Moving to the UK - location advice

[wisteriahouse]

Hi all,

My husband and I will be relocating to the UK next year from Australia. We have a seven year old son and will be looking for jobs upon arrival (husband works in IT, I am a lawyer).

We have been looking at different locations to settle including London and Leeds. Our requirements are excellent schools, good transport links (we will be using public transport only), local shops/pubs/restaurants/high street. Our budget is around £1,300pm.

Coming from a “new” country, we are looking forward to immersing ourselves in the history and culture and would value having these options readily available without having to venture too far away. We enjoy going out for meals, walks/bike rides, enjoying the outdoors, swimming etc. We are hoping to travel around Europe on a regular basis (mostly long weekend trips) so convenience to an airport would be a plus.

Any suggestions would be welcomed! It’s so hard to plan things from the other side of the world and we don’t want to drag our son around while we decide on an area as we want to get him settled in a school asap.

Honestly, you will barely get anything in London for that rent per month. Maybe a studio flat in outer London. If that's all you know you can afford rent-wise, I'd definitely look at cheaper towns/ cities, more likely in the north of England. Manchester might be a good option.

Surely you need to find jobs first?!

Both Leeds and London would be good for your careers, I would have thought. If you look at properties in or to the North West of Leeds you are near some beautiful countryside. To the North East you're pretty close to the coast.

£1,300 per month doesn't sound very much, especially in London.

I agree with above posters, for £1300 you need to look north, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle etc. Even then you may need to look at outskirts of the city and travelling in. The town I live in is near Chester & Liverpool and a 2 bed house to rent starts at around £950.

I don't know what rental prices in Leeds are like, but you'll struggle to find anywhere in London to rent for £1300 per month. It's very expensive here. It sounds like a good plan though! (You won't be allowed to take your son out of school for long weekends in termtime so do bear that in mind). If you work in IT and law you should be able to earn enough to afford a slightly higher rent (assuming you have the right to work here?), so maybe adjust your budget and then look mainly in the North for affordable places? Or Cambridge might be an option - easy enough to get to London but growing all the time and lots of IT type jobs.

Newcastle could be a good shout. Historic city, interesting galleries etc, airport, easy access to Scotland or the rest of England by mainline train…

Have you even looked at how you can practice law in England OP?

That budget is incredibly low for London.
My son was briefly renting a studio flat (so one room plus kitchen and bathroom) for that. You won't get anything two adults and a child can live in for that in London,

Try Manchester or Newcastle.

I was recently thinking about renting but couldn't even get a 1 bed garden flat in Croydon for less than £14-£1,500 per month.

You're going to rent a cardboard box for that budget in London, not to be rude but have you done some basic research on different areas?

If you don't/can't drive, then London is definitely a better bet, as public transport is so good.

But you'll not get much at all for your money. Given how expensive property is in Australia, at least in places like Sydney, surely you must be used to paying a lot more than the equivalent of £1300 a month?

To give you an idea of how far £1300 will get you (not far), a uni student in a shared house in places like Bristol and York will pay £1000pcm for their bedroom and use of shared house kitchen/bathroom etc.

£1300 won't get you much in London or even South East. As a rough guide you would expect to pay £1600+ in East London for a basic 2 bed flat in a ok ish area. The rental market could be tricky to negotiate in advance as you need to view and offer pretty much same day, often over the advertised price, pay deposit and rent in advance. It might be best to secure a job first then look.

I think you need to focus on jobs first and then housing budget because just about any suburban part of the UK will tick all your other boxes and that really is quite a low rental budget for some areas. Have a look on rightmove and see what's available.

In your situation I’d be looking at securing a job(s) first, know your budget then look at what you can afford. This is because you cannot register your son for school without an address.

That's a pretty tight budget for rent near any of the places which are centres for those kinds of jobs. Obviously once you're in work you can afford more but initially you will need to exclude London if that's your maximum budget and for Leeds you'll be looking at a stop gap, not the best of area. Where I live (Bristol) would be another good option career wise but quite frankly you'll be in a one bed flat or need to look to a commuter town with considerable journey time - my dsd can't get a 2 bed for £1300 her max as they go before they can visit for more than the list price.

I think you would be better off looking at the outskirts around smaller cities than London. Your budget in London would have you so far out that you'd not really get the benefits of being in a city centre but would be stuck with the commute.

Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Cardiff would all have good transport links and being outside the city in a cheaper area is about 30 minutes away, rather than hours.

This, DDs student rent in York is eye watering.
OP I presume the £1300 is just for rent and you'll have more set aside for bills? Adding up council tax, gas, electricity, water etc could easily be another £1000 a month. You definitely need to be looking Midlands/North, not London. Plenty of local airports for European trips, although second what a pp said about not being able to take your son out of school. You'll have to work it around school holidays.

That budget isn't great for a lot of Leeds and Manchester either.
However, there are places that are communtable to both where you could get a decent 2/3 bed house in an area that might suit you.
Both Cities are ok for IT jobs (although the market isn't great right now) and for Law as well but I have no idea about availability of work in Law

Sheffield. We live in Sheffield,on the edge of the Peak District, trains straight to Manchester airport and London, a decent tram network althought not as extensive as Manchester. World class sporting facilities. Decent schools, loads of food options. The Kelham Island area was recently rated one of the best neighbourhood to live in the UK. Cheaper than Manchester and Leeds but have just as much to offer but commutable to both. The Sheffield universities have the highest rates of students that stay in the city to live and work after their studies becuase the city is fantastic.

What visa are you coming on OP? If it's Youth Mobility you'll find it extremely difficult to get a professional job. If you've got dual citizenship however it's OK.
I'd strongly advise against moving until you've got jobs though.

Forget London. It's terribly expensive, massive, and your priorities don't involve the London life.
Where I live in East Manchester - 20 min drive to the airport, everything you describe you can get a 2 bed for under 1K.
If you want to live in the nice parts of South Manchester you can get a 2 bed for 1.3K similar distance to the airport.

I work in tech (although across London and Manchester) lots of jobs although the market is a bit dead now. Law - well les than London but obviously there are still solicitors etc.

Leeds also has a decent amount of jobs but a lot of people live in one of these cities and work in another, most jobs are hybrid so a commute isn't too bad.

Do you actually want a city lifestyle? Your comment about wanting walking and biking makes me think maybe not?

Some of the towns in Warwickshire would meet your requirements I think: Kenilworth, Leamington, Warwick, Stratford. All have train stations for links to Birmingham airport and jobs in the city centre, all are historic and all have easy access to rural spots. Lots of large employers locally too that aren't in Bham. Stratford has the worst transport links as it's at the end of a slow branch line.

Depending on what you're looking for house-wise, £1300pcm will get you a 2/3 bed flat or 2bed terrace depending on location in these areas

How about Sale - easily commutable to Manchester and Media City on the tram.
Not sure about rental prices but I would have thought you could find something roundabout what you can afford to pay
Liverpool could be another possibility and if you were prepared to live over the river Mersey on the Birkenhead/ New Brighton side rental prices are much cheaper.
You'd have to factor in transport costs but if you could find something near a train or bus stop journey times could be less than 30 minutes.
There are some dodgy areas you'd need to avoid but equally there are some nice areas too.

It's no longer cheap.....!

Have you looked on RightMove / Zoopla to work out where you can afford to rent/buy? Start with major cities like Manchester then work outwards to surrounding areas. Then use Google maps etc to look at the local area, train stations and check public transport journey times to nearest beach / park etc? When you've found a possible area, Look on websites like trip advisor / search for days out near X to work out likelyhood of having the kind of day trips you might like. If you're looking for state schools rather than private, make sure there are at least 2 schools preferably more in reasonable distance from the area you're looking at because you will just be allocated a space at the nearest one with a space and will have to go on a waiting list if you don't like it.

Nottingham might also be a good option, a great city with not too expensive housing options and good local employment. You'd need other poster's knowledge for specific recommendations though