Noted Dweller. I am very fortunate as my current employer offers two year fixed rolling renewable contracts which historically I believe they have never reneged on. Obviously the all come with an initial probationary period.

This has allowed us a great deal of forward planning so have never had to worry about the the dreaded "brown envelope" scenario.

That said we did consider the situation in the event things got too hot here during the 'problems' a year or so ago due to terrorists, and we decided we would keep it rented as there is a very liquid rental market in the area where we live, so worst case would be to rent another house locally for a few months until our house became available again.

Although we have only been abroad eight years we are already noticing each summer how much the UK is changing (for the worse) since we left. It is still our intention to one day settle in the UK again when the kids are grown up, but you never know, we might be tempted to warmer climes - especially with some of the attractive freehold developments being offered these days in places like Bahrain and Oman beckoning.