I sold my three-bed semi in the UK for £485k and built my dream home in Cyprus

Marietta Maidman, 63, admits to being a bit of a risk-taker, saying she once ditched her job in London to work on a yacht delivery to Tahiti. Despite her nature, she says a recent decision to put her UK home on the market following a visit to friends living in Cyprus was a surprise to those close to her. Eight months later, she had moved to the Mediterranean island. “I knew the weather was good and I trusted my friends. To have an immediate social circle, that was huge for me,” she says.

Looking northwest of Ayia Napa

Marietta decided against buying a property and started looking around for a plot of land in Frenaros, a village nine miles (14km) northwest of Ayia Napa. She says: “It’s not by the sea, as that would have been beyond my budget, but also those villages tend to die down in winter because they’re full of holiday lets, and I wanted to be part of a community. There’s a good mix of expats and locals, but there’s still easy access to the great beaches of Ayia Napa. I didn’t want to live on a complex, I wanted my own space. I’d been back in the UK a week, and, in October 2022, two plots of land came up. Together, the plots were about the size of three tennis courts – 840 sq m – and were a bit of an odd shape, but I liked that about them.” (Photo: Getty)

A relatively straightforward move

As the seller wanted the money straight away, he agreed that if Marietta bought one plot for €80,000 (£68,300/US$91,000 in today's exchange rate), she could have the other plot for €5,000 (£4,270/$5,690). She then sold her Edwardian, three-bedroom semi, in-between Southampton and Portsmouth for £485,000 ($646,100) and flew out to Cyprus with her pets. After being made redundant at the age of 59 during the pandemic in 2020, Marietta set up her own travel agency, Not Just Travel, which tailor-makes luxury holidays. As she’s her own boss and, when she’s not travelling, works from home, moving to Cyprus was relatively straightforward. The key criteria for residency is to buy a property worth €300,000 (around £256,200/$341,400) or under plus a certain level of income. You will also need a Cyprus bank account with €10,000 (about £8,500/$11,400) in.

'I've been learning Greek'

While there is a fast-track residency which requires a certain level of income and cash, Marietta didn’t qualify for this. “I renew my residency every year for five years and then, after that, I need to take a language test, so I’ve been learning Greek but it’s hard!” she says. Fortunately, her friends’ property company was able to help her out with everything from arranging residency to helping source builders. “The builder was the nicest man you’ve ever met. We had to get planning consent, but the property company even managed this,” she explains. (Photo: Petros Karadjias/AP)

'An environmentally-friendly house sits better with me'

That said, Marietta still found some parts of the process “daunting”, especially as she was doing everything on her own. “It’s definitely harder being on my own so there were times I really wished I had had a partner to share the load, bounce ideas off. I was quite lucky though that all the decisions I made were the right ones,” she adds. In October 2024, Marietta moved out of the apartment she had been renting and into her “dream home”. The house she built is an ‘L-shape’ and on two storeys; downstairs is where Marietta lives and there are two bedrooms and a bespoke kitchen, which she helped design, plus a living room. She also has a heated pool, solar panel-powered electricity and a heat pump. “I tried to make the house as environmentally friendly as I could; it sits better with my values,” she says. “It’s a very different house to what you see in the UK. They haven’t heard of a spirit level – there are no straight lines, and they have floating foundations because of the risk of earthquakes so the property can move.” (Photo: fhm/Getty/Frank Herrmann)

Renting out to friends, but not AirBnBing

Upstairs is a two-bedroom unit which Marietta plans to rent out to friends and family. “I won’t AirBnB it but, because my friends are property consultants, they often need somewhere for their clients to stay while they look at properties. I’m a sociable person so I like having people around. I wanted something really special. I could have got something much smaller for £250,000/$333,100 but I’ve been strategic so I can always sell the top flat if I need to.” While she now has a house she loves and hasn’t had to compromise, Marietta admits that it did cost more than she budgeted. She says: “I didn’t have much cash in the bank at the end and I thought I would. The building work cost £435,000/$579,500, including the cost of the plot.” The sale of her UK property also meant that she was able to do everything in cash and didn’t have to take out a loan. (Photo: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP)

Some snags still to sort out

The build also went on longer than originally planned. “The builder was confident it would be finished by July 2024, and it wasn’t. Everyone here goes on holiday in August, so I had to wait till October for it to be ready for me to move in to,” she adds. Marietta had been living in the property for three months at the time of interviewing and there were some snags that still need to be sorted out. “I’m not attached to the mains for electricity so I can’t use the dishwasher and cooker at the same time! That should change soon,” she explains. (Photo: Getty)

'I am prone to impulsive decisions'

In terms of the future, Marietta is planning work trips to Mexico and Belize, and she’s also employed an assistant. She says: “The idea of moving out here was for a better quality of life. I’ve taken on an assistant, who’s helping to drive the business forward and part of my exit plan will be that she can take over. I can also rent upstairs if I need to.” While moving to Cyprus was an impetuous decision, Marietta has no regrets: “I am prone to making impulsive decisions! That said, they are based on my gut, and thankfully have usually turned out to be the right decision.” (Photo: SCM Jeans/Getty)