to ask how to relocate (to Belfast)?

[AdultierAdult]

My husband has been telecommuting and commuting to Belfast from a very expensive area in the South East and we are fed up of missing him during the week (obviously he is remote working now!). Both our parents live in ROI anyway so we feel like we are on the wrong island and paying a premium for London bubble living, without any real need.

We’ve decided to relocate to Belfast but feel completely out of our depth. We have a baby and a daughter who would be going into NI year 9 (she’s in y7 here), and husband needs to commute to city centre by bike or public transport. Schools and an area with a bustling community with access to the city are the priorities.

Feel so overwhelmed - how do I go about narrowing down schools to apply for, or areas to rent/buy, and how to find somewhere when the world has stopped!? Should we become accidental landlords and keep a place in the SE in case it doesn’t work out or sell up and go for it to avoid all that headache? How do we find somewhere to rent with two cats, or should we just go for it and buy (we dont need to sell here to do this)? I don’t feel like enough of a grownup to do this and I can’t sleep at the moment for stressing about it.

For anyone who knows Belfast and could suggest some postcodes - we’d prefer not to spend more than £1000 a month renting. Budget to buy would be max £300k if we keep our house here or probably about £650k if we sold up here completely.

I know this isn’t AIBU but other appropriate areas are dead! Any nuggets of wisdom greatly appreciated.

Having a wee stalk of this thread again as we are making this move next year (from Dubai and preciously Manchester) although I am Belfast born (family all in Ballyhack).

I'll have to find out about this nextdoor thing - that sounds super helpful. Glad the move went well for you OP. If things work out well for us we shouldn't be too far away from you. Looking at Cyprus Avenue direction.

Lovely thread, welcome to NI you're in a lovely area, and glad you've been out and about. Feeling a bit fed up with the nonsense politics this week, so was good to remember why I love this place. We're in Jordanstown with a child in BRA, so when I was reading your thought processes, I was mentally thinking 'yaaay BRA but also thinking Grosvenor better for Belmont. 😊'

Lisburn has fantastic schools and is a very easy commute to Belfast. I would look at either Lisburn or Cultra depending where your husband works. I think you should rent before buying. Belfast areas can be very changeable in just a few streets. Having lived 20 years in both Belfast and London, you will find life very different. Not just traybakes!

+@megladon2020 Sorry for delayed reply. Dixon charged us £1480+VAT including packing but we were moving from a small house and didn't have a huge amount of stuff. We also flexed on the date so I think they were able to pick up another load of some sort on the lorry making the trip more lucrative.

They also moved our in laws over here from Marlow - they had a huge house with 28 years of clutter and moved out to the sticks up a dirt track, so the lorry had to be unpacked and repacked onto smaller vehicles to get up the track. They were charged circa £5k all in, but they had a LOT of stuff - 5 bed house + a huge loft + double garage and I think four (yes, four!) sheds full, including MIL's father's artefacts from his expeditions to the Arctic!

Thanks @AdultierAdult & all other posters I've just read this thread from start to finish and it was great to hear all the positives about NI and Belfast. My DH and I are planning a similar move. We live in an up and coming area (read drug dealers still lurking but a nice vegan cafe has popped up recently 😁) in SE London and have a 6 month old DS. DH works in private sector and I work for the NHS, job wise we should both be able to find work fairly easily - I hope. My husband is white and from east Belfast, I'm black and a Londoner through and through. DH's family in Belfast are lovely and I really enjoy visiting and am very tempted to move, not least for a quieter life, and cheaper housing. Apart from leaving family and friends my other main concern is the reception we are likely to get as a mixed family and our son as a mixed race person. I'm fine with being in a minority and have lived in other parts of the UK with not many, black or brown faces. I think what I'm worried about is whether we'll have any overt racial abuse that might make our day to day lives difficult. This is my first ever post and not sure whether this is poor etiquette to tag on bit wondered whether anyone could speak to this concern of ours? I'd really like to hear that these worries are just in my head and we should hurry up and book those tickets! 😁