Wherever you're dreaming of moving, there's a good chance you think it's cheaper than home. And it might have been once. But is that really true in 2026?
The trap is that the places people move to for the cheap life stop being cheap the moment enough people move there. So today I want to show you exactly how that works, using the place I know best.
For context, I lived in Cyprus for five and a half years, bought multiple properties there, and I've been going most years of my life. So I've watched this happen firsthand.
Cyprus used to be cheap. It isn't anymore. Let me show you the actual numbers, because they tell a story that's true of a lot of "cheap" countries right now.
Rents in Limassol are up between 25 and 40 percent since 2020, and property prices across the whole island are up around 30 percent in the same period. That's the exact window I was living there.
And here's the one that surprised me. Cyprus's rental index is now above the EU average. Not below it. Above it. So renting there is now more expensive relative to income than the average European country.
Food went up 8 percent in a single month at the start of this year.
But here's the part that matters wherever you're going, not just Cyprus. Prices are only half the picture. The number that actually catches people out is the gap between what things cost and what people can earn.
In Paphos, a family of four needs around €2,900 a month just to survive, before any rent. The average net salary there is about €1,650.
Read those two again. The cost of living is nearly double the average wage.
That gap is the thing nobody shows you next to the villa and the sea view, and some version of it exists in almost every place that's become popular. It's the single most useful check you can run on anywhere you're considering: what does it cost to live, versus what do people actually earn?
I'm not telling you not to go to Cyprus or anywhere else. I'd make the same move again in a heartbeat. But "it's cheap" is a story from a different decade, and it's the story that wrecks people's budgets.
So wherever you're picturing, do this one thing. Don't plan from a holiday you had in 2019, or a video by someone who sells tax or relocation services. Get the current cost of living and the current local wage, and look at the gap. The place you're imagining and the place that exists now might not be the same one financially.
If you're weighing up somewhere and want help finding the honest current numbers on it, hit reply and tell me where you're looking. I try to read every one.
Talk soon,
James Hopkins