Living in Thurso/Caithness area

[mrmiguel]

Hello,
I may have an opportunity to live in, or around, Thurso in the coming weeks.

I just wanted to get some idea of cost of living and what life is like in the area.

Maybe some of you can give me some idea of housing costs. I would be looking
to rent a house, 3 bedroom, preferably a detacht, or simi-detached. Aprroximately
what you think cost of food for three adults would be on a monthly basis, and
cost of utilities (light, water, heating, etc.)

Any additional information you can provide me that will help me get a general
idea of what Thurso is like would be helpful and appreciated.

Thank you for taking time in reading this, and I thank you in advance for
replying to my message.

Miguel (miguel.nieto@usa.net)

[Bill Fernie]

A few properties for rent are on the business section of this web site at http://www.caithness-business.co.uk/rent.php there is one three bed roomed house furnished for £400 per month. The exchange rates are very much in the Uk's favour agaist the dollar in recent times so the price may seem expensive from your side of the water. Estate agents also have properties to rent and these can be found in the business section http://www.caithness-business.co.uk/category.php?cat=75
Note that in this country solicitors often have estate agency parts to their business and most will sell and rent property.

I was in the US about six year as ago and then food and clothing were cheaper than in the Uk but with the exchange rate changes that may have altered and I would have expected prices to seem more expensive if coming from the US unless you are working and earning in the UK. Scotlands prices are similar to rest of the UK.

House prices are cheaper in Caithness than most other parts of the UK but they have risen in the past couple of years. A check around some of the web sites selling property will give you a better idea. House prices generally have increased rapidly in the past three years as the stock market has not been doing so well and folk have tended to invest in property rather than stocks and shares.

The hardest thing you will have to swallow here is our petrol/gas prices. They are massively mosre expensive than in the US. We pay very heavy taxes on fuel for our cars compared to the USA. The UK is one of the heaviest taxed on fuels in the world - not agreen policy as that is the way it has alway beenn as the government has used it to raise revenue. I was amazed at how cheap fuel was for cars was in the US on my trip. You will find it equally shocking coming here to see how expensive that aspect of living is here.
Fuel is a few pence per litrs more expensive than further south - sorry we are also on the metric system here to come in line with the rest of Europe. You will need to get used to that and forget about gallons as we had to a few years back. We stlil use miles as opposed to kilometres. Shops use metric so it will be bye bye pounds and ounces and hello kilos.
Depending on what house you have you may have choice of gas electic or oil for heating. Houses here are mainly centrally heated these days and most have thermostats on radiators and many have controls at the boilers to control house temperatures. With hgih fuel costs it as well to learn how to use these efficiently fairly quick. I am not sure that my bills for two person house would be comparable if you have children.
Apart from the electric/gas/oil there will also be the phone to pay if you have one in the house. Most folk here now also have mobile phones as they have spread in the Uk extremely fast - even children at school often have one now.
If you have a car you will have to pay for road tax as well as insurance. the road tax is I think about £110 per annum but it can be paid six monthly if you prefer and is slightly more exensive that way. Insurance for vehicles is very competitive in the UK and disos are available for years without claims and companies do vary a lot so it is well worth shopping around for insurance for vehicles. If you hire for a long period ask for discoutns as longer hires can attract a percentage off and again shoop around and ask for discounts for longer hires. If you don't ask they may not offer one.

I hope you enjoy your stay in the county.