Why do we have to pay more in the UK?

[matelot]

Do you remember about ten years ago there was a big fuss about cars in the UK being so much more expensive compared to mainland Europe?

 

The car manufacturers were just trying to maximise profit as the UK is a wealthier country...

[Taupotreeman]

You want expensive? Try living in New Zealand!

[wills-mill]

Just to make you all feel really happy, this is the sort of property available in Germany:

 

4 bedroom village house for sale in Rhineland-Palatinate, Simmern (Hunsrück), Germany

[Big J]

Just to make you all feel really happy, this is the sort of property available in Germany:

 

4 bedroom village house for sale in Rhineland-Palatinate, Simmern (Hunsrück), Germany

 

That's towards the top end of the market! Cracking outbuildings with it though.

 

I rather like this one too - cheaper, lovely inside and has a sauna and a beautiful garden:

 

TOP-Gepflegte Immobilie im Landhausstil mit Nebengebäude + schöner Garten inkl. Teich + Kamin + Garage u.v.m. Einfamilienhaus Daun (27BPJ4Y)

[wills-mill]

That's towards the top end of the market! Cracking outbuildings with it though.

 

I rather like this one too - cheaper, lovely inside and has a sauna and a beautiful garden:

 

TOP-Gepflegte Immobilie im Landhausstil mit Nebengebäude + schöner Garten inkl. Teich + Kamin + Garage u.v.m. Einfamilienhaus Daun (27BPJ4Y)

 

Luckily they're closing the borders, so all the hairy Brit treefolk migrants will be turned away with the Syrians.

 

EDIT: That site is pretty cool, you can even pick yourself up a new flat pack quality home to go with your serviced site. How organised, how refreshing!

 

http://www.immowelt.de/typenhaus/ksstarterhaus.aspx

Edited February 5, 2016 by wills-mill

[Big J]

Luckily they're closing the borders, so all the hairy Brit treefolk migrants will be turned away with the Syrians.

 

EDIT: That site is pretty cool, you can even pick yourself up a new flat pack quality home to go with your serviced site. How organised, how refreshing!

 

Starterhaus - Häuser bis 100000?

 

Cool! Goes nicely with your reasonably priced, widely available building plots. You would struggle to spend £40k on a plot and £20k is average.

 

I spend ages on Immowelt.de. For the value of the house that we rent here in the UK, I could actually buy about 6-8 reasonable 2-3 bedroom houses in that part of Germany. It's lovely too - very nice hills, forest and it's a wine growing region too.

 

Apologies to the other thread contributors for the derail!

[Dave Tris]

Grenmech are actually british so if we this kit cheaper in this country then it sounds like a real market for once i.e. our price does not have to include transport costs and other costs involved with exporting.

 

Chainsaws are one of the other proper markets – there are just too many out there for manufacturers to ‘fix’ an artificially high country price. It gets overtaken once the second hard market kicks in.

 

Log splitter prices for good models like Krpan are just ridiculously high compared to the continent

[Gbaz]

Does anyone know any cheap husqvarna dealers in the EU? I keep getting tempted by cheap husqvarna's on German eBay.

[Spinner]

I travel to many countries with my work and on many occasions at first glance it can seem that a particular country has so much more to offer than the UK or is so much cheaper to live in. And yes if you search the web for items in Europe or even non EU countries you can find many things are cheaper. At the same time you will also find the opposite.

 

The biggest factor is exchange rates. Earlier this year £1 bought you €1.415 so that cracking looking house in Germany at €215K would have cost £152K. Currently the rate is £1=€1.263 so the house now costs £18K more. In late 2011 the rate was £1=€1.12 so the house at €215K would have cost £47K more. Or you could look at it and say its 30% cheaper to buy it now! But is the house owner in Germany saying the German economy is suffering deflation since 2011 because a UK chap can buy there house for 30% less than in 2011. No of course not. My point is that by being outside of the Euro the whole of the UK suffers huge swings in the cost of imports and equally exports. Its reasonable to say that at the moment as an importer we are benefiting. However the four years from 2009 to 2013 the rate varied between €1.02 and €1.14 and it had a devastating effect on companies that import from the Euro zone.

 

Its easy to feel like you are being ripped off now but its wrong to take a snap shot view of things at any one given point in time. If your business is involved predominately with importing then you have to look at things over a much longer period than if your business UK & £ based only. There are companies that make hay whilst the sun shines and then vanish when things get tough. They leave customers in the lurch and treat staff like a disposable item. To me these companies are the low life scum of business. Whilst plenty of them have come and gone we are still here after 30+ years. I would like to think that very few, if any, of my customers feel we are 'ripping them off' at the moment. Equally I know my staff have secure jobs.

 

I truly believe that if you look at true comparisons IE. between EU countries, taxes paid in that country, exchange rates over say 5 years etc. etc. In other words the full picture, you will find that overall it all pretty much balances out.

 

My head office is in the South and the cheapest 2 bed flat within 15 miles is £95K. I have a depot up north and the cheapest 2 bed flat within 15 miles is £32K. So 66% cheaper to buy a place up north. However the wage difference is about 10%! Perhaps you don't have to look outside the country to find examples of 'Rip Off UK'.

 

We keep being told we are parts of a Global Economy, that the world is a small place, that the European Union is here to make it all a level playing field! Really, wake up and smell the coffee!

 

As they say, the grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence. Perhaps the reality is more along the lines of 'same s--t, different venue'!

 

There is more to buying something than just price. Things like warranty and service and even supporting UK or local business and jobs. Hang on a minute, I import from foreign factories. So there you go, kettle calling the pot black! Lets face it, the whole thing is a buggers muddle.

My advice? Don't always focus on price. Buy from people you like. Do business with people you like. Treat people the way you would like them to treat you. Oh, and stop searching the European web sites for cheep goods, I am trying to earn a living!

[Shane]

My experience leaves me feeling happy - and sad.

 

I recently destroyed the drive shaft on my telescopic echo pole pruner.

The UK dealers wanted £40 odd plus VAT plus special delivery charge cos it wasn't in stock. It was going to total almost £60 for an 18 inch springy thing.

 

I looked on ebay and found a US supplier whereby it was supplied, packaged, sent, duties paid etc for a total of... £29.00

 

There are times when the reasoning is difficult to understand.

If there's no rush then let the world be your oyster - but dont complain about diminshing employment in the UK since our greed and the global supply sources are killing it off.