Probably will be looking outside London or even move further out.

ACCA

Hey MSE community!

As a background, I've reached out to you back in April sharing my dilemma on buying a house in London or nearby commutable town, the original post is https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6352947/house-buying-dilemma-criticize-my-thinking-please/p1. Some really great pieces of advice have been provided and I started digesting those, went out for a hunt on a couple of locations shortlisted and seen some properties just to get a sense what's the market like. My timelines remain still in place, ie perhaps 1.5-2 years from now is when I'd be ready to submit the offer.

In the original thread I've listed my preferences and some commented that I might need to move further out of London. Having have thought about this during the last couple of months I started considering a complete relocation including the job so that I do not need to commute in the city. I've shortlisted a couple of cities, mainly by size so that I could find a role in investments, perhaps the largest ones: Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton, Liverpool etc

So the purpose of this new post is to ask for your piece of advice on the following points:
(a) Location.
Other than Google, MSE forum, reddit, facebook groups or watching 'Location, location, location' - what would be the way you'd consider to research a new location? Let's take an example of Leeds, I've never been there, but from my quick search seems to be alright, from crime perspective, transportation links, jobs, perhaps not that many attractions as we have in London, but still, airport is in the nearby Manchester, there seem to be decent houses for my budget of up to 450k, schools and kindergartens are plenty, some are great rating. From drawbacks perspective, most likely the pay, job openings and progression opportunities will be less attractive as in London.
By travelling to the spot for a couple of days or even a long weekend, I am not confident it's gonna give me the answers whether it's the right place. Sadly - I can't define the 'right place' as such, I lived in 5 countries and even more cities, most of them were different but i managed to assimilate. So essentially the question is: if you were in my shoes, how would you approach the relocation and choosing the city? If looking at this long term, Scotland would be a winner here given the university is free.

(b) Sequence.
Obviously it may not be as easy as just deciding to move out of London where I lived for the last 8 years and overseas before that. Say, the theory has been learned and the homework is done in terms of picking the so called 'right' place, would people first move to a rented place, settle there for about 6-12 months, find a job and then start to place offers? I would ideally start to make offers while I am based and working in London to keep the income stream, but also appreciate that it might be a bit hectic. Plus, would the bank not question the location of the house and my current employer location (eg buy a house in Leeds and my current role is in London)? I can say i WFH, which I do 2-3 days a week, but how can they validate that? Also, would relocation outside London impact my affordability, most likely downwards? If so, am I at risk of not actually reaching my goal of relocating to afford? 

I do appreciate my questions may be quite complex to answer, but I'd highly appreciate any other thoughts or ideas that you feel are appropriate for my case. Thanks for reading.

theoretica

I would add looking at property listings to your research list.  What is available, at what price, where?

As you are willing to move, you might want to put job hunting high on your list - maybe a wonderful job will come up somewhere you hadn't considered living.  I personally found a job and moved to take it up, rented and then bought.

gwynlas

If you want to continue to work in the same field then you need to concentrate on areas where employers are based  eg JP Morgan, Bournemouth or are there sister companies to your current employers? Do you have family ties anywhere in the UK?
Parts of the Midlands seem very cheap compared to the SE but you would need to do a location like  search in each area to eet your needs/

sidneyvic

A lot can change in 1.5 to 2 years so any advise now would probably be a waste of time.

Choirgrl

As others have said, jobs/employers is an important consideration. I’d add to that a range of employees so that you have the flexibility to move if you want or need to. In regard to that, Leeds/Manchester and Edinburgh/Glasgow are close enough to each other that you could possibly  consider jobs in both cities over the course of your career. Some of the other places you mention are a bit more isolated.

Orher considerations:
 - Schools/Education systems: would you want to be in/ avoid an area with grammar schools? How good are the schools and what do (for want of a better term) ‘people like you’ consider options in the areas you’re considering? For example, I grew up near Leeds in an area which had (and has) some excellent comprehensives, so going private was unusual. In contrast, I used to live in Bristol where the general reputation of schools wasn’t good, and among my friends with kids the general view was that if you didn’t get into the CofE school you needed to go private.

- What do you like to do for fun, and how accessible is it in those places? Do you want easy acces s to places to hike / the sea / theatres/ etc?

- Do you want to be near / have god transport links to family or friends in particular locations, or indeed to not have them so you have an excuse not to visit too often.

- How important is the cultural diversity of a place to you? Any particular needs/ preferences in terms of communities and facilities?

In terms of making decisions, you come across as a very data driven person. That’s great, but I think  it’s unlikely you’ll be able to analyse your entire way to a decision on this. To help make choices, once you have a shortlist, would you be able to say, have a couple of weeks where you could work entirely from home and rent an Airbnb in the type of neighbourhood you’d be looking at living in? It would give you a bit of a taste of what it would be like as a place to live. I’m currently planning a relocation and did that as part of my decision making process - it was really valuable in confirming that the place I’d identified from logical factors was actually somewhere that felt right.

Good luck with the decision making!

ACCA

gwynlas said:

If you want to continue to work in the same field then you need to concentrate on areas where employers are based  eg JP Morgan, Bournemouth or are there sister companies to your current employers? Do you have family ties anywhere in the UK?
Parts of the Midlands seem very cheap compared to the SE but you would need to do a location like  search in each area to meet your needs/

That's right, I will research the area so that it has a branch of an office nearby, the companies that I am targeting have offices in every city that's >500k in population, so, quite a bit to choose from. And no, I have no family in the UK at all, I have a partner and we are looking to start a family, that's the only reason we're looking to buy a place.

Do you know what's the reason of the price ramp up in SE? Is that the weather or proximity to the seaside? 

Choirgrl

ACCA said:

Do you know what's the reason of the price ramp up in SE? Is that the weather or proximity to the seaside? 

This would take a post the length of a book to explore, but in a nutshell (and in no particular order):

• proximity to London
• overall supply and demand
• a whole heap of economic and industrial history 

On which note, as you do your research and shortlist potential locations, it’s worth reading up on the history of places you’re considering. It’ll help put them in context.