Lanzarote Relocation

Our friends Dave and Ange have recently launched a secure self-storage facility at their MVP Pool and Spa warehouse in Playa Blanca.

Options range from a 1 cubic metre boxes up to 27.5 cubic metre lock-ups. Storage is in a secure warehouse and there is unlimited free access during  MVP office hours.

Their service is reasonably priced and ideal for local businesses and for personal belongings. Of particular interest to those of you reading this site who are moving to Lanzarote, the service enables you to send your personal effects in advance knowing they will be safe and secure until your arrival. MVP can also arrange delivery to your new home when you get here. It also opens up another option for anyone returning the UK.

A 1 cubic metre box is 20€ a month.

A small lock up of approximately 9 cubic metres is:
1 week or part thereof 45€
1 month or part thereof 85€
3 months plus 75€
6 months plus 65€

Large lock up of approximately 27.5 cubic metres:
1 week or part thereof 50€
1 month or part thereof 125€
3 months plus 115€
6 months plus 95€

Like everything else Dave and Ange do – we are sure they’ll be successful with the new venture!

Due Diligence: A term most people who’ve been in business at any point in their lives will be familiar with. A simple definition in business terms might be “due diligence refers to the process of making sure that someone is what they say they are and can do what they claim (eg, does the product really work, do they really have customers, etc. )”.

If you’re moving to Lanzarote, you may want to take this a bit further and apply this to your everyday life!

I’ve written before about the sharks on the island, but here’s a recent example.

A friend of ours came over to stay last year for a number of months. At first he loved it, everyone was really nice, friendly and welcoming. But, before long, once people realised he was here for a while, it started….

“Who’s cleaning your pool”?

“Do you have a cleaner”?

“Are you buying a house”?

These statements, of course not always, but often, translate to – “give me a job” (nothing wrong with that really, that’s just networking)….

Or, far more cynically, “I have a mate that does that”… and they will give me a few Euros for the introduction (In which case the quality of the work or the service is irrelevant to the person making the introduction – they only care about the percentage offered).

Newcomers should always be aware that people all too often have an agenda – what seems like an innocent and helpful bit of matchmaking results in a proverbial ‘brown envelope’ for the introduction. What does that mean in real terms? YOU are paying for that.

There’s a real ‘back-hander’ culture on the island (as we’re sure there is anywhere you get a gathering of ex-pats) – personally we don’t like it, or get involved, but lets face it, it happens everywhere. Caveat Emptor!

But, perhaps worse than that there’s an element, albeit a small element looking to fleece the newcomers… Please, please be on your guard. Trust no-one – including us – until you know them. Do your Due Diligence, take nothing at face value… Or you may pay a high, or sometime catastrophic price. Not everyone is what they seem. We talk about taking off the rose tinted glasses on the home page of this site – you’re risking a lot coming out here, with good reason.

Alan

As a note on the content on this site – we only recommend people and businesses we know and trust. If we find out they haven’t lived up to expectations we will either drop the article, remove details or take some other action. If we do not know them we’ll make that clear, if we know that they are untrustworthy, then they won’t be on here – and if asked a direct question – as we would giving a job reference in the UK – we will not comment rather than get involved in some of the petty back-biting that rears its ugly head here from time to time.

A few days ago I was talking with David White the MD of AxiaFX, one of the currency exchange companies we use from time to time (David has done me an enormous favour recently – more on that to come in another post soon).

Without going into our own circumstances in any detail, apart from putting the economies of Europe to rights, we were discussing generally the best way for expats to move money regularly from the UK.

One of the few BIG mistakes we made when we moved to the island was not to properly research currency exchange, and doing it through the high street banks cost us dearly.  We’ve learned since though.

As well as those big payments these companies can also organise for regular payments to be automatically transferred, free of bank charges, and at better rates. So if you’ve got a mortgage on a property here paid from your UK accounts, or perhaps a pension you regularly transfer, over a period of time the savings must be huge! I asked David for some figures to illustrate this point. Here’s the example he gave;

That’s one hell of a lot of money over the lifetime of a mortgage or years of pension payments being transferred!

It’s frankly just insane not to do it through a currency exchange company – no bank charges, better rates – it’s as simple as that. It is a proverbial ‘no brainer’.

If you would like a currency exchange quote or have any questions the form below goes directly to David’s email address at AxiaFX.

We received the following email last night – we hope that someone can help reunite Kiara with her owner. Please share this link on your Facebook walls, Twitter feeds, Lanzarote forums, and amongst your friends.

I am emailing to ask for your help in order to find our lost dog Kiara.

Kiara is a small mixed breed dog- half chuhuahua and half terrier. She is largely brown with some white patches. She was lost in Puerto del Carmen (Calle Rociega) at 9.30pm on the 20th of April. She simply vanished out of the garden without so much as a bark.

We are desperate to find her and would appreciate your assistance in the matter. I am attaching a poster we have made and will be distributing around PDC. We would be very grateful if you could include this poster on your website or atleast publish this information online. She is well known in PDC so we are hoping to get her back ASAP.

If you have any question or need ot get hold of us at all please call 606634684 or email me on deepti.aswani@cantab.net.

Thank you kindly for your help.

Regards

Deepti Aswani

We all leave someone behind when we move to Lanzarote. Sitting these people down and telling them of your big decision may be one of the hardest things to bring up in conversation. Continue reading →