Glasgow - where to live (and where to avoid)

[Azandme]

Hello lovely people!

Two friends of ours are moving to Glasgow from overseas, and they're looking for somewhere to rent for a couple of years before buying. He's a doctor, his wife is a physio.

Which areas are "nice", and which should be avoided please?

Nice is East Dunbartonshire , hard to say where to avoid as all places has it good and bad.

I’m f you move this to Scotsnet you may get better responses and also give a rough budget.

id consider areas just outside Glasgow personally as they’ll be more affordable but that would suit me might not suit them.

Avoid Newton Mearns. Dullest, snobbiest part of Glasgow.

Are they going to be working? If yes where?
If they are hospital based then that’ll have implications on where they’d be best living.
I’d rather not live on the north side and have to commute to the south side and vice versa.

Really depends where they will be working and whether they have kids and need to consider school catchment areas.

West - Hyndland and Kelvingrove / west end have lovely big tenement flats . V diverse and close to uni. Expensive.
Further out places like Jordanhill and Bearsden are also popular.

North - areas like Bishopbriggs and Lenzie are nice and only 10 mins by train into city centre.

South - Giffnock and Newton Mearns are desirable suburbs popular with families. Closer to the city Pollokshields and Shawlands have some nice parts

East - a little further out Uddingston or Mount Vernon have nice houses and easy commute to city

City centre - Merchant city is always popular for singles and couples if you like to be in town socialising

Hope this helps!
If money no object I would try West End as everything on your doorstep and good places to eat, shop plus nice parks and culture

I'm from Newton Mearns. 😁😁😁 It was a lovely place to live and grow up 40 years ago but I wouldn't live there now. There's barely any green space anymore.

Bearsden

Yeah pretty much what @Kyogo67 says. Choose based on where they are working, taking into account schools for kids if that is an issue.

A useful tool is the SIMD maps, which plot every area in terms of how deprived it is.
https://simd.scot/#/simd2020/BTTTFTT/9/-4.0000/55.9000/

In general terms dark blue are the nicest, most prosperous areas, dark red are the most deprived. Renting in the West End would be a good idea, as it's a nice area with loads going on with bars, restaurants and shops, easy to get to the main hospitals and into the city. Then that gives them time to really scope out the city and choose where they want to settle.

No need to ask what team you support 🙌

Gosh, I'd never have thought of using the SIMD to house hunt 😬

As pp said it depends on so many other factors. Budget & expectations for it being the biggest probably.

Which hospital is he working from. If it's the QEUH for instance it's really central & is an easy commute to Renfrewshire where even as a renter you'll get more for your money

Do schools need to be factored in? What about days off. What are their preferences, eating & drinking in the city or bike rides, sight seeing & sea side

If you have more info and ask to have this moved to Scotnet you'll get some great feedback

Thanks everyone. I've asked for more information.

Gosh, I'd never have thought of using the SIMD to house hunt 😬

Gives you a "feel" for an area though, helps you narrow down the search.

Depends on where they are working and what sort of lifestyle they want, but with those salaries if I had kids I'd be looking at Giffnock and Clarkston to the south of city. They are adjacent to Newton Mearns which previous posters have mentioned but they are younger and more family orientated areas with nice places to eat, drink and shop. They are in East Renfrewshire rather than Glasgow City and the schools have a better reputation although they are only a few stops further on the train.

West End is also lovely with plenty going on if their budget can stretch to a home there - anything with a G12 postcode is the best area with good places to eat, culture, parks nearby. My understanding is that the secondary state schools in the West End are very variable - some excellent and some quite poor and it's difficult to get into one of the good ones if you are not in catchment so that's one to watch if they have kids.

Of the other places people have mentioned, Lenzie is lovely but quiet and suburban so you won't get the same buzz as living in somewhere like Clarkston (comes back to what type of lifestyle they want). Same for Newton Mearns or Bearsden, because while they are nice places with decent houses the people that live there tend to be older and there's not a lot of buzz about them if you know what I mean. I wouldn't choose to live in any of those places, although I am sure they suit some people.

If I was young and childfree I'd look at West End, Shawlands, Strathbungo or the Merchant City (my dream is to retire to a penthouse in the Merchant City!

If they need easy access to QEUH then Giffnock, Clarkston, Netherlee are probably their easiest options for nice safe areas with good amenities, transport links and a number of the top schoolsin Scotland, although I imagine it's difficult to find somewhere to rent there.

Honestly, I just shake my head at these threads. Very varied suggestions, which is great, the ones that really annoy me are the ones that are like "Bearsden" full stop. Or "Clarkson/ Giffnock/ Mearns" are 'safe' areas. Like the rest of us are living in wild dens of iniquity!

Like a PP said, Bearsden/ Lenzie/ Mearns/ Whitecraigs etc can be so soulless & snobbish to boot. I would never live there (I'm perhaps biased as the ex-MIL lives in one of these & is the biggest snob I know!).

I'm near one of the big hospitals: it's very urban, very mixed, great sense of community & has a heart. Looks like we're pale blue/ yellow/ orange/red on the SIMD chart- genuinely mixed (really interesting, thanks for posting). My DC went to/ go to the local schools & many, mixed extra curriculars. I can never understand the obsession with being in the bland, MC hot houses.

If your friends have the budget, West End every time, for all the reasons stated by PP.

It's so dependent on what type of lifestyle you are after isn't it?!

It will throw up confusing anomalies though too. For example in the town that I live in the area that seems to be most affluent and desirable for families (4-5 bedroom houses built within the last 10 years, lots of green space and parks, really popular with families with young kids, school has a great reputation and kids that go there really seem to excel at sports, and houses are 20% more expensive than the same houses in developments a few miles away) is in SIMD7, presumably because everyone who lives there is mortgaged up to their eye balls! It's the areas full of the oldies, who probably bought their houses for £8000 40 years ago that are the most affluent around here according to SIMD. Also the amount of red and orange in Glasgow could also be really off-putting when in reality many of those areas are vibrant and mixed communities that could be a great place to live!

Absolutely. I didn't want to live in a beige box without soul, so I'm urban with all the good & bad that brings. If I was to move anywhere it would be really, really rural!

Honestly? I work for Glasgow city council, I lived in Glasgow for 15 years and I would never ever live there again. The council just has no money and the service to residents is really really poor, the schools need a lot of work doing too, it's just not the place it used to be. So I would advise against actual 'Glasgow'

We live in south Lanarkshire now, and I love where we are but it's probably considered a shithole by Mumsnet standards! But there are nice bits of East Ren and North Lanarkshire too, depending which hospitals they are working at.

I'm hearing you. I hate folk dismissing areas because, shock, horror, there might be, gasp, children on FSM sitting beside little precious. I wanted my DC to grow up in a truly mixed area, where they experience every walk of life. My 2 eldest are so well adjusted because of this, & quite wise for their years.

Interesting and varied suggestions. We moved to Glasgow from overseas just over a year ago and ended up in one of the ‘beige’ places people mentioned above. We love it here. My kids finally have a bit of independence. But you need to tell them the Scottish house buying system for popular areas is very hard. We thought we would be able to buy quickly. We ended up in rented of a year. In popular places they need to be prepared to pay at least 15% over home valuation, so in effect have double the deposit.

Or Renfrewshire. Houston, Bridge of Weir, Kilmacolm also lovely areas & ideal for commuting.

Various rentals on RM just now & the schools are excellent

Not everyone's expertise at all. I live in Glasgow & work in a secondary school here - new building & great facilities. Meanwhile my bf works in a school in a v affluent area of East Dumbartonshite & the lovely Victorian building is falling apart around them & there's mushrooms growing out the walls in staff areas.

My partner is leaving his rented flat (paid for by work as he's in construction and goes where they need their project manager), and the flat is gorgeous!!

It's a two bed at the harbour, meadowside quay. It's honestly got so much storage it's unreal. En-suite etc. huge lounge area. It's third floor and the balcony looks out to Dumbarton road. He rents through Clyde letting agency so they will prob have it listed toward the end of March