it is Cretan life’s simple and inexpensive pleasures which make it a popular choice with British retirees. Unlike many of the smaller Greek islands, Crete – with around 670,000 residents – is well-equipped with hospitals, amenities and two international airports.
‘Apokoronas in north-western Crete is especially popular with retirees for its traditional villages within easy reach of the city of Chania (and its airport)’, says Phil Ambrose of estate agent A Place in Crete. ‘Along with Almyrida, Plaka, Kalyves and Kokkino Horio are very popular with British expats – these coastal villages get great sunset views.’
Marcia and Ron Gibbs knew the laid-back lifestyle in Crete, which they moved to from Devon, would suit them
In and around Chania, the average rent for a three-bedroom apartment is €917 (£760), according to consumer database numbeo.com, but British retirees tend to buy rather than rent. You can find two-bedroom properties from around €170,000 (£140,000), or renovation projects for under £50,000. Buying costs make up between 5 and 10 per cent of the sale price.
Weekly trips to the supermarket are no longer on the couple’s to-do list. Many neighbours grow their own olives, figs and vines, and Marcia loves buying fresh bread in the village and the fruit and vegetables grown locally.
‘We eat out two or three times a week and with a bottle of wine we might pay around €35 (£29) at the most for both of us. Many main courses are huge and only cost around €10 each and you get a free starter, a free dessert and a raki (a spirit made from grapes),’ says Marcia. ‘Here, even the doctor tells us to drink red wine and olive oil.’
Ron pays €3 for a pint of beer, and Marcia says half a bottle of village wine – a ‘miso kilo’ served in a metal container in tavernas – is €4, though she adds it can sometimes be ‘a little bit rough’.
None of their living expenses are high – in fact, Marcia reckons it’s possible for them to live comfortably on €2,000 (£1,650) a month. ‘Eating out does come at a cost but we have an expat friend who lives purely on his state pension,’ she says.
The full UK state pension is £11,502 for 2024-25. In the UK, a yearly sum of £43,100 is required for a pensioner to enjoy a comfortable retirement, according to industry organisaton The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, or £31,300 a year for a ‘moderate’ lifestyle. In Greece, the cost of living is on average 21.5 per cent lower than in the UK according to numbeo.com, with rents 60 per cent lower, but the average monthly pay after tax is only £808.
The Gibbs’ utility bills are not high. ‘Electricity is approximately £17 a week, with the swimming pool running. Water is about £8 a week. We pay a community tax which is £124 per person per year for waste collection,’ says Marcia. Cars, however, tend to be the exception and are more expensive, she says. Marcia bought a Chevrolet Matiz for €3,000 (£2,500) and says anyone relocating should buy at the end of the summer holiday season when you can pick up a former rental car that has been well looked-after.
Petrol is £1.30 a litre and car insurance around £200 per year but the couple have two cars. Ron has a Kia ‘run-around’ for picking up building supplies while Marcia loves whizzing around in the Chevrolet to her volunteering job and ‘knit and natter’ group – which is ‘great for catching up on the local gossip over tea and cake’.
There are also weekly Greek classes, and she says her ‘conversational Greek’ is coming on well thanks to many informal chats in tavernas. ‘Everyone speaks to us after a couple glasses of wine!’
Life in Greece has not been without hiccups; the couple’s water supply ran dry last summer. ‘We had to get two bowsers to fill up the swimming pool and have now upgraded to a bigger water-storage tank so that hopefully won’t happen again,’ says Ron.
Additionally, there are no direct flights between the UK and Crete in the winter, which makes travelling back home – via Athens – more time-consuming. Summer flights to Chania from London take around four hours. Healthcare is a concern for most expat retirees anywhere in the world, but as Greek residents Marcia and Ron can access the state healthcare system and use their mandatory Global Healthcare Card (this allows UK residents to access healthcare when visiting European countries, and pay as they go for private services).
‘I had to have an MRI scan and it was booked within a few days and cost £133,’ Marcia says. ‘Vamos Health Centre is a 15 minute drive away and is open 24 hours a day.’
Getting the Greek golden visa costs €3,500 (£2,900) in total for admin and legal costs but the renewal in five years will be much less. ‘It wasn’t difficult as we paid a lawyer to do to the application for us,’ says Marcia.
With the golden visa it is obligatory to get private insurance to cover for emergencies, such as car accidents or heart attacks – but not ailments, says Marcia. ‘We have just renewed it for this year at €250 (£207) each.’ High demand for the visa – the most popular golden visa in Europe in 2023 – has been blamed for house price speculation, where buyers purchase a property with the hopes of reselling it at a higher price in the near future.
The old port of Chania on Crete. It is helpful for retirees to be within easy reach of this city
The number of British people moving to Greece has increased significantly since Brexit, according to Stuart Wakeling, head of investment migration consultancy Henley & Partners’ London office. ‘It doesn’t compete with Dubai, but the interest in Greece rivals that of Portugal, Spain and Italy.’
As a result of the golden visa-qualifying price of a property rising to a minimum of €800,000 in places such as Athens, Crete and Mykonos, ‘some buyers have switched to areas where a €400,000 threshold still stands, such as Corinth and Patras,’ according to Maria Kaili of Athens legal firm Cremer & Partners.
Others opt for a Financially Independent Person (FIP) visa, also known as the Greece Retirement Visa. ‘It is obtained by first applying for a D-visa (long-term visa) from a Greek Consulate in the UK, which will then allow them to enter Greece and apply for the FIP,’ says Ms Kaili.
Applicants must show an income of at least €3,500 per month and proof of financial means to support themselves. You cannot work on this three-year visa and must spend at least 183 days a year in Greece.
Tax perks attract the wealthy
Greece offers better tax perks than France or Spain for those with high incomes and attracted around 1,100 millionaires in 2023, with another 1,200 projected to have moved there in 2024, according to a report by investment migration consultancy Henley & Partners.
The country’s lump-sum taxation regime offers a flat rate of €100,000 paid annually on foreign-sourced income to those newly settled in Greece. A family member can join for €20,000 a year.
Applicants must also invest at least €500,000 in Greece – so many do so hand-in-hand with applying for their golden visa. They buy a property for a minimum of €800,000 and benefit from both legal residency and the tax regime.
There is also a Greek non-dom regime for retirees, offering them a flat rate of 7 per cent on foreign income, rather than the standard Greek income tax rates. Greece has a double-taxation agreement with the UK, meaning that income and capital gains are not taxed twice.
There is inheritance tax in Greece but between…
Read More: We retired to Greece without a big, fat pension and live comfortably on just £1,650 a