Where to live - North or South?

[christmaspringle]

Need help on making a decision.

I'm 27 and single. Have about 6k in savings. Own a house and let it out, currently share.

Currently I live in a northern city - my university city - I moved here last year. I thought I would enjoy it but I hate it. People seem very 'local', the city seems small and backward and I haven't made any new friends really.

I want to move to London next year. Probably around July when my current tenancy ends. This gives me 6-7 months to find a decent job. I'm quite established in my current career, would be looking at 45-50k.

But my parents are putting me off. They think I'm looking for something that I will never find - as I've moved twice since leaving university. Also that London is too expensive, I'll be lonely and I'll never buy another house.

Wwyd?

Please don't be so disrespectful and rude about a city and its people that you aren't from

You'll probably find that people in London aren't settling down because they can't afford to. Your parents are right in this regard - London is expensive.

I understand what you mean. I felt the same about Newcastle, although they would swear up and down that it was a multicultural vibrant city, I didn't find that in 2.5 years. It's the general mindset, it's hard to explain.
This shouldn't turn into a North vs South thread, but I fear it will.

Then why do you think it's backwards?

This shouldn't turn into a North vs South thread, but I fear it will.

Kind of hard for it not to when OP is claiming an entire city (the second most populous in the UK apparently) is backwards and London is so amazing

Of course it's a generalisation just because the people you meet are settling down doesnt mean the whole of Leeds .

The whole of Leeds is.

BIWI I have lived here for 4.5 years so I feel like I'm a little bit qualified to comment. People are nice but they're not really on my wavelength, is what I'm saying.

I spend a lot of time in London and I feel like there's an air of being at the heart of things. I don't get this feeling in Leeds.

I moved from Leeds to London, and 12 years later I’m still here.

Like you I studied at Leeds, and although it was a nice enough city (and one I recommend to people down here who want a smaller city), it wasn’t for me. I would say broadly speaking people in young professionals in London aren’t looking to settle down in their late 20s.
Why not give it a try, don’t take any notice of your parents, see how it goes for a year then take it from there.

I would recommend London. I'm 32 and those of my friends who are not
Settled/babying, of which there are plenty, they are still having a pretty sociable time in London.
I think house sharing etc goes on for a bit longer in parts of London.

I live in Brighton which also has a pretty sociable scene for all ages!

The transport links are poor in Leeds for example. Fundamentally I find it quite a small city. Job opportunities are not as good, although the cost of living is lower.

Well go back to London that's clearly what you want I'm not from Leeds I'm from Greater Manchester but these kind if threads do piss me off .

People are nice but they're not really on my wavelength, is what I'm saying.

But you didn't say that. You said "people are backwards in their mindset" which is actually incredibly insulting.
So go on... in what way is the entire population of Leeds "backwards"?

I'm not from London! That's why it's not a north v south thread. I'm from the rural midlands and certainly have no desire to return there.

I feel like people (from the north!) are getting very defensive when I'm not making a city-slating thread. I'm asking which city I should live in and if the benefits of London would outweigh those of Leeds, or if I'm looking at it from a rose-tinted perspective.

People are backwards in their mindset when they think everyone should be settled down, or looking to be, at 27.

I get this a lot at work.

One of my friends is back in Leeds for a while after not being here for ages and not knowing many people. Within a month of being here he's managed to make friends with a few different bunches of people and seems to be out in town 3 ir 4 times a week. The OP's experience does not define the place.

I’d move OP. I moved to London at 26 and had a fabulous 7 years there. I got my degree in Leeds and loved it, but the vibe in London is incomparable.

Have you thought that might just be where you work ? And what's wrong with settling down at 27 I didn't I didn't meet dh untill I was 31 but quite frankly by that age I had had enough of going out several times a week but we are all differrent .

Nothing wrong with settling down but I'm not interested in doing so, but I do get fed up of defending myself. Also find that a lot of people my age don't want to go out and do stuff as they are in couples. Many of my friends have drifted away for this reason and it's not so easy to make new ones.

FWIW Leeds is the 4th largest city in the UK so struggling to see how you could find it small...

Why not go and see for yourself what London's like - spend some time down there with friends. I don't know why you have to ask - why not just do it - or are you not really sure of what you want?

I have lived in London and yes it is a buzzy exciting place and it's also an expensive place and it can be very lonely. I've lived in Birmingham, Newcastle and small midlands towns and villages and I visit family regularly in edinburgh and I really think that you can get what you want out of a place if you are open and receptive to opportunities as they arise. Yes I agree that you can get a positive response to a place or a negative one but don't close yourself off by making snap judgements about a place. Go and check out other cities too

Well maybe if you are slagging off their city and its people constantly that's why they don't want to go out ?

If you don't want to defend yourself then don't dismiss people who have a different outlook as backwards.

The transport links are poor in Leeds for example.

You'll clearly be happier if you move to London, you'll benefit from the public transport that results from having two and a half times per head the subsidies that the North gets, and you won't have to spend your time in the company of people you appear to regard as inferior.

People are backwards in their mindset when they think everyone should be settled down, or looking to be, at 27.

How is that a backwards mindset? If anything it completely reflects the advice given on here time and time again that people need to start thinking about settling down, saving etc much earlier than they ever used to in order to prepare for the future. If anything it's forward thinking.

X2 boys funnily enough I don't go around 'slagging off their city'. Neither are most people so defensive about where they live - they accept some cities just aren't for some people...