Deleted

youth_leader

You do have to consider the weather though Scarter. The cold here in the NE was a shock to us when we moved up from London.  Twenty years later I still dislike how much colder it is here and even though I am coastal, we had weeks of heavy snow in 2010 and 2018.  I believe Scotland is worse and looking at the recent Met reports believe snow is due from Norway shortly. Brrr! 

FreeBear

user1977 said:

Deleted_User said:

I'm posting this as I feel moving might be an option that a lot of strapped for cash city dwellers haven't considered.
I'm
Now obviously if you have a career or good job in the city this isn't an option But I do wonder if people realize how cheaply they can get decent property in some parts of the country. I'm not sure what the rules are so won't post a link to an example, but I'll describe it.

3 Bedroom semi detached house in a nice rural village in Scotland with easy commute to Glasgow. It's a reasonably well off area - lots of nice houses owned by business people so schools etc will be good. 

Price £55,000

This one, I presume: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/126662609#/?channel=RES_BUY

Firstly, it's timber-clad, which might be a problem for some lenders - there might be other non-standard construction stuff going on, I'm not sure. I suspect that partly explains the price though..

Also appears to be sold using a variation of the modern method of auction - The buyer having to pay a non-refundable "reservation fee" on acceptance of a successful bid.

ProDave

I moved at age 40 from Oxfordsire to the Highlands, near Inverness.

I Oxfordshire, we had a 3 1/2 bed semi with a mortgage and needed a full time reasonably paid job to fund that, and we constantly complained at the ever increasing congestion on the roads, keep on having to chase another higher paid job to keep up etc, and not much prospect of ever having much more than that semi detached house.

So we sold up and moved to the Highlands.  No mortgage since age 40, 5 bedroom detached house and I have only worked part time since.  Hardly any congestion on the roads, much nicer scenery very nice people etc.

Everyone "warned" me, it was a 1 way ticket and you would never be able to afford to go back.  Why on earth would I want to?

user1977

Deleted_User said:

user1977 said:

Deleted_User said:

I'm posting this as I feel moving might be an option that a lot of strapped for cash city dwellers haven't considered.
I'm
Now obviously if you have a career or good job in the city this isn't an option But I do wonder if people realize how cheaply they can get decent property in some parts of the country. I'm not sure what the rules are so won't post a link to an example, but I'll describe it.

3 Bedroom semi detached house in a nice rural village in Scotland with easy commute to Glasgow. It's a reasonably well off area - lots of nice houses owned by business people so schools etc will be good. 

Price £55,000

This one, I presume: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/126662609#/?channel=RES_BUY

Firstly, it's timber-clad, which might be a problem for some lenders - there might be other non-standard construction stuff going on, I'm not sure. I suspect that partly explains the price though..

Also, I'm not sure that living in a council estate in Ayrshire is quite the rural idyl you suggest, or that it's a typical choice of better-off commuters to Glasgow.

While I'm sure most of your neighbours will be lovely, here's an example of what one of them has been up to recently: https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/man-battered-mad-dog-2020-23446497

The council estates in these rural villages tend to be almost exclusively private owned nowadays. 

From a quick squint at the Land Register, it looks like the majority of houses in that estate are still owned by Cunninghame Housing Association.

elsien

ProDave said:

I moved at age 40 from Oxfordsire to the Highlands, near Inverness.

I Oxfordshire, we had a 3 1/2 bed semi with a mortgage and needed a full time reasonably paid job to fund that, and we constantly complained at the ever increasing congestion on the roads, keep on having to chase another higher paid job to keep up etc, and not much prospect of ever having much more than that semi detached house.

So we sold up and moved to the Highlands.  No mortgage since age 40, 5 bedroom detached house and I have only worked part time since.  Hardly any congestion on the roads, much nicer scenery very nice people etc.

Everyone "warned" me, it was a 1 way ticket and you would never be able to afford to go back.  Why on earth would I want to?

I am curious,. How did you narrow down the area that you wanted to move to? I am needing to stay put at the moment due to caring responsibilities but a move in the future isn’t beyond the realms of possibility. But I have no idea how I’d even start thinking about where to begin. 

diystarter7

Hi 

We moved from the nort years ago ie mum/dad/family as mum rightly said more job ops in London
We had a lovely detached house got next to nothing for it in the very late's 70 and whilst dad was working at the Ford motros looking for house property prices were shooting up - dad got a nice victorian house 4 beds concerted to three but it was almost 
30 times the price nd even those in London could not believe the price we paid as there was no Internet as such and people were talking about when they last bought - people from the north came and sort of called dad a liar and he offered them to bets the cowards declined then dad bought out the paperwork, they were staggered.

Those coming from the north and midlands slag off london but in relity can't afford to live here or buy the same type of large detached house in a nice area. The weather better, mass of more jobs for all - people from all over the worlkd coe here as well as our hypocritical friends and family that often visit London etc but slag it off for reasons I've touched on.

I've been lucky, worked hard, been wise with money and every place we lived at has been ok/good for us. It goes without saying I'd love a duplex apartment overlooking hyde park but can't afford that.

We consider Eastbourne when we left work and then Eastbourne's main home and an apartment near out kids in Lond. However, we deiced to stay put and one of our kids and their family is about 15 doors from us and its the best decision we ever made. Thanks to my mum and dad for making a bold move when many just talked about getting "on your bike" to find a new/better job.

we alsmot did Sevenoaks, then Tunbridge but I'm glad we never went over to look at the properties as we may have bought there and the commute to work was not for me.

As one gets older and it happens quickly after the age of 50, you find it harder to drive especially in the dark - so best to be closer to amenities and loved ones as far as poss IMO.

Thanks

Sapindus

Friends and family can come and visit - the thing is the further away you move the longer they tend to come to visit for.

You can also make new friends.

In my family it was the norm for children to move away once they got a job hence my grandparents, uncles and aunts lived hours away and once I went to university I had no real wish to live anywhere near my parents so my brother and I both live a couple of hours away from my mum.  Fine while we were all still fairly fit and able to travel, but this is having some bearing on my plans now as I want to move again. There's no way I can afford to live meaningfully closer to my now elderly mother and the area I am eyeing up is even further away.  

ProDave

elsien said:

ProDave said:

I moved at age 40 from Oxfordsire to the Highlands, near Inverness.

I Oxfordshire, we had a 3 1/2 bed semi with a mortgage and needed a full time reasonably paid job to fund that, and we constantly complained at the ever increasing congestion on the roads, keep on having to chase another higher paid job to keep up etc, and not much prospect of ever having much more than that semi detached house.

So we sold up and moved to the Highlands.  No mortgage since age 40, 5 bedroom detached house and I have only worked part time since.  Hardly any congestion on the roads, much nicer scenery very nice people etc.

Everyone "warned" me, it was a 1 way ticket and you would never be able to afford to go back.  Why on earth would I want to?

I am curious,. How did you narrow down the area that you wanted to move to? I am needing to stay put at the moment due to caring responsibilities but a move in the future isn’t beyond the realms of possibility. But I have no idea how I’d even start thinking about where to begin. 

I had been holidaying in the Highlands for 20 years so knew the area quite well, but that was mostly west coat and islands and I know it can be a little wet there and the midges can be evil.  So we settled on moving somewhere in the countryside within half an hour of Inverness as that offered the best employment prospects.  It is less wet this side and the midges are not so evil but it does get colder here in winter.   As it happens I ended up being self employed working from home.

mi-key

Problem now is going truly rural in most areas costs more than buying in the city as so many people want that lifestyle and not many properties.

Moving to a semi rural town can be a good idea though. You can often get a lot  more house for your money, and as long as you pick the area carefully ( maybe one of the nicer streets in an ok area rather than a bigger house in a worse area ) you can get somewhere nice.

Most people will never really be a victim of any serious crime in their lives, but you are more likely living in a city than you are somewhere with less people just by numbers. 

[Deleted User]

It's okay if you don't mind living in a rural area, probably a long way from your friends, and maybe far from people you would like to be friends with. The broadband will probably be a joke too. Little to offer locally, you need to drive to everything.

Some people might be okay with it, but it's certainly not for everyone.