First time buyer, deciding where to move

rationaldresssociety

I do appreciate the importance of all these points (lifestyle, hobbies, environment, amenities, commute, wider transport links, maintaining a job, etc) but I really am just looking for advice from a financial perspective. 

RAS

What exactly do you mean by "financial perspective"?

SarahB16

rationaldresssociety said:

I do appreciate the importance of all these points (lifestyle, hobbies, environment, amenities, commute, wider transport links, maintaining a job, etc) but I really am just looking for advice from a financial perspective. 

Opinion from my interpretation of 'financial perspective' for you but would be helpful for you to clarify exactly what you mean when you say 'financial perspective' as it seems you may have a narrower definition of this.  

Which part of the country has the best prospects for you to grow your career (but also new friends and ultimately to buy a three bedroom house).  My thoughts not in London as too expensive to buy a three bedroom house on your own in a nice area in London and you really don't want to purchase a flat from a financial perspective.  (Financial perspective:  purchase a three bedroom house - grows in value and always high demand).  

You know your career better than us but let's use another large city where housing costs are much more affordable compared to London so that you can afford a house, e.g. Manchester.  

Manchester (and Greater Manchester including areas such as Salford and Trafford).  Manchester is booming.  

Very affordable to purchase a three bedroom house in Greater Manchester.  Some areas in the highly desirable south Manchester area (e.g. Chorlton, Didsbury) less so.

Manchester is within easy travelling distance for the Lake District, Peak District and Yorkshire.   

You may wish to repeat the above for other cities, e.g. Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle but as you are looking for this from a financial perspective my opinion would be move to Manchester (career prospects) and rent in the city centre for 6 to 12 months (very vibrant city centre). This will give you that city centre living you are looking for in London.  Yes, you will be renting for 12 months but don't jump into buying in a new city straightaway.  See if you like the city, which areas outside of the city centre appeal to you to buy and then look to buy.  You don't really want to buy an apartment in the city centre.  It will also make viewing properties much easier when you actually live in the area as you will not be in a chain and this will probably put you at an advantage compared to other prospective purchasers.   

seasidedweller99

I can comment well having lived all over London and Brighton too. Can confirm Worthing is a great place if you want:

-A lovely quiet beach

-Beautiful countryside and walking nearby

-Friendly safe community, quite diverse and queer friendly

-Very good cafes restaurants pubs and bars (both traditional and also natural wines bars and small plates etc, craft breweries for a bit of pizazz)

-Good schools

-Leafy parks

-Decent town centre with walkable shops

-Three train stations(!) and an easy enough commute straight to Victoria/East Croydon/Clapham, and Brighton of course

-Decent parking (especially compared to Brighton)

-And affordable homes! I bought my three bedroom house in a good area for only 30k more than my one bedroom flat in Brighton-For us it's been a no brainer and we love it, we're in our 30s and lots of our friends are following 

- areas: Check it out in person. Personally we're near the station on a leafy nice street, Tarring (West) is also desirable. But the best way to ascertain is to go and walk around.