How do you find the optimum place to live?

Deep_In_Debt

I'm in an okay ish area. Close to M25 and M23, close to London and Brighton and good fast rail link. Gatwick not far and Heathrow easy reach. Good primary and junior schools. Did have a lot of green space but now being built on but still a fair bit of countryside around.

Property prices are very expensive though. Rental prices here are mad! Expensive south east.

moneyistooshorttomention

"Did have a lot of green space but now being built on" about sums up much of Southern England these days doesn't it?:mad::(:mad:

Brown_Eyed_Girl

I'd start with what's the maximu time id want to spend commuting from work.
Then when I have that area, I'd rule out all the unaffordable areas for my budget.
Then all the crappy areas the no amount of regeneration will help.
Then areas that have already been labelled up and coming.
Then which areas that are left, I'd pick a couple id want to explore.

Missus_Hyde

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

"Did have a lot of green space but now being built on" about sums up much of Southern England these days doesn't it?:mad::(:mad:

Sadly, I'm afraid it does. :mad: :mad:

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

"Did have a lot of green space but now being built on" about sums up much of Southern England these days doesn't it?:mad::(:mad:

If you want the statistics, only around 3% of England is actually built on.

marksoton

Towser wrote: »

A district of Hampshire has been named as offering residents the best quality of life in the UK for an impressive fifth year in a row. Residents earn well above the average salary in Hart, Hampshire, and are the healthiest in the UK, according to the annual top 50 places to live in the UK list by Halifax.

I know the place well. And wouldn't live there if paid to do so.

Which sort of proves the point most have been making. Theses stats are pointless to people in real terms.

questionss

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

They said that "a similar property in the Hertfordshire hotspot of St. Albans would cost half as much again as what I'm paying". (my bold)
I take that to mean their house is £400k. Similar in St Albans would be £600k.

JimmyTheWig Is right we're nearer WGC/Hertford than St Albans these days! Can't afford Radlett!

Missus_Hyde

Davesnave wrote: »

If you want the statistics, only around 3% of England is actually built on.

Unfortunately, that 3% seems to be concentrated over the South of England.

I'm in Sussex and thankfully the South Downs have been designated a national park. Even so, developers have been casting their beady eyes on it, hoping for a chance to build around the fringes.

A lot of the open countryside not covered by the national park is now wall to wall concrete. :mad: :mad:

moneyistooshorttomention

Agreed - that the building tends to be concentrated.

Unfortunately - its basically the case that many people want to be in particular places and those of us already living there as "locals" (or were living there - to use the past tense in my case:mad::() find that part of the reason we cant afford our own area is because other people want it too and move to it. In areas like that - the "locals" are anti expansion (and so are a lot of our incomers).

It is difficult - and I understand both sides of that equation - having had to move out of my own area to somewhere that rather fewer people want to live in (or, perhaps more to the point, can manage to live in is probably more accurate). Where I am now could actually do with having some more people living here (ie because it is currently missing some commonplace facilities and frequent enough buses).

There are some people here who would like where-I-am-now to expand to some extent. The divide isn't the way one would think either. It's the opposite way of thinking to my Home Area (where we dont want it).

In this area it seems to be the "locals" (and myself) who would like it to expand. It seems to be other incomers who like it the size it is (they want the smaller/quaint/etc they chose - whereas "locals" and myself want those extra facilities that an increase in size would bring here). We have the problem here that firms are put off coming here because of "language" issues - they find, for instance, that their employees' children would have to go to Welsh-only schools and they change their mind about coming and the area doesn't get those jobs coming in after all.

J_i_m

Surely this this thread is a troll? The OP is effectively asking a mathematical equation to chose an area for him to move to.