Choosing a city to buy property in

ccbrowning

I've lived in the UK for around six years, but am really only familiar with the west... So any help would be appreciated.

We're currently looking for a home to buy in the £159,000 to £190,000 range. I work for a large consulting company which has offices all over the UK and we'd prefer to live near one of the offices for travel expense reasons:

• Manchester (Sale)
• Liverpool
• Bristol
• Cardiff
• Swansea
• Shrewsbury
• Rotherham
• Glasgow
• Edinburgh
• Birmingham

Very overwhelming! Honestly, we have no preference other than preferring older (Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian) 2 bedroom to the rubbish new builds we see all over the place. And, hopefully an area where if I ever was sent overseas we could potentially let the property out.

A quick look showed quite a bit in Liverpool, although I know there are bad areas there (as in most cities I guess).

TIA

kidmugsy

We lived in Edinburgh for years. It's a wonderful city, and full of Georgian and Victorian housing. It's probably the most expensive for housing on that list, because it's a wonderful city.

ccbrowning

We are a multinational so doubt we would pull out if that happened, but you never know.

ultrarunner

Having been to all of those places bar Edinburgh, I'd opt for Bristol.

nollag2006

I've always liked Shrewsbury - but its a bit hard to get in and out of
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-35547434.html

Edinburgh and parts of the West End of Glasgow are nice, but it gets very cold and very dark in the winter

agrinnall

While I'd also have voted for Edinburgh, I doubt if your budget will buy you what you're looking for. I'd also be a bit uncertain what you'd get in Bristol, although I'm not very well up on prices there.

If you need to travel a lot from wherever you base yourself, and perhaps have to travel overseas, then I would pick either Birmingham or Manchester. I'm not so well up on Manchester but in Birmingham I'm sure you'd be able to get a decent property in a reasonable area.

antrobus

To get some idea of relative house prices in the UK try:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/uk_house_prices/html/houses.stm

googler

The budget may not get them much in Edinburgh itself, but if they were to buy along one of the rail corridors into the city, either from the East or West, it's perfectly possible to have a commute of less than 10mins into the heart of the city. The maximum commute from the East is 25mins, and that places the OP in a small coastal town 20 miles or so away.

Much will depend on where the office is, though - whether it's in the city or not.

OP, I assume wherever you move to, you're only concerned with commuting to that local office - or do you travel between the offices? Are you looking for a house or a flat?

ccbrowning

Thanks for all the helpful posts.

Most (well, all that I've personally been involved with anyway) is down in England, so Scotland is really only an option if it has great house deals.

The base locations are places you really don't go to very often. Most of the time we are at clients or potentially working from home. However, your base location is used in determining how much you can expense in terms of travel since you always have to pay the usual cost from home to base location. This is the reason for wanting to live close to an office, since it will save a lot of money in the long term. Currently I am 40-60 min from Birmingham on a cheap train line (we rent though).

We're looking for a house - I know in Shrewsbury you can get a Victorian end terrace or semi (and sometimes even a detached) for our budget. We don't live far away now, actually - just not sure how smart it is long-term? Liverpool seemed similar in that respect, although the area is much bigger and there are more "bad" areas.

Did look at Bristol, but it seems quite expensive? I am on a good wage and can technically afford a larger mortgage, but I'd rather be able to have extra to save and not feel overextended. We don't mind doing some work on a home, either (from a family with trades experience, although impossible to leverage since I'm in the wrong country now).

cinderfella

You would be hard pressed to find anyone in Edinburgh with a sun tan, but having said that they do have a very good airport close to the city.
There are a few nice spots in Edinburgh but they are only spots. The rest of Edinburgh is poverty stricken, a total dump.
Put some footwork in & stick to Bristol. Plenty of people in Bristol do a
daily commute to London.:beer:

googler

cinderfella wrote: »

There are a few nice spots in Edinburgh but they are only spots. The rest of Edinburgh is poverty stricken, a total dump.

.... and the same isn't true of Glasgow.... or Liverpool?

Are the other name cities 'nice' throughout?

That's quite a flexible company, that will let you take your choice of any location.....