Is there really an exodus of londoners decamping to the North and Midlands or is it just an urban myth ?

[Stasiland]

Just wondered what's driving the incredible rise in house prices particularly in naice parts of the north ? There have been loads of threads recently about people from London and the South East longing to escape the rat race and move to areas with cheaper property prices and a better quality of life. No problem with that as I suspect their budget is much healthier than ours and we are not competing for the same houses !

We live in a grim part of the north west, have done for the last 30 years. Love my house and the local area but the rest of the town not so much. If you want sophistication look no further than the town centre which is a cross between 'shameless' and the Star wars canteen. No naice independent coffee shops or boutiques here sadly. Ds2 will be going to uni within the next 2 years (hopefully) and Dp and myself will be able to take early retirement. Plan is to move back over the Pennines, preferably to between York and Pocklington (have close family there and grew up 1/2 an hour away). We've kept an eye on house prices and accept that we won't get anything quite as nice as we have over here as we don't have megabucks (current house has massive garden and in semi rural location but worth max £200,000 ). Sadly I'm starting to think that we will be priced out by the time we are able to move. Just feel sad that the UK property market is so screwed that some areas are becoming out of reach for ordinary people. lthough I appreciate I'm lucky that we have a house of our own.

York is recommended as somewhere to get yourself a cheap family home - a two up two down sets you back the best part of a £200k!

which IS cheap in comparison to London prices. A two up two down would be over a million where I am.

Yes but York isn’t London - fewer jobs, fewer amenities, not the same number of galleries, theatres, venues on your doorstep etc. I agree in no world should a two up two down cost £1 million, but the point I was trying to make was that from a lot of posts on here people seem to think that for that money they’d get some huge dilapidated townhouse. They won’t!

I live in a small city, next to a railway station, on the coast just 1 hr 20 mins away from a mainline central London station. Only 1 hr 35 mins from my front door to staring at Westminster.

We are seeing the most obscene house price rises here. Rents, too.

I had wondered ...

They're all coming to the SW - house prices here have massively increased and are selling quickly.

Tempted to sell and move back to London with the profit made.

I ask myself when I go North to visit family. New build houses there are 800k. I have no idea who can afford these. It isn’t a place I expect many Londoners would flee to.

I think they are all coming here too - midlands. We have 5% rise every month atm its getting stupid. We have caught up with the naice town next door which used to be double the price of here, for half the real estate - but they dont have a direct london line and we do.

We are a quite shitty town tbh so it is surprising - the kind of town where you can shop in your PJs and no one blinks an eye lid. Big crash coming here I think.

@MerlinsButler I don't live in Rochdale but not that far from it
Just recently there have been loads of threads about people's target incomes (was that ever a thing ?)
how much is the mortgage on a million pound house (with plenty prepared to tell) and how much is your joint income. Some of the figures were beyond anything I could ever earn and definitely engender a degree of envy .

We've had a few newcomers in our midlands estate from London/Surrey/Essex, all looking for cheaper housing. Train into London in an hour, house half the price! (If you're happy to remortgage to pay for the commute )

I like in the NE. Our area was already desirable and house prices have been steadily increasing above the regional average for the last 5 years. There is now not enough houses to go round and lots of properties are going to ex London residents with cash buyers offering above asking price before viewing and within hours of a house appearing on the market.

I reckon price rises are being partly driven by foreign investors taking advantage of the weak pound and buying up properties as investments.

We really need some kind of policy in this country to address housing being used as an investment.

If you consider what Covid has done to the stock.market, lots of rich people could be taking their money out of shares and putting it into rental properties instead.

The housing market where I live (lovely suburb of Birmingham) is crazy at the moment. We were thinking of moving but have decided to convert our loft instead and wait. We made the move from London ourselves a few years ago, and there are quite a few people we’ve met who have done the same. There also seems to be lots of people moving out to though, to prettier coastal areas or more rural homes.

@Camdenish

York is recommended as somewhere to get yourself a cheap family home - a two up two down sets you back the best part of a £200k! which IS cheap in comparison to London prices. A two up two down would be over a million where I am.

Yes, I doubled checked the 2up2down price! £200k isn’t even a studio flat!

I’m in the NE and don’t know anyone coming up here. Must be a step too far coming this north.

My group of mum friends are now looking at moving from a flat to a house and the only way to do this is move further out. Most still SE but one or two retiring and living the country life!

Yep, definitely a few locally moving into the new builds. Walking distance to station and then an hour and a bit to London on the fast train.

House prices have definitely gone up. I was surprised that onZoopla our very average 3 bed semi has gone up by about £40-50k since we remortgaged last year. Madness.

I live in a commuter town in the south east. Direct London line (about 45 min). House prices have gone through the roof, apparently with people moving out of the city. So many are being told that they only need to be in the office one or two days a week, it just makes sense to move a bit further out

I'm in South Yorkshire. 70% of our viewers were from London and we did sell to a couple from London.
Massively bit us on the arse as there are so many of them now relocating & chucking 50k over asking, we have had to pay way over what we'd have paid just 6 months ago when we sold to them.

Lots of people have moved from London to my Midlands village in recent months.

It does make sense if you are working from home to take advantage of the ability to live somewhere cheaper with a superior quality of life.
What happens to local buyers when they are outbid by people who have profited from crazy london
prices ? Yet again the less well paid are pushed out although their target houses would be different.

I hope all the SE/Londoners move up north, so house prices might go down here for me! A single garage sold for £40k in my road recently 😮. There’s no hope of buying anything at a reasonable cost, as the smallest house in a really crappy area is at least £300k. I’ve stopped watching property progs as they cheese me off so much with the north/south property divide. Sadly I can’t move out this region, as I have work and elderly family commitments. Its v frustrating 😩

@Stasiland

It does make sense if you are working from home to take advantage of the ability to live somewhere cheaper with a superior quality of life. What happens to local buyers when they are outbid by people who have profited from crazy london prices ? Yet again the less well paid are pushed out although their target houses would be different.

Yes like us Londoners - about time others experience this. I’m from London, pushed out further and further each time I move- it sucks!

@2021hwg

I live in a commuter town in the south east. Direct London line (about 45 min). House prices have gone through the roof, apparently with people moving out of the city. So many are being told that they only need to be in the office one or two days a week, it just makes sense to move a bit further out

We're in a commuter town too, prices here have shot up. So we're priced out and having to move further away. Luckily we can because of wfh, but it is frustrating.

Of course it's not an urban myth. People gravitate to London at times of their lives and careers and numbers then move out at times of their lives and careers. To be replaced by the next generation. It's cyclical.

200k for a terrace in York City would be cheap surely.
I'm in Durham and it would be here.
Plenty of surrounding villages where 200k would get you a lovely semi or detached, I'm in one of them. But in the city, no way.

@Stasiland

It does make sense if you are working from home to take advantage of the ability to live somewhere cheaper with a superior quality of life. What happens to local buyers when they are outbid by people who have profited from crazy london prices ? Yet again the less well paid are pushed out although their target houses would be different.

This is the same situation that many Londoners have been faced with for years. Moving further and further out until they can find something they can afford. It’s been happening for years.