Hi,

I was hoping to hire a car in the north and drive to Ikea in the south to kit out our new apartment. Ive been told this is not possible and that my purchases would be subject to a 30% import tax and could be confiscated! Is this right? If so, where can I go to get the stuff I need?

Thanks

As far as I know there are no hire companies in the north that will let you take a car south.

If you look at postings on other BBs and the local papers, you'll see that there is a great deal of discussion about what is allowed through and what is not. The short answer is that the stuff from Ikea is probably above your entitlement, and in any case there is discussion about what is or is not "personal goods". You night sail through, or you might have the lot confiscated.

I would advise you to wait till the dust settles before you start carting furniture from the south.

Although there is no Ikea in the south, there are lots of furniture outlets in the North. Do a bit of window shopping and check out some prices.

Ian

Have a look at this link
BRT

Ian

hi there
firstly its not a case that the north cyprus car hire companies wont let you take a car in to the south, its the greek cypriot adminstration that wont allow hire cars cross over the border, you have to own the car and also have insurance for the south because they dont reconise north cypriot car insurance
You are limited to what you can bring from the south to the north this is calculated in how much your goods cost you
to tell you the truth it is more convient to go down to lefkosa to do all your furniture shopping, they have a vast selection of items and are of good quality and quite reasonably priced, ok i agree there are some products that you just cant buy in the north, so why dont you just do that buy most of your stuff here in the north and then the bits you cant buy in the north go over and get them in the south, the most important thing to remember because we either live or have a holiday home in the north we should really help and promote the turkish cypriot economy and do our thing to make it flourish
not meaning to sound rude but you dont see expats or greeks from the south come over here to the north and buy products, most greeks dont even go into turkish resturants they prefer to bring a packed lunch and drinks
hope this helps
if you need any more help please dont hesitate in posting me
regards
ukturk

Hi

We came over in October and hired a taxi from Bellapais taxi's (their Vito car which is a bit like a small mini bus). Anyway they charged us £50 for two hours shopping at Ikea and it was worthy every penny and comes highly recommended. Apparently we were told by the driver, as we were concerned about how much we wanted to buy, that they only tend to stop hire cars and private cars at the border but they dont tend to stop taxis as most of them are doing airport transfers. They didnt even look at us in our car. We bought about £450 worth of goods from Ikea and we decided to take that chance but felt very confident after what our driver said. He was also taking a few other people over to do shopping trips. If you do get stopped in a taxi I think it will be very unlucky but I would definitely say risk it. We may even do it again when we are back in May although have most of the stuff we want now anyway and I think you do save money going there even after paying £50 to take you! We loved it!

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We've driven over the Famagusta border at least half a dozen times this year in a S.Cyprus hire car, not had the car checked once.
A good tip......get the road map out and look like a lost tourist.:

Suntanman and Boredhousewife

The restrictions on the value of goods you can take from south to north started in November, so although you were able take whatever you liked earlier in 2007 you cannot now. If you try you risk having to pay 30% duty, is it really worth it???

I know that there are not many things in the furniture line that you cannot buy in the north. I managed to do it in 2001 and it was a lot harder then than it is now. Also I have never been impressed with Ikea, it is overpriced and the quality is not brilliant

I guess at the end of the day people either like Ikea or they dont but it is very popular for trendy modern furniture at reasonable prices and some of it is good quality.

When we went over end October we heard even then there was a restriction on goods being bought south to north of 135 Euros and anything over would be charged at 40% tax. We were prepared to take that risk because we were fed up with dragging our young children round so many shops and not finding stuff we really liked and everything was very expensive - especially electrical goods (of which we bought over from the UK in the end). If you are prepared to take the risk then I would definitely say do it. Hire a taxi and go for it! Even our taxi driver went in a bought some stuff and was going back to kit his new apartment out! He said it had been very popular and he was taking other people from our complex over in November/December to do some shopping.

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boredhousewife, whilst I understand what you mean about dragging kids round the shops (boy do I!!) I really think that a trip to Lefkoşa would have sorted out most of your needs. Especially now that Cyprus44 has been hijacked by some mindless idiots, it really brings home that we need to support the North, not only by coming here to live or buy a holiday home and letting as many people as we can know about the propaganda coming from the South, but their economy too.

To steal a slogan from England - 'Buy Local'

Karen

Hi Karen I totally agree with what you have said and I think had we had more time we probably would have searched a bit further afield but we were getting short on time and incredibly frustrated with our 3 and 5 year old boys who were totally driving us and every shop owner crazy!!! After our Ikea trip we did manage to get a few other things like really good quality towels in Kyrenia (near Pia Bella) - Ikea towels werent that great. But yes I do agree we need to support the north - just a shame their prices are quite expensive though! I have heard though that is starting to change and their prices are coming down (supermarkets anyway).

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Yep, the supermarkets are doing 'campaigns' - BOGOFFS and the like - apparently Pampers are cheaper over here than there - won't make me have another one though!!! We went over the south during the holidays - first time for me - and I wasn't really that impressed. Yes, it was a bit nostalgic - M&S, Next, Debenhams - but didn't find it particularly cheap - just more choice. Other than Jumbo's, won't be bothering again!!

Karen

Like you guys have said, I feel we need to support the North as much as we can economically

hi guys
now you know the reason why i would never go and buy funiture or anything like that and i always say to people, if you are living in the north or you just got a summer home, buy your items for your house from the north support the local trader and help the turkish economy
and its never been so true after the experiance we had yesterday and today on the cyprus44 forum now guys you can see for yourself what these greeks are like and its not just me being a turk cypriot and being paranoid can you imagine what the rest think like
to tell you the truth ive seen the prices in the south like ikea and carefour and they are not that cheaper than the north
some of you might say you need things like food stuff that you are used to back in blighty that why you go, well i say when you move over bring enuf supplies to last you till you go back or ask friends to bring anything over for you thats what i do!!! lol
so come on guys lets start to think like them (greeks) and only support the country where we live and love North Cyprus
regards to you all
ukturk

Thanks for all that info. I was just hoping to save time by going to Ikea and getting their starter boxes of kitchen and dining stuff. I'm not sure the £50 taxi fare would be worth my while as I don't need to get any bedding and not much furniture.
Can anyone tell me the name of that shop mentioned above which is good for towels?
Does anyone have a reccommendation for basic kitchen stuff?
I only need to get a few items of funiture (bookshleves, couple of easy chairs, sets of drawers.) Someone has told me there is a good range of shops near the airport - is this right and are the proces OK?

I agree with UK Turk, totally, in fact i would go further , it really annoys me who naive some people can be
You are not only investing in a property, you are also investing in the stabilty and economic growth of the TRNC, this will also be beneficial to you in the long term
You are buying in to a lifestyle !.
Why shop in the south at all ?, perfectly good quality shops in the north and cheaper overall than there counterparts in the south
Regards
Panhandler