How did you choose a new area to live?

AdrianC

Will you be working? If so, will your job options be dependent on any particular location?

If not, I'd suggest that you look at renting somewhere for a while. Take touring holidays around the area - B&B, camping, whatever fits your budget - to narrow down to broad areas.

Winter lets of furnished holiday cottages are often available. Get somewhere in an area you think you like the look of, and explore the area.

cadon

redandwhitestripes wrote: »

It's a good few years away but I've been considering moving out of NW London where I have lived all my 40 odd years and move to a new part of the UK.

Leaving London altogether is a pretty big decision.

You say you're having problems with stress and commuting, but moving out of London could make the journey worse. Would you still work in London (how many days?), would you find a job elsewhere (is your career tied to big cities?) or are you in a position where you would be financially able to just stop working?

If you're able to retire and you want some calm, there are plenty of little villages where nothing happens, but that's quite a big change to the London lifestyle. Fine, if that's what you want, but you need to understand whether you're fed up with your current job, or over London as well.

Locations with good transport links to London are at a premium, so if that's not something you need, that helps with the search.

Can you drive? (You don't need to in London, you do in the country. Country buses are a nightmare.) If you can't get around with your own transport, you're looking for another city, just one that's a bit smaller.

Do you have any family or friends outside of London who you might want to live closer to?

Is there anything about London you would miss? If you would miss the arts, there are for example strong scenes in Brighton and Edinburgh. If the transport connections, there are plenty of flights out of Manchester and cruises from Southampton. And so on.

I've previously moved for work, but if that's not your driving force, a pin on a map isn't a bad idea. Just spend some time in that location before you decide to move to it!

Maybe try staying at some different places via airBnB? It's very cheap and you would get an idea of what it's like to live in that location. The hosts would probably be quite helpful in chatting about where they live and pointing you in the direction of things to check out.

ellie27

We moved to be guaranteed into one of Scotlands top schools. Our catchment school was ranked around 300 out of 320 (bad!) and the new school is around 10 of 320.

That was the driving force for the move as our children were 4 and 3 years old and almost at school age.

As well as for schools we upsized too.

What is your reason for moving?

redandwhitestripes

Ellie - it is only a thought at the moment , and now we have Brexit, things may well change.
It is down to wanting to get out of the rat-race - something I have thought about for too long now.
I had planned to use the equity in my house to tide me over a few years but not sure if that is sensible either!

I will likely miss London in terms of visiting the centre and all it has to offer, but having lived there all my life, I think I would enjoy more of a life in another area now and explore a different way of life.
I would still have mates to stay with , and sisters , so it wouldn't be a complete 'Lexit'

The 'airbnb' was a great idea.
Staying cheaply in different areas a few days at at time is a really good way of finding out about new places.
Will definitely give that a go.

butterfly72

One really good way of finding out about an area, and wards within areas, is looking at the Public health observatory. It tells you the information about the health of residents and factors that could impact on health such as alcohol related admissions, violent crime, road accidents, smoking rates, obesity, employment, under 18 pregnancies, etc. Just gives you a bit of an idea about the local residents ;-)


I'd want somewhere with more green dots than yellow or even red! Really fascinating to have a look at your own area too, just the one red dot for my area! http://www.apho.org.uk/default.aspx

lisa110rry

In 1986, or it may have actually been 1985, my husband was promoted and transferred from Birmingham Airport to a job in Liverpool with the CAA. I held out from moving for quite a while, imagining that I would find 'dark Satanic mills' in the northwest. Eventually we did a lot of looking about, including Cheshire and North Wales. I was particularly drawn to a village called Hope - I really wanted to be able to say 'well, we live in hope' - but we couldn't find a suitable house. Having decided against Cheshire because of prevailing winds from ICI as it was then, we started looking in Lancashire. Looked and looked, then one day we were due to see a property here in this village. Not suitable but we decided to drive about. Saw the house we live in now and I said to my husband 'that's the one, they'll take me out of there in a box'. I still feel that way, he happiest house, just perfect, and all we have done is put in gas, renew electricity and plumbing, and decorate. You'll know it when you see it.

boo80

We're in the south east, we were pretty sure we'd move to the south west. After spending time in all the areas we could afford, and researching them on the Internet, we decided it wasn't for us. So we looked at east anglia; we still couldn't get the property we wanted for the money we had. We drove a bit further and fell in love with the East Midlands (massive shock to OH) it did take us 3 years to find our new area though.

Floxxie

suki1964 wrote: »

I seriously did do the pin in the map

I did the same thing!

suki1964

SailorSam wrote: »

And did it work ? Do you like where you are ?
How many pins before you came to the final decision ?

Just one pin and I've not looked back

Op. We also moved from London back in 06. For us it was because we were totally priced out and we're looking further and further afield. DH was from NI, I'm of Irish stock, so it seemed like the best idea

However DH had left during the troubles and had really bad memories of most the places he could remember so we really did pin in the map

All I knew was we had to be close to a railway line so could get to the airports as DH still had to work in London , and I didn't drive

Other then that, other then knowing if I was moving 500 miles I might as well make it a big change - ie country rather then city, I didn't much worry about the rest

So we searched online for months around where the pin dropped and found the perfect house, miles from a shop, in the country surrounded by fields and just 10 mins to the coast

Oh and DH never even saw the house till the day we moved in

Our lives are very different to the lives we had in london, but we were at the age when city living had run its course for us. At first I missed it terribly, but now, well tbh unless I'm pushed into visiting I no longer want to visit London.

So I have an 80 mile round trip to ikea or the like, but 80 miles is 80 mins - not half a day

DH commuted to London for 8 years until we became mortgage free. Now he works locally, for a lot less money but it's ok cos we don't spend so much as country life here is laid back. We do actually have a better social life as work stops at 4pm and DH is home by 4.20

We know we will never be able to move back to London or the SE, but then there is nothing there we want any more

We did first think about the move here in our 30's but I wasn't ready until my 40's. I don't think I would have settled here so young.

economic

I chose Highgate. Because it's Highgate.