After changing app store country, purchase history gone

It has taken me hours of sifting through Q&As on this forum before I had a good understanding of what was happening to my Mac App Store (MAS) account.

I have successfully changed my Apple ID from the Belgian to the UK store. However, I had not expected the nasty side effects... After changing country, the MAS app loses the account's purchase history and tells you that "You have not yet purchased any applications". Now there's no reason to panic since you're not quite yet in app ****, but you certainly are now in limbo.

If you type in the name a purchased app, you will see that MAS recognises hem as being "installed". If you want to update any app purchased in the previous MAS, you need to first delete it, then "buy" it. The system recognises you have previously purchased the app and downloads it without charging you for it (I have tried it, so I can confirm this).

Unfortunately, the application update notificiations are gone, too. So from now on I will have to manually check whether there is an update in the MAS, delete the applications to be updated and reinstall them.

Apple, can you please do something about this? It's a ridiculous problem, and very annoying to your international customers.

Good news for the iOS users: as long as your purchased apps are on the device, they will keep updating - that at least is some comfort.