Need advice to live in Albania
Last activity 10 May 2017 by Bgcpost
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Hello everyone,
I'm planning on leaving the EU to live in a cheaper and more friendly place. I hope to find the answers I need to make the best decision.
1/ I wish to be a self entrepreneur in Albania, is it better to open a shop, a guest house or an online shop for someone with a small budget?
2/ What kind of business is booming in Albania these past years?
3/ What's the best thing to sell online these days?
4/ Is it a good choice to open a business or some are not available for foreigners?
5/ Is it a safe country?
6/ Is it better to open a business from scratch or to buy one for sale?
I'll be glad and thankful if someone could answer all these questions.
Thank you
Hello, hope everything is well.
I can really understand the decision of leaving the EU and settling in a smaller, cheaper country and I think Albania is one of the better choices.
1-2) The businesses booming in Albania are mostly food and drink related. Albanians love eating and drinking out in general and there are probably more bars and restaurants than anything else. Quality bars/restaurants that stand out will never have a hard time.
3) Albanians do not tend to shop online for stuff. The new generations usually take their online shopping abroad (eBay, Aliexpress) for cheaper deals. The few online retailers in Albania deliver goods to the clients and omit online transactions altogether as online transactions are still new to many.
4) Do you mean if starting a business is limited in some sense for foreigners? I don't think so, however I think there are many online resources about this. If this was your original question, please follow up with a reply and I will help you with some informative links.
5) Relatively safe. The capital, Tirana is pretty much an european city of a smaller scale.
6) Would depend on the business type. Buying an existing one has the advantage of people knowing the location of the former and might bring in a few extra visitors when starting out. Also, once again depending on the business, you don't have to buy everything and might get a better deal on used items.
Thank you for your reply, and do people speak English or any other Latin language?
You're welcome, the youth is bilingual, most speak English and some speak Italian. A lot of older people will understand Italian to some extent, due to cultural influences, but have a harder time with English.
That's good news! What about tourism? Is it a good idea to open a guest house? And is it easy to have the citizenship? Thank you for all precious information
Tourism in Albania is seasonal. A lot of profit can be made during the summer, since the coastline is one of the best things about Albania, it is located between two seas. Prices rise during the season in coastal cities and a lot of tourists come through, mainly from the EU and Eastern Europe but also local. The best thing would be to experience it first hand, then you can have a better idea, but it really resembles Greece in regards to the coast.
There also is a lot of winter tourism, but only on a few select locations mostly in the northern alps.
Opening a guest house is a good idea, as maintenance costs are low (to give you an idea, average monthly power bill is less than 40euros for a family, food is cheap) and during summer most locations are full and prices go up to 70euros/night.
As for the citizenship, I don't think it is hard, as not many are given out, the hardest part would only be learning the language.
Albania has open borders with EU countries so I believe you can stay up to 3 months without requiring a staying permit/visa.
Why do I have to learn the language if people speak either English or Italian or French or even German?
In order to apply for citizenship by naturalization, one needs to know the language of the country he/she is applying.
More on that here Law on Albanian Citizenship
Hmmmm, to have a basic knowledge of the language, does that mean (hello, goodbye, thank you, etc...)?
I believe the citizenship process in every country is carried out in the country's language so basic language knowledge would mean elementary proficiency in written and spoken skills.