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Anyone leave London for better and if so where?
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Selling up in west london and already moved to Pevensey bay just down road from Eastbourne on the seaside.
Looking out on the sea now,very good for my soul.
Nice relaxed lifestyle here and everyone seems happy and everyone has time to stop for a chat,should have done it ages ago.
3 Bed house on the sea (yes we pay for private sea defence works) half price of the 2 bedroom flat were selling,this month.
So no need to work again,although there are many jobs here.
Some say i could never afford to move back to London, nothing wrong there.0 -
I grew up in Greater London (Sutton) and left at 18 when I went to uni and never went back. live in Coventry now. have a lovely life, a good job and my own house. best thing about London is now visiting it and leaving at the end of the weekend to go home.0
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I've not long made the move finally finished it on Saturday but been gradually moving up since October.
Moved from just inside the M25 in Enfield to Leigh. Sad to leave my family and friends there and my old job- especially the students! : (
However in all honesty I'm so glad I have done it. London was just too busy for me and having to live in small not so great conditions was just depressing when I worked every day.
The pay cut is huge but then it is partly due to having to go down 2 grades but my logic is I can always work my way back up if I want to and actually it's even better having a bit less responsibility.
The big thing that swung it for me was that the mortgage costs are nearly half ( and that was with us having pretty reasonable rent for the area or it would have been a third of what we should have been paying).
So it's so much more affordable. We've got a gorgeous house we were actually able to kit out with reasonably nice things without having to worry too much about having to pay for it later as we would had it been near London.
To put it in context to get the same standard house or realistically in Enfield something not as nice we would have had to pay at least another £220,000 on top of what we paid for the house here.
The traffic is miles better here. The people are lovely and it's just so much more relaxed. If I ever feel like I need to get out and be around loads more people or be busier it's really close to Manchester and Liverpool. North Wales, The Peak and Lake districts are not far for gorgeous sights and it's just over 3 hours ( In good traffic) back to London...well Enfield.
So many people I've spoken to are thinking about moving out as it's just getting too ridiculous there and that's right at the edge of it. More and more overcrowded with less and less reasonable housing and no hope of getting a house there even if you have worked in a decent job with a decent wage for years!
Good luck if you do ( or indeed if you don't) sometimes you've got to go back to basics and just think what will make you happy and just do it. : )A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B."0 -
Used to live in London - it was the best of times, and the worst of times. So much to do, met so many people (good and bad) but strangely given its size, the bubble almost made me explode.
So I left, and wouldn't go back... although I can still see why people like London. It also hurt my career as where I wanted to work, most of the jobs were in... London
But, I can now live by myself and, although in a city, get fairly easily to the countryside without queuing up for an eternity.
(Oh, and compared to London, Moseley *is* country)
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Just wanted to add, OP, apart from the fact that the verdict is pretty unanimous from those that left the big smoke, I would move to Moseley in a heartbeat if I were you.
It's the part of Birmingham that reminds me most of London, in a way.Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
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I sold up moved to Cornwall, got a job, good pay, loads of holidays, good pension. Live five mins walk to the best surfing beach. Great food, great pubs.
Paid cash no mortgage
That was 17 years ago.
Now retired, state pension in a few months, working part time for the social aspects, will need to cut my hours when SP kicks in because I refuse to pay 40% tax.
It's great - JDI - you only get one chance at life.
Cheers fj0 -
We moved from outer London in 1975 to the South Coast then to Lincolnshire then to Cambridgeshire, we love rural and the last two houses have had no near neighbours.0
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I made a very similar move (I lived a couple of miles from the Wallington poster) Part of how far we moved was based on me wanting to stay within a commutable distance of London even though I no longer worked in London. Nearly fifteen years later I don't need or want to be within reach of London anymore - Next move will likely be to Devon or similar as my OH couldn't care less about London and I'm now happy with rare trips and would just stay overnight if we move out of reach
A lot depends on what you think the city offers- and also what rural actually means to you. What are the things you simply would miss too much ?oldandhappy wrote: »Left Southern London 2000 having lived in Croydon/Wallington and worked in Central London to Bexhill on Sea near to Eastbourne not so far from Brighton. Had a great life there until we found the traffic getting just too much for us...Property is cheap in comparison to London Crime is much much lower...you can dress anyhow and nobody takes any notice of you!!!!. If the coast is a draw then great if its city life you still yearn for most of all then probably not a good move for you....Weather pattern is very good...now that is a bonus....regards DianneI Would Rather Climb A Mountain Than Crawl Into A Hole
MSE Florida wedding .....no problem0 -
I did this nearly 4 years ago. The pluses, mostly already mentioned are
1. More house for your £. We traded up from 3 bedroom to 4 bedroom and had some change.
2. Lower crime rate. 4 crimes a month compared to 400 and that was not in a dodgy area of London.
3. Traffic: Every time I visit London and am on the M25 or North Circular Road it is a reminder as to why I moved.
4. More relaxed life style. You don't get hounded by parking officers, big issue sellers etc.
The minuses
1. In a village it is close to impossible to depend on public transport and taxis aren't cheap.
2. The choice of restaurants or other activities e.g. cinema if that is what you want is sharply reduced.
3. Choice in shops is smaller but internet shopping and mail order makes up for it.
4. If relevant choice of school is reduced0 -
It depends what you want and your own personal circumstances. If you already own a property in or near London then I would not sell it yet. In fact I doubt I would sell it at all. I would let in out and rent where I thought I might like to live.
If it is just adults and you are not uprooting children from school and friends that makes a huge difference.
I have lived, worked and studied in London but I do not often go there now. You might just need a holiday rather than a life change!0
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