Hello Everyone. My wife Sue and I are just completing purchase of a property on the island. Due to personal circumstances we will not be able to move out permanently for a year or 2 but I was wondering if anyone has experience of moving to the island from the UK, what is required, problems and issues encountered etc. I've read a lot of the posts and a lot of information seems to be related to the US which is a bit different to the UK in terms of legal issues. Hope you can help and am looking forward to getting out there again just as soon as I can.

Hi Richard

We have moved here from UK in January, suggest you put up specific questions and no doubt you'll get other opinions as well. I'll also email you privately.

Welcome Richard, I'm afraid that you almost slipped by me, thanks to Phil posting I would have forgotten to say Welcome..
Phil is correct, be a bit more specific with your questions and it will open up a virtual concert of answers. Congratulations on your new property..

you might take a look at his thread for a start Richard , there are a couple of good links within,, archives

Hi all,

We are also from the UK and have a property on the island. We currently only use it as a holiday home, but eventually will move over.

We are next there 30th March, are there many ex UK residents? And there any local haunts they go too??

Andrew

Dear All,

Thanks very much for the welcomes and contacts. Been away for a few days and couldn't respond until now.

Since posting I've had a lot of questions answered but would like to hear from anyone regarding the following: -

The situation regarding getting work on the island seems to be pretty difficult. We are planning to operate our house as a small guest house with a couple of rooms rented out. We want to offer guests things like someone to dive with, mountain biking, guided tours round etc.Hopefully this will bring in a little money. I've seen the licence that I think we need with DEZA - any issues with this that you can see?

In terms of getting other work I'm an Internet consultant with over 20 years computing experience. I suppose I could do contracting work remotely but I would rather do a little bit of work (if necessary) on the island, for example teaching basic programming skills etc

Any inside information on the work front in general would be good.

Also I'd just be interested to hear what you find life is like over there (the good and the bad).

Cheers - Richard & Sue.

Hi everyone. We are looking for property with sea view, garden large enough to build a pool, near nice beach, $200,000 or under. A fixer upper is considered. We are from England.

Can anyone help us? perhaps you have seen properties for sale, or good websites?

How have you found Bonaire? what have the people been like? Do they have nice resturants and cafes ?

Gary

Gary,

We are from England also and you are asking a lot for $200,000 or under. You are looking at much more for Sea View, etc. But if you are lucky one might pop up, but everyone will be after it.

We have a property 7 mins walk from sea, thats great.

There are a few properties up for sale at Light House Beach, try on of the Real Estate web sites on www.infobonaire.com they should show some of the property costs.

Everything on the island is not easy to get hold of, and you need patience and visit a number of shops to complete a task!!!

We find Lac Bay great and also Plaza Hotel (it has a pool for the kids).

Hope this helps.

Hi Gary,

I'd have to agree with Andrew on this one. I'm not an expert (obviously) but prices with sea views seem much higher to me. We worked with Sunbelt Realty when buying our house and I have to say they were great to work with.

Are there boat trips between Aruba and Bonaire?

Sunbelt realty a really good website. Will keep a eye on it.

Will now check out infobonaire.com

Thankyou for everybodys help.

Gary,

No boat trips only flights. We too dealt with Sunbelt and Anja really looked after us. We are currently on the island on vacation and are still learning ourselves since we bought last year.

Hope we are of help.