Looking to relocate - Advice please!!

AndyFizzle

Evening all,

I am new to MSE and can see from all the posts that there are a lot of people out there that know there stuff and are happy to offer advice, so thought I'd give it a go.

Basically my wife and I want to relocate somewhere within the UK, for a better life for our 5 month old girl. We currently live in North West London (Ruislip), and although we've both grown up here and it's not the worst place in the world by any means, we simply cannot and will not be able to afford to buy a house in this area. Plus it's all go, all the time, the second we step outside it's traffic and an aura of stress.

I want advice on where might be best to move for a young family? We have some family that moved to Taunton and love it, and I have a friend that recommended Norfolk but just want peoples thoughts on places? We also have a young dog so somewhere with nice wide open spaces, green area's, nice long walks would be another one bonus....

Our flat is estimated worth about £220k according to the current market and I know we can get a house in the above area's for much less than this with everything we'd need, it's just where to go, nice area's / rough area's, job availabilty, crime rates, schools, so much to think about?

Any advice people can give would be very helpful indeed, people that have done it or are also considering it, their experiences, what to check, what not to do etc

Many thanks in advance
Andy

Beckyy

There could be a million answers for you Andy!

Maybe if you could specify a little more about what you would like:

- Jobs - what area you both work in.
- Whether you would like to live in city/town/countryside
- Whether you would like to be within travelling distance of family in 'X'
- How big a house you would like/need

Gillyx

Well it all boils down to work.

The jobs that you and your partner do, could you be transferred, would you need to look for alternative employment, which areas are good for the type of jobs you do?

At the moment where I live (Northern Ireland, 220k would get you ALOT) but the job market is crap for most jobs but not all.

ciderwithrosie_2

Somerset's OK but some areas also have high crime, high unemployment as well as poor public transport, lack of decent shops etc. If you want the full country life experience, some of the large villages/small towns are less spoilt. South Petherton in Somerset was voted the 2nd best place to live/bring up a family in England - my parents live there and love it. I guess it all boils down to finding suitable employment though. I would look at Devon and Dorset too.

DVardysShadow

Wot Beckyy says.

Being born and brought up in your present area, you probably take a lot of the facilities for granted. You could move to the country and hate the fact that you must travel 10 miles to a supermarket and even worse, make enemies by trying to stop the [stopcocks - stop] crowing or the church bells ringing. Or you could absolutely love it.

I would suggest you take a longish view on this and don't rush, but spend some time on working out what it is that a place needs to have for you. That you visit places for days out and weekends away to discover what is important to you.

balletshoes

when you have decided on the location, theres also no need to rush into another house purchase. consider a rental first, so you can find your feet in area and then choose the right property for you, once you know your way around more.

mishkanorman

My family moved us from London to Norfolk when I was around 7, I hated it at the time but now wouldnt be anywhere else,

I agree at what's been said, its a much slower pace of life - and varies so much across the county, Norwich for example compared to London is backward slow but is positively heaving when compared to any of the small market towns.

A nice 3 bed house in one of the towns will be around 160k to 200k - which will get you a small 2/3 bed terrace in one of the streets surrounding the city. Pick somewhere thats in the 'countryside' and you will find it a struggle to buy anything.

The lovely thing about Norfolk is the scenery and coastline are all within a short drive, plenty to do for family and parks galore - london is 2 hours drive so not too far when going to see family (but far enough )

If you have a specific location within Norfolk in mind feel free to pm me

claire16c

I think it will come down to what work you can find, as you could find a huge house somewhere in the middle of nowhere - if that was what you wanted - but if you cant find a job and therefore cant pay the mortgage or bills what good would that be!

DHs family live a in a very cheap area - but its cheap for a reason!!

You could look into areas that are commutable to London if your work is hard to move - i.e Surrey, Berks, Hamps etc. You could get a 2 bed house for that price in a nice area with good schools etc.

Its hard to say without knowing more about your jobs.

shegirl

ciderwithrosie wrote: »

Somerset's OK but some areas also have high crime, high unemployment as well as poor public transport, lack of decent shops etc. If you want the full country life experience, some of the large villages/small towns are less spoilt. South Petherton in Somerset was voted the 2nd best place to live/bring up a family in England - my parents live there and love it. I guess it all boils down to finding suitable employment though. I would look at Devon and Dorset too.

I second that.

I would suggest looking at Devon too (not only because I live here and love the county lol).There are some beautiful rural places and villages that have easy access to towns and cities so you can get the best of both worlds.You're never far from both the country and the sea too

Beckyy

It would also help to know how much equity you have in your current house, so that you can get a good judgement on what's affordable and what's pushing the budget. You may be able to get something well eblow budget for less money, and not have so much of a mortgage.

Dunroamin

Your best bet would be to apply for jobs in any areas you fancy and then relocate when you're offered something. You'd be mad to give up a job in order to relocate and could find yourself ineligible for benefits for 26 weeks.