What kind of property should I buy in or near edinburgh?

mubeye

I work from home a lot, and wondering about possibly moving out of the city but don't have much experience of rural living. I've seen a great house I like which is only 30 mins drive from edinburgh, but is very very rural, 5 miles from the nearest village.

It's a 4 bed house and not much more expensive than the flats I've been looking at more central. Partly because there are no schools or buses etc. It is way too big for me, but I've found that it's hard to find anything smaller that is very private, with a decent bit of land. I think partly because smaller cottages etc are so well suited to holiday rentals. Is it massively overkill to live in a 2000 sqft house even if it's cheap?

My partner lives in Edinburgh too so there would be plenty of opportunity to crash at her place and head into the city if i need a fix.

The other problem is very slow internet in the sticks. Satellite would probably be workable for me. The high latency would rule out gaming but that might not be such a bad thing on balance.

One last thought, is that it would of course be wise to rent in the sticks first, but the rental stock is very low, or used as holiday cottages. I can't find anything within 10 miles of the house I like even remotely similar to rent. There are couple of town semis... a couple of really huge houses, or holiday cottages with a week spare capacity here and there, so there doesn't really seem to be much opportunity to test the waters.

Any thoughts?

zagubov

mubeye wrote: »

I work from home a lot, and wondering about possibly moving out of the city but don't have much experience of rural living. I've seen a great house I like which is only 30 mins drive from edinburgh, but is very very rural, 5 miles from the nearest village.

It's a 4 bed house and not much more expensive than the flats I've been looking at more central. Partly because there are no schools or buses etc. It is way too big for me, but I've found that it's hard to find anything smaller that is very private, with a decent bit of land. I think partly because smaller cottages etc are so well suited to holiday rentals. Is it massively overkill to live in a 2000 sqft house even if it's cheap?

My partner lives in Edinburgh too so there would be plenty of opportunity to crash at her place and head into the city if i need a fix.

The other problem is very slow internet in the sticks. Satellite would probably be workable for me. The high latency would rule out gaming but that might not be such a bad thing on balance.

One last thought, is that it would of course be wise to rent in the sticks first, but the rental stock is very low, or used as holiday cottages. I can't find anything within 10 miles of the house I like even remotely similar to rent. There are couple of town semis... a couple of really huge houses, or holiday cottages with a week spare capacity here and there, so there doesn't really seem to be much opportunity to test the waters.

Any thoughts?

This is ringing alarm bells immediately. I know people who've moved from bigger to smaller cities, but a house that isn't even near a village? Food and goods deliveries? Public transport when your car's at the garage? A major hike to meet anybody you know and nobody local to chew the fat with?

Don't let yourself get enchanted with unnecessarily large house size and go thinking that it'll somehow trump the convenience of living in a city or even a town. It won't.

glasgowdan

Go for a smaller house near a train station. Linlithgow is nice, Peebles too. Consider your partner will one day want to live with you too!

Gers

Five miles from a village is not very rural. It's just about being more organised with your life and making sure that you have enough milk and so on rather than the city-usual thing of popping out for it.

As for technology - we live eight miles from a village, 90 miles from Glasgow, have the last phone line on the exchange and are surrounded by fields and have the sea in front. Free view only gives us about eight channels so we have Freesat, but you won't have that problem 30 minutes outside of Edinburgh. Mobile reception is not great...but the BT broadband is fine. Whilst only reaching about 2mbs (is that the correct term) we can watch through a Firestick and / or on demand / internet TV when needed.

Admittedly I took our laptops into a big city in order to download W10 rather than tie up the system for a couple of hours, but that was a choice I made.

I can't comment on the space for you though personally I'd rather have more room in the country than a small space in the city. We moved from a small but perfect flat in a big city into this large and wonky farmhouse in a field and won't be moving anywhere again.

I wish you well in your decision making.

mubeye

zagubov wrote: »

This is ringing alarm bells immediately. I know people who've moved from bigger to smaller cities, but a house that isn't even near a village? Food and goods deliveries? Public transport when your car's at the garage? A major hike to meet anybody you know and nobody local to chew the fat with?

Don't let yourself get enchanted with unnecessarily large house size and go thinking that it'll somehow trump the convenience of living in a city or even a town. It won't.

I don't disagree with your comments at all. But just wanted to say too, for food and goods delivery, you at least have sainsburys and amazon prime both doing next day deliveries. Re social, a half hour hike isn't a big deal for me. Would be handy to have the excuse to skive too.

I do worry about transport

bouicca21

I mainly work from home too. I find that it is really important for my sanity to be able to get out and walk to somewhere with people, even if it is only to have a coffee. I'd have no problem being single in a 4 bed house - I enjoy having extra space - but I'd have a real problem with the location.

davidmcn

IME 30 minutes drive from the centre of Edinburgh often just takes you to somewhere else in central Edinburgh...

If it's somewhere up unclassified or exposed roads bear in mind what transport might be like in winter with ice/snow involved.

Fosterdog

Have you considered moving to the other side of the bridge?

I have family living in the Kirkaldy, Dunfermline, Glenrothes areas and the ones closest to the bridge in Rosyth are less than a 30 min drive from Edingburgh city centre. There are some really nice areas around there with decent sized houses with nice gardens, sometimes decent land. They are not completely out in the sticks, but also nothing like living in a city, the outskirts of one of the villages there sound ideal for what you want.

DigForVictory

It sounds a great escape, but there may be other folk who have a greater need of remote 4 bed affordable accom whose lives do not possibly include a partner moving in, possible offspring & possible needing to learn to drive on snow & ice & when to just not bother.

Consult with partner!

Also, a big place will be more expensive to insure (higher rebuild cost) and to heat (even if you go down the woodburner route & coppice, fell & chop all your own wood) so I'd be pretty thoughtful, myself.

fairy_lights

mubeye wrote: »

I
My partner lives in Edinburgh too so there would be plenty of opportunity to crash at her place and head into the city if i need a fix.

Is this a serious relationship? Will you be moving in together soon, and of so, how does your partner feel about moving out of the city?

googler

fairy_lights wrote: »

Is this a serious relationship? Will you be moving in together soon, and of so, how does your partner feel about moving out of the city?

This.

Are you seriously thinking about this without involving your 'partner'?