Moving to Glasgow

[kisaki333]

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post - I wrote this on "local" and got no replies...

I am originally not from the UK but I moved here over 10 years ago. I lived in Glasgow for a couple of years back when I was younger and loved it. At the time, I lived in the city centre (merchant city) and never really got out if the area much - only ventured as far as the west end.
Now, a good few years later, I am in my early 40s, I have a husband, a newborn and I live in SE England. We are still renting and I am desperate to buy but the way the market is now I have almost no chance of getting anything decent. More and more I am thinking of going back to Scotland, partially because I loved it there and partially because it's the only place I'd aford to buy a nice house.

For those that are familiar with Glasgow:
What are some nice and safe areas to bring up a child? So far I heard Lenzie and Bearsden. Is Stepps also ok? I see some really nice modern houses there for good prices.

What is the job market like at the moment? I work in IT and I am hoping I can find something fully remote so it doesn't matter but just in case I don't, is the market generally OK?

Glasgow is quite expensive for housing, if you're first time buyers. Are you wanting the city itself, or would you look outside? There's plenty of areas that you can commute to Glasgow from, if you need to go to an office.

I know there's plenty of work for IT people there, headhunters are constantly ringing and emailing my relatives who work in that sector.

North Glasgow (Bearsden, Lenzie, Kirkintilloch etc) is nice, but prices are high, as is the west end / southside. The east end (around Dennistoun etc) is, er, up and coming, in estate agent speak, but I'm not sure it's prime young family territory.

If you were prepared to travel a bit, the likes of Stepps / Cumbernauld / East Kilbride are cheaper, but a bit soulless, IMO (born and bred southsider showing my bias here ).

Take a look on Rightmove to see what you can get for your budget, and don't forget the 'offers over' system in Scotland - houses round my way are going for between 15-20% over the home report price.

Oh, and what area of IT do you work in? I'm in IT too and there's a very healthy job market up here ATM, especially for contract programmers and developers.

I quite like rutherglen. Been here a while now and it has a great highstreet and good access and is close to the city. I have family in Stepps and they often say they are jealous of the amenities we have here.

I loved merchant City when I lived there too but omg the bills xD

Another point to think about is schooling. Generally you attend your local school and the likeliness of getting a placing request, particularly for East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire, is slim to nil

I really don't know much about the schooling system - either in England or Scotland. Are you saying if I live near a school, that's where the child will go and I can't ask for a place in a school further away? For example, I read that the schools in Bearsden and Lenzie are good, is that why the house prices are so high?
Bearsden in particular confuses me as I can see on rightmove houses over 500k and other under 300k that look more or less the same. So I guess even within it, there's good and bad areas?

Yes that’s pretty much the case.

We don’t have league tables as such here but the Scotsman, I think, publishes the Highers pass rates per high school and the top 20 is a good chunk of East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire schools

Please don’t move to Stepps. It is utterly soulless.

Bearsden and Milgavie are nice. Milgavie is very popular with people I work with - engineers. I live in the Southside and love it.

Pinkbonbon I'm close to Rutherglen, I find the main street very depressing!
But the train to town is every 10 mins or so, great access.

I wouldn't move to either Rutherglen (I'm from there) or Stepps.

Newlands is nice but expensive.

I'm not familiar with north side of town but yes I know Bearsden, Milngavie and Lenzie are the "posh" or expensive areas.

Clarkston, giffnock, Newton mearns are the desirable postcodes on south side maybe even busby (as gets you in the gd schools). Gd transport links too in to city centre.

High schools in these areas are usually in top 5. You have to live in the area (catchment) to get in to these schools. You can put in a placing request but you need a good reason as to why your putting your child here. I don't think saying because it's a gd school wld cut it. Most people support it with grandparents address probably saying that they provide after school childcare etc.

East Kilbride is a very big town with lots to do a bit further out but you'll get more for you money although prices vary a lot for different areas of the town. Strathaven a bit further out again but very gd school there but more expensive than East Kilbride.

Other areas to consider uddingston, some parts of Hamilton, Bothwell if the budget wld stretch. Someone mentioned Rutherglen, it's 10mins on train to Glasgow but I'm not sure if any nice areas within it for a family but Burnside is very nearby and is a nice area as is Kings Park but again can be expensive.

Then there's the offers over carry on when buying a house here. So the seller has to buy a home report and the price of the house will be on this report. Let's say £300K it's valued at. So it's out on the market for offers over £295K. In most cases people wld offer up towards the £300K. However if it's in one of these desirable areas with not a lot of housing they go for way over the £300K and it will be final sealed offers to the estate agent at closing. In Clarkston/giffnock for example the house valued at £300K wld probably go for £330-£350K. Madness. Sometimes you might be better looking at sold prices on Rightmove instead.

Just be very aware of prices. I know one recently in Milngavie that was offers over £350k, home report was £400k and went for £500k. Some of the bids are crazy.

Bearsden, Milngavie, Lenzie all lovely, there are some lovely bits of Kirkintilloch too (but no train station), Bishopbriggs also nice. Milngavie I would say has the nicest town centre and there's been a big push in last few years for more of a community. All good for kids!

Wow, those prices are insane! Still, maybe the market will calm down at least a bit over the summer...

They won't: prices in Bearsden / Milngavie have more or less always been the highest in Glasgow and in the top 5% in Scotland in my lifetime (I'm 43 and have have lived in Glasgow more or less all my life).

If you're looking for cheap / good housing in Glasgow, you'll only get one out of two of those factors in B&M, and it won't be cheap.

You might also want to get admins to either move this post or copy it to Scotsnet, as you'll get more traffic from actual Scots / Glaswegians there.

What is your budget and what are you looking for? Lots of great options but very, very budget dependent - no point in us suggesting Dowanhill if you’re looking for a 4 bed semi for 450k, for example…

If the prices in bearsden seem “too good to be true” - it’s because they’re stretching boundaries a little and it’s probably easterhouse. 😂

my ex is from dennistoun and if it’s up and coming, it must be 5 miles underground still. There’s no way in hell I’d send my kids to the schools there. Don’t let a beautiful tenament building or celinos fool you - the Lee Rig is “pure” 🙄 dennistoun.

@EdgeOfSeventeenAndThreeQuarter

If the prices in bearsden seem “too good to be true” - it’s because they’re stretching boundaries a little and it’s probably easterhouse.

Aye, in the same way that anything out of the way of Dennistoun is described as 'Merchant City East'. 😄

I agree; when my parents were house hunting the West End stretched to Drumchapel….

There are nice places within easy reach of Glasgow - for example Bridge of Weir and Houston are nice villages with good schools and good transport links. You are 20-25 minutes drive from the centre of Glasgow, and not too much further from the hills and the coast.

This is where we live - we moved here when the dses were 11, 13 and 15, and we still love it here.

Haaaha Easterhouse/the Drum!
I can laugh as Dd lives in Springburn.

There are the usual "nice " places but if you have kids beware of the feeders going into mental high schools
im actually moving OUT of the city for this reason.
Have you been BACK here yet? Its disgusting and everythings shut. I wouldnt be overpaying but 20 % over asking, to live here if i could go elsewhere
everywhere past the M8 to Knightswood is apparently The west end. And sneakily nealry into possil and high maryhill lol

no idea about southside.But id look to commuter towns.
not kirkie/ moodiesburn or Cumbernauld

Paisley would be cheaper and tbh, same junkies there as down Duke Street ( which again prices are inexplicable?)

I know Scotland apparently doesn't have the same issues with catchment schools as England, but in certain places it really does, so that's something to look at.

You could consider Lanark, too. Straightforward commute to Glasgow if you couldn't find a renote-working job.